Do I need an apostrophe? (and probably lots of other grammar type questions - I'm proof-reading my essay)

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

"The schools recognition of this is central to delivering the right balance of services, education and support across the 5 outcomes."

On the word schools? Does the recognition belong to the school?

Please check back for more questions later.

Yes you do - the school's.

TY thought so but I wasn't sure if the recognition could belong to teh school...but then I guess hte school could own the recognition which is the same thing I guess.

Yes, otherwise schools is a plural (which wouldn't make sense here). You wouldn't have the s there if the recognition did not belong to the school and with the s comes the apostrophe.

the recognition of the school... so ' after school.

Surely it's schools' though? [School's is school is, is it not??]

No, that would make it a plural noun which doesn't make sense in the context.

onedev, it's a possessive not a contraction.

Possessive: 'the thing (recognition) that belongs to the school...'

schools' is the possesive plural 'the thing belonging to many schools', whereas this is the thing belonging to one school.

Think I'm too drunk to understand - sorry'

the school's recognition this is called 'possessive s' and shows the recognition belongs to the school (obviously you'd mean the board of governers or the teachers or whoever, not the bricks + mortar); you'd say "Brian's recognition blah blah" if it was a person.

the schools' recognition also 'possessive s' but would indicate more than one school and could also be written '"the schools's recognition" (but you'd still pronounce just the first s, like Charles' bike/Charles's bike. Btw 'Jesus's sausages' always makes me laugh!).

recognition is a noun, so here "school's" denotes possession not 'is'. school's as a contraction of the verb be, ie 'school is', would only be followed by an adjective, -ing form or preposition: school's boring, school's closing, school's out for summer.

Is it more than one school OP?

One school you put the ' after the l

more then one school you put the ' after the ls

Ooo good question (sounds strange I know...)

I guess in this sentence I am referring to a single school, but I guess I should change the sentence to mean schools in general, but even in the example below am I saying that any given (single school) should recognise their pupil's needs.

So I should have
"A school's recognition of this is central to delivering the right balance of services, education and support across the 5 outcomes."

But should that then be schools' ? I don't think so because even though I am now generalising (which is better for my essay) I am only every asking a single school to recognise the demographics of their own catchment.

Rivetting essay in case you haven't noticed...

PM me lunatic if you need a proofreader.

either

"A school's"

or "Schools' "

but the latter is clunky.

"A school's" is better

Change '5' to 'five' as well.

A denotes one school, so A school's recognition

The same goes for 'the school's recognition', one school.

'A school...' can still be any school in general, as in "a flower's petals are the most delicate part".

Have gone for "A school's recognition"

Tis generalised but appropriately apostrophe'd