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?

Ah
i helped my uncle jack off a horse

But you understand what I mean, right?!

Tell me about it a @gamerchick when I first got ds2 statement as it wa than they gave in the wrong chromosome disorder ,my friend was very happy with her sons Ehcp other than the fact they called him Sam he isn't called Sam

I would be hung for these sort of errors.

You are not a tapestry. It's hanged.

YANBU, it's double standards. School secretary jobs are highly sought-after. Schools should be able to employ secretaries who can send out letters with correct grammar. The Head at ds' primary school often sends out emails to parents himself. They are not always free of grammatical errors either.

Yes

But I would have included the word get before off

What has that got to do with anything?

You get what you pay for

The surgeon comparison doesn’t really add up though. The correct use of apostrophes isn’t an essential job skill for a surgeon, it is for a secretary. And it doesn’t require years of degree level study.

comic sans and rogue aprostophes here...

Sorry SGB I'm going to slightly derail your thread (I agree with you though, SPaG should be immaculate in all school missives)

Anyone at a school (working or parent of) where they are using Comic fucking Sans could suggest they download Sassoon Penpals font for their work if they are using it due to the 'correct a' for the children. I've been fighting this battle for a while because of my hatred for Comic Shite and found the Sasson fonts (including one that is perfectly joined up for KS2) has been widely praised, our local SEN team is recommending it as well.

(Sorry, as you were...)

I remember receiving newsletters from the dc's primary school, which often had a section pushing the school lunches, including a sample menu with the encouraging footnote 'crudities always available'. I know the dinner ladies had a fierce reputation, but.......

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

We’re paid peanuts, doesn’t excuse it! It’s just lazy.

My Heqd would go ballistic at this and every letter has to be checked by a member of SLT before being sent out.

I’d be concerned about a report from a surgeon if it didn’t make sense, as his secretary would copy what she/he had written and that would cause problems

A school secretary wouldn’t have the same repercussions if they made similar errors

SLT means what?

Senior Leadership Team

In my dd reception class there were plastic labelled boxes with various play things stored.
The best I saw was Roll Play. There was a TA who asked if she'd brung her teddy to school.
These people are educators.

I was at bog standard state primary schools in the 1960s and early 1970s. Understanding how to use apostrophes correctly and other basic aspects of punctuation, how to write grammatically and how to spell common words was expected of every child unless they had what wasn't then called a learning disability or specific learning difficulty. All our teachers could do it without even thinking about it. What went wrong?

There was a thread at the weekend touching on this. Poster couldn't get sch admin role but those that did get role ,made error after error.

I agree, sch admins should be able to to produce grammatically correct documents.

Yes, point it out, it's a poor show!

I'm a professional secretary. That means I'm trained and experienced and I do it for a living. I am expected to have an excellent command of written English and I live in hope of earning £28k!

A cynic writes: Could it be possible that the headteachers and other members of the senior management team in many schools would be unable to check a test piece of writing, hence veto using that as part of the selection process? When I was at school, either it would have been taken for granted that a secretary could write grammatically or the head would have made the time to check all missives going home to parents.

I can't help thinking that perhaps some teachers and admin staff don't grasp that a good many parents do notice this stuff and judge the school accordingly. Dunning Kruger effect.

And yes, it does matter, because children end up in the jobs market and those who can't write grammatically, punctuate correctly or spell are going to be at a disadvantage for most of the better paid jobs.

I was at bog standard state primary schools in the 1960s and early 1970s. Understanding how to use apostrophes correctly and other basic aspects of punctuation, how to write grammatically and how to spell common words was expected of every child unless they had what wasn't then called a learning disability or specific learning difficulty. All our teachers could do it without even thinking about it. What went wrong?

What did the teaching assistants do in the 1960s state school?

I have corrected school letters in the past with an attached note 'please correct and re-send'.

And yes, it does matter, because children end up in the jobs market and those who can't write grammatically, punctuate correctly or spell are going to be at a disadvantage for most of the better paid jobs.

Further up thread I was asked why it mattered what a school secretary earned, as I doubted it would be a well paid job achieving even national average earnings

Let's eat, Grandma!

Let's eat Grandma!

Save a life,use a comma.

It's what happens when schools employ whoever will work the required hours for the least amount of money, rather than being prepared to pay a little bit more for somebody who has higher qualifications or needs something that represents a full time, term time only job.

I twitch whenever I read some of the things sent out, but if I were to do the job, it would mean taking a paycut of approximately six thousand pounds and dropping two full grades with the consequent effects upon my pension, sick pay, projected redundancy sum and I don't have a wealthy husband to fund a desire to have all letters correctly typed. And no, I am not going to embarrass the typer by criticising her work; her line manager should be explaining it to her privately.