To think that letters home from school should not be hopping with typos, misused words and bad grammar?

[ReanimatedSGB]

I was annoyed enough with the Momo letter anyway (yeah, thanks for including a picture of the fucking thing, DS had nightmares) but it's riddled with bad grammar and spelling errors. Now the school newsletter announces that 'Exam's' will be starting next month.

AIBU to email them a notice of my hourly rates for proofreading?

I thought you could use an apostrophe at the end of a word to signify the word had been shortened. So photographs often becomes photo's. So maybe they are saying exam's as a shortened form of examinations? My grammar is rubbish though so likely to be wrong on this!

Like LittleCandle, I too corrected mistakes in red and didn't care that they knew it was me. The acting Head actually thanked me for doing it.

In my current school, the dragon receptionist thinks she knows it all because obviously a degree and postgraduate teaching qualification is handed out to just anyone, whereas a receptionist knows good grammar from birth My head of department writes very well but madam receptionist cannot resist changing things. Often this renders the letter useless (like her) so we bypass the system and send them out ourselves.

The last Head had a tenuous grasp of spelling and grammar and we often had to correct his stuff. The current one is very much better (in so many ways) but sadly the admin staff who send things out are not.

I once corrected the spelling and grammar on a literacy display! Wasn't very popular but if you're going to do it - do it right!

Someone above said the office staff shouldn't be expected to get this right. I disagree. These letters are the public face of the school and give a bad impression. It makes people question the quality of education there. Whether it's fair or not on the office staff this is the way it is.

Given the big deal that is being made of correct grammar for primary school DC, to the point that the poor little sods are having sleepless nights over their SATs already, I think it's fairly shit that school staff are allowed to get away with bad grammer and spelling errors TBH.

A school where I work had their school show recently, and in the programme, the main parts were listed as "Principles".

I understand that an apostrophe between the end of the word and an s is the apostrophe stands for the I in is. So photo's would mean 'photo is' as in 'The photo's over there'. 'The photo is over there' and that an apostrophe at the end of a word that ends in s is changing it to plural so more than one photo is photos' BUT I'm not that sure on it either!
My autocorrect bloody changes stuff all the time to not what I mean when I put an apostrophe in, so I'm not too worried when I read stuff like that in general.
Did just read a police statement with 'should of' instead of 'should have' it's a completely different word and makes no sense, but it is obvious what is meant so I think it's just my personal view on that one.
Do think it's poor form from a school though.

piglit you've got it completely right, it's the face of the school and needs to be checked by the head/ depute.

I often had to hide behind my hands walking through nursery- their displays were truly awful, written, I think, by a trainee not long out of school.

My children now grimace when I change notices in public places with a pen!

Photo's is not correct to the PP- apostrophes are used to show contraction e.g don't , shan't etc or to show possession e.g. Nicola's purse/ children's play area/ parents' evening- depending on singular or plural.

To another pp I think comic sans is a common dyslexia friendly font. Cream background is also recommended for the same reason.

ivykaty - maybe the receptionists are lovely, but someone needs to proofread what they send out.
It's all about communication and meaning. I'm fed up of having to mentally translate what someone has written, to find out what they actually mean.

I'm sick of should of.

I am a secretary/receptionist and I would be hung for these sort of errors.

[small voice] it's "hanged"

I'm sorry

I'll see myself out

ivykaty44 maybe you have to study extensively to be a professional surgeon but to be a professional secretary you just have to be bloody professional and spell things correctly and put the right dates and basically make your letter make sense.

@RiverTam I believe the reason why so many schools use Comic Sans as a font is that every other font available on Microsoft represents the letter "a" exactly how it is written in this mumsnet font. Whereas if you look at the letter "a" in Comic Sans, it is formed correctly, like you would teach to children.

There's a good explanation of why "exam's" is not correct here: www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/apostrophe/contractions

Basically it's the difference between contractions (which are valid) and "clipped forms", which are not.

A surgeon is a professional, a secretary isn’t a professional, and that is the problem due to expectation given a similar standard.

Comic. Motherfucking. Sans.
No, YANBU!
One of my favourites was when a school disco letter (written in Comic. Motherfucking. Sans!!) announced that glowstick's, tattoo's and snack's would be available.
This is the establishment I trust to teach my children!!

Of course proper SPAG matters, schools can't have double standards where they expect the pupils to learn it for their SATs but condone errors in school communications. Are the teachers wasting their time?

I doubt a school secretary would even earn an average uk wage of £28k and that’s in no way belittling the work they do

I think it's fairly shit that school staff are allowed to get away with bad grammer and spelling errors TBH *grammar

Sorry, SGB but it’s such a great case if Muphry’s Law , I couldn’t resist.

Yet everyone understood the sentence that SGB had written, so what was the problem?

Countess, I was thinking the same

Sorry, AmIRight, but you are a meringue.

case if Muphry’s Law

Murphy strikes again