Errors in school newsletters, not much in the way of reading (reception)... pfb's school

[afussyphase]

DD started reception yesterday, at a 'good' (Ofsted) school that was not our first choice, partly because of its relatively weaker academics than another nearby 'outstanding' school with a very similar make-up. But her school has other nice features: early years staff seemed good, and caring, it has a nice playground, etc. She had a good first day, and is settling in well as far as we can tell.

The problem? I was already concerned about the academic level, and the newsletter has a few grammatical errors, not the quick typo kind ('where' or 'were', or 'poeple') but the kind that (for example) make it clear that the writer doesn't know that sentences need verbs in them. This kind of thing. Just an example of what it was. I know these are getting more and more common, in cookbooks and informal writing, and in the occasional cringeworthy museum display. But it's a school. I see poor writing holding people back, in my work, and I want my children to have a strong foundation when they start writing in a few years.

Is this a bad sign? Would it bother you? There was another thread about website errors; personally I think that's less important (though it would bug me!) because websites get updated frequently, hopefully, and errors are very likely to crop up now and again. But in the first newsletter?

Just to set the context they are also not really starting any phonics/early reading until after half term when they'll start 'sounds' - completely their business but.. but.. I was already a little concerned about academics, DD would love to excel at school and is really ready for proper reading as she knows all the sounds and can decode simple words and recognise words she sees around us... and now this.

Can you all come along and reassure me that this is still going to be an amazing school? Or would these be little mini-warning signs to you?

To me it is a sign that something is not quite right. It could be that it is somebody in the office writing the newsletter and their standard of english is not as high as you would expect from a teacher. That said somebody in authority should be checking the newsletter for both spelling and grammar.
However it also seems to be a creeping problem at teacher level too. At the primary school I am a governor at, the deputy head is a real stickler for correct language and applications for teaching posts do not get past the first hurdle if they have spelling and grammatical mistakes on them.
I would expect any newsletter to be free of obvious spelling and grammatical errors because as you say it does set the wrong tone.

This is something I struggle with as well. Much as I would love to receive school newsletters free from any grammatical or spelling errors I think they are few and far between.

IME grammar isn't taught at state schools so it's not unsurprising that new teachers make mistakes.

On its own I wouldn't let this put you off a school but if you have other concerns as well you would be right to keep things under review.

admission - I'm surprised your school finds anyone to interview, although I haven't seen many teacher applications the ones I have seen contain errors to some degree and even I would question dismissing someone on the basis of a single mistake.

Interesting. I don't think anyone ever sat me down and taught me grammar, formally, but somewhere along the line I guess I learned how to use punctuation and what makes a correct sentence. So maybe they did, and if so, I'm very glad of it now. DH suggested that perhaps I should volunteer with the school, to the tune of going through all the written material they send out and checking it! I'm certainly not keen to wander in and suggest it :) If it continues maybe I'll slip a note into the comment box, anonymously [coward]...

Why not correct it, teacher-style and in red pen, and post it back to the school anonymously :)

One of the schools I am looking at for DD has 3 spelling errors and 5 grammatical errors on the first page of the website. It gets worse further in.

I keep checking back and there has been no correction in over 6 months.

It really puts me off sending my child there.

I bin any job applications with grammatical or spelling errors in the cover letter - if someone can't be bothered to check something as important as a job application, then I can't trust that they will check letters before they go out to clients.

I would definitely correct it in red pen and post it to the school anonymously. Ideal way of not causing embarrassment or marking yourself as 'that parent'.

So glad this is MN and not real life.

Perhaps the person who typed the letter has had a bad day. Perhaps English was never their strong point at school but they ave a job in the school office as they are so good with people, especially your child when they get hurt and need a hug and a sticking plaster.

Perhaps the Head was teaching a class today, meeting parents or training and wasn't available to check the letter.

I have a disability, i was deaf as a child and find spelling and grammar hard. I I was in a wheelchair you wouldn't critisise me, but I bet you can't wait to find my mistakes :(

I was just having a snigger because the curriculum summary for DS says they will be studying fiction in science, as opposed to in literacy, or more likely in context - friction.

DS's writing target as written in his diary:

"to use full stops question marks exclamation marks and commas correctly in his writing."

I put it down to someone having a bad day (after asking DS how it should have been punctuated)

Pyrrah I've been telling the company who produced and manage our school website about errors for weeks and they haven't corrected them so it could well be out of the school's control.

I went to uni today. The Greggs had a poster advertising cheese rollz in the window. Printed not hand written.
The pedant in me was not impressed.
cheese rollz
Whatever is the world coming to?

It would probably bother me slightly, if I were new to a school and with a pfb - but as it is, the occasional errors/slack English in our School newsletters don't bother me at all.

I know they are written by our Head, who is a top notch mathematician but not great at spelling or grammar. As he is very good at all the things I think a Head should be good at, and has excellent staff taking care of literacy (both in terms of leadership and actual teaching), I honestly don't give a fig

I might be a little more concerned about no phonics till after half-term, but again, if your dd as an individual is well supported she will probably fly whenever she starts her formal phonics.

Incidentally, if it helps (probably doesn't, as it really will depend on the individual school and child!), both my dds are excellent at reading in spite of dodgy grammar in their Head's newsletters. Bit soon to tell, but grammar and spelling seem to be very good too

I was more concerned with the spelling mistakes in the 'spellings to learn' list, tbh.

But I share your pain. It feels wrong that schools make mistakes on official documents, however human the individual culprit is.

Hopeforever, dd2 has a disability and is an on/off wc user. I still expect the teachers to correct her mistakes. And indeed I do it myself if I spot them at home. I have spent five years trying to get teachers to raise their expectations of her beyond 'she's disabled, so must be learning disabled', and I won't be thanking anyone who expects less of her than she is capable of with some good teaching. I find it extremely patronising, and she does as well.

Madwoman in the attic, I apologise if my post was unclear. I am in no way assuming that someone who was in a wheel chair should not be able to have far better spelling than me. How your muscles or limbs are controlled has no relationship to your academic achievements.

What I meant was, some people find it OK to pick up my spelling mistakes and comment on them, but would not look at me in a wheel chair and comment on how I could improve my mobility by doing physio.

Correcting a child's spelling in order for them to learn is also very different from going through a school official letter with red pen and returning it to the school

Not ideal, but, I agree with others, it wouldn't make me fret about the teaching - it's not likely to be a teacher writing it.
If in Reception, the children should be following the EYFS anyway, so I wouldn't be worrying about the phonics learning not formally starting in the first 1/2 term either, tbh.

My DH used to regularly correct the French teachers homework handouts. What makes it worse was that we were living in a French speaking country and the French teacher was a francophone. It was a tad embarrassing but funny too. I wouldn't do as grammar/spelling is not one of my strong points

Anyway, OP, YANBU, but you should be grateful you are actually getting a newsletter. We get one every few months if we are lucky and the school website is not very good either.