Spelling mistake on school display.. what would you do?

[Legacy]

Was at DC's school for a meeting, in a Reception classroom.

There is a display on the wall with a mistake in the title, let's say it's along the lines of "Kangaroo's enjoy jumping.."

Some of the Mums (from another school) were also at the meeting and were commenting on it .

It's not my child's classroom, and I don't know the teacher. However the school has an open day soon, and this makes an awful first impresssion.

What should I do? It will be cringeworthy to have to point it out....BUT awful to leave it there...

Tell them. But in a polite way, more like "oops, have you noticed the rogue sopstrophie in your display?" rather than as a direct criticism.

Take in a big red marker pen and a friend to act as decoy.

Correct mistake, write 'See me after school' and run away giggling madly.

definitely tell them

ROFFLE @ shodan

Shodan - that is the perfect response.

Cue two mothers standing shamefaced and pigeon toed in headmaster's office when they get caught.

Arf.

Lines handed out:

I must not deface school property.
I must not deface school property.
I must not deface school property.

Etc.

Just before you wade in..... is it 'Fishes enjoy swimming' by any chance?

Because if you're talking about multiple fish of differant species 'fishes' is actually correct

I crossed a possible primary school for DD1 off my list when we went to visit because every single door in the school had a notice on it saying: "This week's SEAL target is - when you do something wrong, say your sorry". Well, not entirely for that reason - I'm not that much of a pedant. But it did seem indicative of a don't-care-quite-enough attitude permeating the school. So tell them!

I saw a notice on a classroom door: "please come and check your childs draw"

Tulips - no - it was a word ending in 'o'.

I agree I should tell them, but tell who? I wouldn't ordinarily be in the school, and I have no idea who the teacher is.

potato's enjoy swimming?

Very close Trinity... (think who lives in an igloo)

Aha!

Eskimo's live in igloo's. And wear furry hat's and shoe's.

Add a face to above advice.

I second Shodan's idea. I have often been in schools at night for community meetings and could not resist correcting grammer on posters and the blackboard.

Definitely point it out. I would be mortified if I knew there was an example of bad spelling or incorrect grammar on one of my wall displays. Just do it with a bit of humour - "I spotted the deliberate mistake - do I get my prize now..." kinda thing.

I would sink to my knees, clawing at my eyes in tormentation. Seriously!

(I am a pedant who is also terrified of making anyone feel bad.)

So, probably what EvilTwin said.

what? penguins or eskimos?

surely eskimos dont enjoy swimming anyway

Ouch... that is a rather appalling mistake

Maybe it was a display the teacher only put up on Friday when s/he was kanckered and they walked in this morning and took one look at it and realised what s/he'd done [optimistic]

Using a very bright colour, I'd write the correction on a piece of paper, add a big arrow pointing off the edge of the paper, and then blu-tac it to the offending article such that the arrow pointed directly at the error.

Non-destructive, but just as effective.

4 years ago, I pointed out to DS's year 1 teacher that the drawer which was labelled "Stationary", should be labelled "Stationery".

2 terms later, when I realised this error was replicated in every classroom (and still in place in the Y1 classroom), I lightly pointed it out to the head teacher.

As a Governor, I now visit the school at least once a week. I still can't get the error corrected, even though I've offered to re-label them all myself.

We regularly receive letters from school, signed by the Head, which contain mis-spellings or grammatical howlers.

Grrrrr.

Kangaroo's (for example) used to be correct though, didn't it? I'm sure you used to be able to use an apostrophe for the plural of some words ending with an 'o'.

It does look wrong though, granted.

No('s), No('s)

Of course it looks wrong Skoda - IT IS WRONG. Far from being something that used to be OK, using 's for a plural is a relatively new phenomenon. When I was at school a hundred years ago, no one had a problem with this. I do remember however, a big issue about adding an e before s for plurals such as fishes, misses, cargoes, zeroes, etc.

We have a fast food outlet near us which has the sign "Burgers, Kebabs, Pizza's". It drives me mad. If you're going to misuse apostrophes, at least do it consistently. I suppose that is (kind of) proof that many people think it's OK to use an apostrophe to make a word ending in a vowel a plural.