Teacher can't spell

[snowybrrr]

Every letter she sends home is littered with spelling and grammatical errors.
Last week one of the spelling words she sent home for the children to learn was spelled incorrectly.I don't think she she is fit to be a primary teacher.

Highlight the misspellings (I like a green pen - seems friendlier than red) and send it back.

You may come across as a pita but if they are sending spellings home then they should at least be correct.

Letters - errors are a regular occurence in my experience but if you get worked up about those you'll be worked up every week of children's school life

In our outstanding school it's always the same words. A few examples:

seperately (separately)
alot (a lot)
Math's rather than Maths (as in 'Math's was cancelled this week due to the bad weather)
Extremly (extremely)

Not just in this school either. I've come to accept it. Many people don't know how to spell words which are trickier such as the above - teachers or otherwise - and that's just how it is. Take a look at the TES boards for many more examples.

It's not a problem, children will learn in time. It's far more important that teachers are good, committed, engaged and passionate.

I understand that it's important that Teachers are engaged, committed and passionate, but my worry would be that if our children are learning to spell at school but certain teachers can't spell, how will they pick up the errors that our children make?

Is that not how the children learn? By making mistakes and those mistakes being identified and/or corrected?

I wouldn't say that I was shocked, but I was definitely surprised when I saw my DNiece's homework that had been marked by the teacher (she's 8 and it was a story that she'd made up) and NONE of the spelling mistakes had been identified. Whether spelling was the point of the exercise or not.

I remember even spellings in Maths homework being picked up when I was at school and there was no relevance to the homework at all!

I agree that the teacher absolutely should be checking what she sends home especially if she knows she has an issue with spelling. Everyone makes the occasional typo but this doesn't sound as if it's the case here. However, in answer to the last post spelling won't always be marked in a story. It depends what the purpose of the task was and also whether the child has made one or two errors or plenty. It can be very discouraging and pointless to cover a child's story in red pen.

Hamish I've come to accept it. Many people don't know how to spell words which are trickier such as the above - teachers or otherwise - and that's just how it is.

It is NOT tricky to know that "a lot " is not one word.

Saying it's " just how it is" is bollocks. Teachers are professionals and anyone doing a professional job should spell check, especially if they know they have issues with spelling.

And the other spellings are common errors- it's usually esate agents who write "seperate" reception rooms.

And teachers teach apostrophes at KS2 so if they don't know how to use them God help the pupils

Anyone who is educating people should brush up their spelling and get it right.

Spellings on a list of spelling words should be correct. There is no excuse for that.

I hate it when people write CD's, DVD's or Video's. I often see this on labels for boxes of CDs or DVDs or videos in classrooms. Sets my teeth on edge.

Scandalous - everything which goes home MUST be proofread, and to spell a word incorrectly in a spelling list is terrible. Complain.

Complain. Take example letters into the head and point out that it is worrying you.

My head would be horrified, and would intervene with appropriate support / training for the teacher involved.

Hamish, you might be right, but misspelled words in the spelling list? That's about as clever as the cleaner putting bleach in the drinking water.

You must complain.

I definitely think that letters to parents should be checked before being sent out as they give a bad impression if badly spelt, but the teacher may have a genuine problem with this (isn't that one aspect of dyslexia or could it be the way we spell our words?). But perhaps this teacher is brilliant in other ways that benefit the children and maybe bad spelling is a small price we have to suffer for that talent.

I worked with a teacher once who taught main stream infants. She was almost blind and had great trouble reading what the children had written, but she was an extremely hard worker and the children loved her. With a little backup from a classroom helper (as they were called in those days) she did a sterling job.

She also got married and proved to be a wonderful parent.

I think spelling list is a separate issue - because that will involve copying and using the word as an example - it's the equivalent of a child being told 2 + 2 = 5. It's wrong - and if you know it's wrong it grates.

Our CofE school sent home christmas with no capital C. I had a blazing row with DD1 whether it should be capitalized - our children believe their teachers are always right.

I think the real problem was the Head (to whom I complained, as this was not the first time by a long stretch - all of which was documented in the complaint by the way) - she refused to instruct the teacher to correct this with the children. I had to understand that teachers are busy - not that 30 children were being taught from this day forward to spell Christmas as christmas.

The next year DD1 spelled christmas in lower case all the way through something and the Head had a go at her about this during an assembly and then caught my eye. She did have the naos to apologize immediately, and I tried my best to be gracious but couldn't help myself by saying I suspect it's one of those 'reap what you sow' situations Mrs X.