Deep breath - This may turn into a rant

[ButWhyIsTheGinGone]

Hello Everyone,
I teach year 5 and have a great (interesting!) class and a TA who is really dedicated. It is common practice in our school for the TA to jot notes on the work of the children they've been working with every lesson before I mark it.

I am getting really frustrated at seeing comments such as "where is your full stops?" "What about puntuation?" or "Was you here for the first part of the lesson?" She also corrects spellings that were previously correct! If I ask where a child's gone she replies, "she's gone for a toilet." I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW these aren't crimes of the century but I firmly believe we are there to model good spoken and written English.

Firstly, I hate having to subtly correct the TA's written comments/corrections, and secondly I'm annoyed this happens. All the TA's are being asked to produce their GCSE certificates at the moment (not sure why, possibly to prove they have achieved a C in Maths and Lit.) They are up in arms about it, and I suspect a few of them don't have these qualifications.

My question is really to wonder why, with TA work being pretty desirable, we don't pick more selectively. I take part in the interview process of many new staff in school, but obviously don't have the final say. Our last TA post went to a parent who had hand written their application on lined note paper ripped from a spiral note pad - I'm not joking!

Not meaning to sound snobbish - we have some brilliant TA's at our school, but IMO spelling/grammar mistakes are just not good enough. (Yes I've probs made a few here!)

I'm going to get flamed for this, but so be it. And before I write further, I wish to make the point that I am not saying ALL TAs are like this, but I have met plenty who are, and some of them friends This is my personal view, as a parent, based on experience, and I have five children. As a family, we have been involved in four schools.

It used to be that teaching was a respected profession, and rightly so. I know teachers are doing the teaching, but how can they teach effectively when they have TA who is 'correcting' correct answers? I believe part of this problem is the sudden realisation that training as and becoming a TA is convenient for many mothers as it fits in with school hours (and their own children may be at the same school) and school holidays, and anyone can go for it... I know a number of mothers, and not all in the local area where I live, who out of the blue decided that becoming a TA would be a good idea once their children were all at school, even though their grasp on grammar (speaking), spelling, basic general knowledge and basic maths (the latter often by their own admission) was pretty poor.

And it not only TAs. I had an acquaintance who got a bunch of Ds and Es at GCSE level (we are in late 30s), achieved a low result on a 'degree' course at a ropey former college, and is now teaching children in a primary school, despite having the most appalling grasp on English and being barely able to add up herself (I worked with her for several years, so I know). When she got her job, I am sorry to say I was glad she wasn't going to be teaching at the school where any of my children were going to be.

I cannnot abide the 'we was', 'you was', 'I done' 'she learnt me...'(aargh!) 'school of grammar', it made me very cross when my children started to come home with this kind of thing, which they said was the way the teacher spoke (I probed, and realised it was not the teacher, but the TA, and not just one). I cracked down on it right away, saying that not everyone learnt to speak properly, but they were going to do so, and it worked. I didn't stand for this horrible laziness or the initial belief that speaking like this was trendy while speaking the correct way was 'posh' or 'nerdy' or whatever. Through my own perseverance, they grew out of it and never do it now. Yes, I even corrected, every single time, the 'me and John... etc etc' to 'John and I..' and it worked.

My point is that we as parents can't expect a school to do everything, we work in partnership with them, but I will not accept that my children should be exposed to incorrect grammar. When I received a letter this week informing me that the NHS would be in school to weigh and measure children again, it infuriated me that schools even have to 'host' this, when it is nothing to do with teaching. Let schools teach, correctly, and if I am concerned a child of mine is over/under weight/height, I will handle it.... AAARRGGH!