DD's teacher spelled "rough"....... "RUFF"!!!!! *shock*

[ShinyHappyPurpleSeveredHeads]

Last night I spend the whole of my appointment with DD's teacher try to work out how to tell him that rough was NOT spelt "ruff"!!!

I had sat and looked at her books in her tray while I was waiting to see him.. and in her science book she had been writing about the surface of a planet, describing it has "bumpy and rufe". (She is Y4 and her spelling is, as yet, extremely ropey). He had put a line through "rufe" and clearly marked it "ruff"!!

I couldn't make myself say anything though.. I barely heard what he was telling me because I was saying in my head "Erm.. can I just mention.. why did 'someone'.. (I know it was him! Know is writing!).. tell DD that this word was spelt like that?" but I just couldn't!

In the end, when I left, I took a pencil from her tray and crossed out "ruff" and put "ROUGH" very blackly!

He is an NQT - I know it's his first job - but he seems very nice and very competent, depspite literally I swear, looking no older than 17! But "ruff"??!

What would you have done??

Point it out

oh that had me lol...even I know it's rough, not ruff....and I am foreign...

Yes.. but genuinely.. how would you have pointed it out Hulababy?

If I'd read this post from someone else I would have thought I could do it.. but I couldn't make myself say it!

Maybe he thought she meant ruff as in an elizabethan neck ruff... I can jut imagine a planet surface being bumpy, white and pleated like an elizabethan ruff...

I would think the same as dragon tbh

then she must be into txtspk.

slap my wrist for writing 'she'.

I think Dragon was being ironic tbh...

I'd have pointed it out in the consultantion I think. Possibly even trying to make light of it kind of way - LOL at this type comment. But with the obvious more serious comment hiding beneath IYSWIM.

ok
how do you know it was the teacher and not an assistant?

Because I do.

No, that's not a good answer is it. I know it was the teacher's writing because I know his writing and knows the class TA's.

Very tricky. I am normally the first to defend teachers when the spelling thing comes up as I think most of the time the 'mistakes' are typos rather than genuine spelling mistakes, and as such completely understandable in the very demanding context of the classroom, where any teacher is usually trying to do at least five things at once.....but I can't really see how this comes into this category. It is wrong.

You need to tell someone, if his spelling is really this bad the headteacher needs to know.

I think I would have asked. It looks like the teacher was giving her a correct phonetic spelling. In her school dd has always been encouraged to spell things phonetically, if she doesn't know the correct way. Spelling corrections in her written work are only made by the teacher if the word is one that the teacher thought she should know how to spell at that stage. It was explained to the parents at P1 curriculum meetings that they wanted the children to write what they want and not be frightened of using words that they didn't know the correct spelling for. It seems to have worked very well, and her spelling in P5 is considered very good. However, I would have thought that by Y4 your dd would be expected to know how to spell rough properly.