Spelling mistakes in school newsletter. WWYD?

[susiecat]

My daughter has been allocated a place at our third choice school for September. It's a very small school, and it's the closest one to us. I have acquaintances and friends who are sending their children there and already have children there, and I get nothing but positive feedback about it. But I'm still not sure. There are a few issues I'm concerned about, one of which is the fact that there are regularly spelling mistakes in the weekly school newsletter. They aren't just 'typos' - they're genuine misspellings such as using the word 'formally', when they mean 'formerly'.

In my heart of hearts I think that this could be a problem (is this indicative of standards / staffing issues there - although I already have the exam stats etc) or do you think it's just a case of the newsletter being the 'last thing on the list' on teachers' workloads - and that I shouldn't be too concerned?

I would like to raise it with someone but am afraid of seeming picky or pedantic. I would like a good relationship with her school and not to gain a reputation among the staff there before she's even started. What would you do?

I would go private
Formally is inexcuasable

[please forgive typo]

I constantly find spelling/gramtical mistake in our nursery newsletter and hate it!

I shouldn't think a schoolteacher has anything to do with a newsletter....more likely delegated to another non-teaching member of staff.

Get a red biro, "red ink" all the errors and send back a copy .

Offer to be in charge of it, so you can proof read before it goes out!?

have seen loads of threads on MN mentioning spelling mistakes in letters home, school reports, etc

why not offer to proof read it every wek

it's often the school admin staff who write the newsletter.

Newsletter won't be anything to do with the teachers - admin staff write/produce newsletters.

Now I hope you're not a parent at my child's school! I recently photocopied the newsletter that another mother typed up. She spelt successful wrong. She'd put successfull. But my point is, are you certain it's the teachers who typed the newsletter? Because it sounds like a PTA job to me.

btw, that woman is an extremely intelligent and extraordinarily capable events co-ordinator and the school is damn lucky to have her involved with their fund-raising.

Even if it is the admin staff though, surely they have heard of spell check, or heaven forbid, a dictionary!! Just because they are not teachers it still doesn't give a good impression, if school newsletters are sent out full of mistakes. Like orienteerer said, red pen it and send it back but to the Head! It makes me cringe at work when we get letters nd emails from our Director and they have spellos and typos in them. His secretary will have typed them out from dictation or whataver, but it gives a bad impression.

Yes, it's probably admin staff who type up the newsletters from notes, but I suppose my concern is that either no one must proof them (so do they care about the impression they're giving?) or - even worse - if someone does proof them then they're missing some big errors and why would that be? Maybe just a friendly email will clarify things...

And typically now, my last post had a typo in it!

lol ethelred

I wonder about the rest of the world. Is it considered something not worth fussing about when people cannot spell?

they should at least let someone else proof read it. and surely even if it were a non-teaching member of staff they should get the basics right.

No red pen please.... it just looks arrogant. Just mention it to the school secretary quietly.

Please, please, please, no red pen. People will hate you for it!

I think the issue is that in an organisation that concerns itself with learningyou would hope that literacy standards in what is essentially (regardless of who puts it together) official school information would be high.

Wow. ARe you kidding Etheiredonagoodday!? As somebody who has spent four hours of my personal time typing up, formatting, printing, photocopying and distributing a school newsletter, I would be speechless if somebody red- penned an error they found in the newsletter and brought it to my attention.

I instantly lose respect if publications contain spelling/grammatical errors (but would not, I hasten to add, pick anyone up in RL or on MN - those aren't proof-read items intended for publication!).

I can't help it. I just feel waves of contempt. A pal of mine is responsible for a large arts website - reviews of plays and books, articles on the arts scene etc. - and it's riddled with errors. I can't take it seriously. Or him.

It's nice folk are putting the effort in to producing a newsletter at all - but presumably they'd double-check that the timing and location of events etc. are correct, so why not spelling and grammar? It shows a lack of courtesy to the reader, I think.

Sorry and all that,Not really, though...

I would probably be speechless, but also a bit embarrassed. Fair enough, everyone makes mistakes, as i demonstrated so well above! BUT as i said, this is a school we are talking about, not the local darts team. So, if there are persistent, silly errors, it is not a good reflection on the school. I work in policy writing, so am always red penning people's written work and getting mine red penned too!! Plus have done voluntary work on this type of thing, so know exacly what it's like to spend your personal time producing written material; i just tried my absolute hardest to make sure it was error free. Don't mean to sound like a sanctimonious cow, and the red pen is probably a bridge too far BUT i do think that this type of things is important!

I think I'd be inclined to mention it but perhaps by dropping a note into the school comments box in the foyer, sending an e-mail to the admin address or maybe phoning the Head for a chat. If the mistakes aren't highlighted then that person (who is unlikely to be a teacher - we don't have time to produce weekly school newsletters as we're busy teaching) will never have the opportunity to correct that mistake.

It doesn't need to be rude, more of a, "whilst pleased that my child will be starting here soon I'm a bit concerned about the number of mistakes in the school newsletter - please would you be able to reassure me that this is a one off and not a true reflection of the standard of written English expected of the pupils". I think most schools would like their newsletters to be a positive advertisement and would be pleased it had been pointed out.

Do NOT red pen the newsletter. Really, really don't. They will hate you before your child has even started. They might even lose the volunteer who writes the newsletter. You say that this school is your third choice. It sounds as if you are looking for things to disapprove of before you start.

Sense of humour anyone?........... OK, I mentioned "red pen", that's how I feel and how I felt when DS's school got a new Head's secretary with a spell check problem. That doesn't mean I'd actually do it.

I would use green