Opinions sought - school newsletter

[TrainTrack]

The DC's school newsletter has come home and it is dreadful. Not in terms of content (although half of it was in the last newsletter) but the punctuation and grammar are poor and there is a tendency to not use 3 sentences where one will do (hmm, may have just done that myself in the last sentence). It is literally so poor that it could conceivably have been sent home as homework to "improve this piece of writing". I don't know who wrote it - but surely these things get checked before being sent out?

Anyway, I am tempted to write to the school to complain but suspect this will make me seem petty and ridiculous (I've been through the letter and highlighted the errors, I would be happy for them to have my marked up copy :) )

(Yes, I realise my punctuation and grammar in this message are not perfect either, but I am not a school ...)

offer to write it for them ?

Yes I agree, offer to write it or proof it for them - it's too easy to think someone should be doing this but they are often put together very late in the day after a busy week.

I offered, and it was appreciated.
now all of the moaners who want to complain but don't want to help drive me nuts

Dd's primary letters written by the HT were a mass of spelling mistakes, lack of punctuation etc. He even used to warn in advance that were likely to be errors. Her school was a fantastic school and he was a lovely HT and so I turned a blind eye tbh although I could never understand why the office staff, who were rude and unhelpful at best, didn't correct the mistakes before printing and distributing the letters

The HT is new, which probably makes it worse. This is not a good way to represent yourself.

If its your only issue with the school I'd either offer to help or turn a blind eye.

I work in a school office and we try our hardest to make sure all letters are proof read before they go out. Unfortunately letters generally come for the head or teaching staff, who have better/more important things to do than write letters.

I live for days when a letter turns up on my desk at 2.30 that then needs naming for each of the 400 odd children in the school and then distributed around all the classes! Letters shouldn't ever go out riddled with rudimentary grammatical or spelling errors, but sadly sometimes they do

In wifes school, the office staff do the dates section and a few boring bits then my wife (head) does her bits and proofs..then the office staff proof her bits. One way or another they try very hard not to have errors!

IME the letters are rarely written by the office staff, which makes it even worse. I'm afraid the standard of English in letters written by some of our teachers is truly shocking (please don't check mine ).

I do think it's worth having a word with he new head. He will be embarrassed (as he should be) but maybe he'll then set up a system whereby he (or at least someone) has to check all letters before they go out. It's his school, he should know of and approve everything that goes out.

If you go in with your 'marked' copy you will look a twat :)

Don't wave your marked up copy FFS.

were you one of those annoying know it alls in school

Ask to proof read it. If you've got the time to mark it up then you can help them out.

I wasn't going to go in with a marked up copy. That was for me to see if the "ridden with mistakes" was really as bad as it felt, or whether it was really only a couple of errors. I'm thinking I will offer to proof read, but if they want it done just before school finishes on a Friday, then I'm at work.

Post it to the Head anonymously?!

Same here. I have offered to help. To proof read. To write. I do all of these things professionally and would be delighted to do it for the school. I am greeted with thanks, and appreciation. And then completely ignored. It is irritating.

Send it anonymously!

Borders, that'll be because there's no time. Our office regularly receives the letter c. 2:30 pm and is expected to have 300 copies ready and distributed to the classrooms by 3pm.

Fair enough. But that's just down to a lack of planning surely! I have a lot of sympathy for the office staff.

Absolutely due to lack of planning but TBF, in terms of daily priorities, it's probably unsurprising that the newsletter isn't top of the list