Incorrect spelling by TA

[Spacemonkey2016]

My son's school has open afternoons to look at their work once a term, and I went to one today. I noticed that one piece of work had been marked, alongside a comment of 'Theese are good sentences'. Definitely wasn't his teacher's handwriting, DS said it was a TA who has recently started. I feel like I want to raise it as feedback to the school, as surely teacher comments shouldn't have incorrect spellings on them. Or would that make me look like a complete nightmare parent? DS is in Year 1 and is aware that 'theese' is incorrect.

I very much doubt the TA thinks this is how to spell these- it would be a very unusual word to spell wrong. It's highly likely it was a slip of the pen- she's probably marking books in the middle of a busy lesson surrounded by young children asking her questions at the same time and trying to check as many children's work as she can before it's time to go out to play. Most people have no idea what it is like working in a primary school.

@Spacemonkey2016 as one off, especially as it's an odd mistake to make, I'd let it go.

However, if there were several similar incidents, spellings or homework sent home wrong, your child being told off for spellings things wrong or their spellings being picked up as wrong, then by all means have a chat with the school.

I'll put my hand up and admit I had a complete brain freeze moment in a lesson and completely forgot how to spell "mummy".

I can't make my mind up about this one. I'm a stickler for correct spelling and grammar and do think it's important than if you're teaching something you need it to be right! However, typos do happen. I think it was possibly just a brain fart while writing really really quickly and already having their mind on the next thing. It could just be that they'd been doing the "ee" sound in phonics as someone upthread said eg if they'd used "three" in phonics, and they started writing the "th of "these" then I can see how in a real rush their hands just could have written "theese". Or even if they'd used "cheese" in phonics!

The odd time it happened with my kids when they were younger I'd just laugh it off and say that probably the teacher or TA was just very busy or tired when they were marking it and weren't thinking. As long as I made sure my kids knew what the correct version was I wasn't too bothered. Occasionally I suggested they ask the teacher about it!

I have a real appreciation for the varied skills that teachers and other school staff have after working in schools for 14 years. I've seen some real whoppers in terms of errors eg continually getting the definition of pronoun and proper noun the wrong way round (secondary bottom set English teacher). However the chap that made that particular error and some really really good other qualities and he brought value to the school.

No-one's perfect.

I bet it's a typo for caught.

In year 7 DS had a TA scribing for him, she made spelling mistakes which the teacher corrected. It didn’t seem worth bringing up.

It would annoy me too, but I’d probably turn a blind eye while your child is still quite young. My DD’s nursery update the app everyday with things like: ‘Emily done drawing today and then had fun in the garden where we was all hunting for bugs.’ But as other posters have said they are kind and loving to her and right now that’s all I ask.

The teachers at the school I work in are much worse at spelling than most of the TAs. The OP appears more like a handwriting issue than a spelling one.

I think it should be, 'hadn't bothered,' rather than, 'hadn't have bothered.'
I don't usually point out grammar or spelling mistakes but couldn't resist, given the thread topic.

I frequently say fuck the Tories and ban penis possessors from women's changing rooms on Facebook.
Funnily enough, they aren't things I tend to find myself writing in the classroom.

Making a spelling mistake does not mean that someone cannot spell.

TA’s are human you know - they make mistakes. Please don’t hound out a poorly paid, member of staff by going to the Head for one minor mistake. Have you never made a mistake before @Spacemonkey2016 ?

Hah! That's opinion not grammar. An opinion I happen to agree with. Believe me, this person would use "would of".

My daughter is in Y2, she's had one star of the week certificate every year she's been at school, these are written by the teacher and are a paragraph or so about how brilliant the child is at x,y,z each certificate has had at least one spelling mistake in.... but it's not because here teachers can't spell, it's because they have a million and one jobs to do and probably wrote it at top speed. It really isn't something I can get worked up about.

Oh the irony

I think the joke might be on you tbh.

I think you're being charitable, nothing else in the post I'm referring to was humorous.

As I'm a teacher I'd imagine she's started writing and been interrupted by either yours or another child. I've done it myself before, easy to do with "live marking" which is increasingly common in schools. If it's something you're seeing frequently, then you'd be well within your rights to raise it, but for one mistake, I'd let it slide. TA's have a hard enough job as it is.

I went into a classroom once and on the board it said tommorows homework.

And then the dreaded "you should of completed this last week"

I get basic words wrong all the time. I don’t know why. I certainly know how to spell them but my hand just does its own thing when I am writing. This sounds like that. Although in a kid’s book I would have corrected it.

I'm a recently retired teacher who, out of frustration, offered to proof read everything that went on our school website when I was working. Teachers and TAs used to add content to their class pages that was riddled with spelling and grammar errors. It was really embarrassing, so o stepped up. By the end, even the head used to send things to me for checking!

I'm sorry, OP, and I really don't want to run my colleagues down, but this does seem to be the way things are now. The mistake that you saw really could just be a slip of the hand. But if it continues and there are regular egregious errors, I would worry.

I think it's wrong for TAs and teachers on this thread to defend adults working with primary children regularly making spelling and grammar errors. Spelling and grammar are the fundamentals of primary teaching..

TAs do get holiday pay, 5.8 weeks statutory requirement. They DON'T get paid for the rest of the holidays though, as is the case with all school support staff. Works out about 6 weeks unpaid per year.

Best way to picture it is you’re doing some over the shoulder marking and write the “the”. A child comes to you to ask you for a spelling so you tell them. Then another adult comes in to ask if it’s your break duty.
By now 30+ seconds have passed since you started the word these, you’ve lost focus of where you were up. Add in the noise of 30 children with words being spelt out loud all over the room combined with constant phonics on the brain.

You truly think someone may not be right for a job due to one spelling error?

That's the sort of thing I do when I write quickly. I've noticed it's much worse now I don't write by hand very often. For me it's not a spelling mistake-and I doubly if anyone working in a school would think there are words in English with triple es-it's a handwriting/mechanical error. I'd leave it unless it happens a lot. However, if anyone corrects me I just say "Oh thanks-I do that sometimes. It's really annoying! I'll fix it."

I think some people have unrealistic expectations of who is actually working as a TA in a lot of cases… DWP has partnered with recruiting companies who are contracted to put TAs in schools. If you can pass a DBS and take an hour long online safeguarding course you can be a TA. In fact, you will be forced to be a TA because if you say no the your benefits will be stopped. These are not people with a calling to teach and nurture children, not people trained to teach and nurture children, just bodies in classrooms.

In my children’s school we lost so many dedicated TAs because of the poor pay and terrible conditions. Now we have temp staff who are forced there by DWP who don’t have the calling or training.