Would it bother you if a school's website has mistakes in the English?

[lilythesheep]

Decision time for secondary preferences for DD. We've visited the local catchment school - there are good things about it for sure, and less good things too.

But when I've been looking at their website, the number of grammar and punctuation mistakes is really bugging me. I wouldn't mind if it was just the odd typo, but lots of the web pages I've browsed through have problems with punctuation, e.g. commas in completely random places that make no sense. There are also grammatical problems like the noun and verb not agreeing (e.g. 'our results ... has shown'). This is primary school level English, right?

Am I being a massive pedant to feel that if the school can't get its English correct on its public facing website, it's not a great sign about how rigorous they are internally?

I disagree with you about the thread title, because adding a determiner in this context is pretty normal, i.e. "the English" is a standard idiomatic shorthand for "the English language". A sentence like "There are mistakes in the English of this passage" is perfectly correct, as is 'Jack made lots of mistakes with his English'.

"I found mistakes in English" is also correct but it carries a different nuance. I wouldn't use it in this context.

I bet this school has, on innumerable occasions, emphasised over and over again to the children about how outward impressions that show you've thought, planned and taken care - as well as showing respect to others - are so very crucial: wearing correct uniform in a tidy manner, and not scruffy like you've slept in it overnight; turning up in good time to start the day; writing clearly in your exercise books, reading the question carefully before answering it etc.

One good way to teach children how to behave well is to tell them how; but a far better way is to model it yourself.

It's irrelevant who originally wrote/drafted it - signing it off for publication should have been carefully done by a competent, responsible person.

Yes. That would bother me a lot.

The leadership should be checking the website at least annually. If that's not being done or not being done properly, I'd wonder what else about the school that applies to.

I have a reasonable grip of English, but can't proof read my own work. I somehow only see what I meant to write.

It's rather ironic that, while a poster points out another poster's supposed error, they make a more glaring one.

Yes , contact them. You do know the school doesn't design the website?

One of the very best heads I worked with was dyslexic. Didn't affect his ability to teach maths , he would always have to get others to check any letters etc

Wouldn’t bother me - the admin staff at DS’s school update the website and write the stock letters to parents, and with all due respect to them they clearly aren’t that bright. It’s a minimum wage job in an expensive part of London, you aren’t going to attract high calibre candidates. We have a similar issue recruiting into our lower-paid NHS admin roles locally - anyone half decent can make 2-3 times as much in the private sector.

The teachers’ English skills are fine: I don’t see any errors in DS’s schoolwork and he is being taught well.

Fair enough in cases of dyslexia or similar; but absent that, PP seemed to be suggesting that, if somebody is amazing at one subject, they couldn't possibly be reasonably good at a different one!

That is defiantly very bad.

They probably don't design it themselves, but surely they commission it, write the copy and then check and sign it off before it goes live?

Even if they don't, they'd look over it when done and then tell the designer of any corrections that need to be made - just like they would if they found any dead links.

They don't just order "1 website, please!" and then take pot luck as to what they end up with!!

Teacher here - after many spelling errors by certain departments every letter sent out had to be checked by two separate members of staff.
Websites should be proof read by SLT at the very least as often done by an external company (who should be able to spell!)

I would craft an email to the school politely pointing out the failings in the website.
The response and wether or not the errors are corrected will indicate the quality of the school.

@LemondrizzleShark

Your post is so derisory of admin staff.

How do you conclude that admin staff are not bright?!

Yes, it would put me off. I think I've posted here that a long time ago a poster on another website called attention to a school in her area called The Hawthorne's [sic]. There was a road in the area with Hawthorne or Hawthornes in the title. The apostrophe was unexplained. I checked a year or two back and I see it now has a sensible name, correctly punctuated. Thank goodness for that. I would rather have given up my job and home educated than send my children to a school run by people who had lumbered their school with a name like that.

Whether they design it or not, somebody should be taking responsibility for checking the spelling, punctuation, grammar and basic accuracy of what's posted on the website. If the school is paying someone else to do it, they have a reasonable expectation that the text provided should reflect well on the school. If it doesn't, they should be given a massive discount on the price.

I used to get the school newsletter and mark any mistakes in red pen (there were many )! …if it was really bad I posted it back with teacher comments and a mark out of ten.this was back in the day before ring cameras etc .
The HT no doubt blamed his office staff but I know it was written by him !
This was a point in time where I didn’t really have a life !!

Yes, it's appalling. Do let them know.

You would think so wouldn't you, but I wouldn't be surprised if the content had not been proofread at all. School staff often don't have that much time, regardless of how important the job seems.

@MigGirl

Right, so it seems we agree that it IS important.

So I think @lilythesheep should point this out.

I’m talking about two specific women who I and many other parents have interacted with many times over the past five years. I am confident in saying neither of them are that bright. They are lovely to the children, and very popular. There are other qualities in life beyond being academic.

And with our admin staff at work, the bright hardworking ones do quickly leave for better-paid jobs elsewhere. Our last one left for Deutsche Bank, the NHS really cannot compete salary-wise!

I don’t line manage them, they tell me because I chat to them between patients. I am generally sad to see them go. No disdain whatsoever. Outside of central London, in areas with a lower cost of living (but same salary) it is like night and day as it is a much more desirable job.

Yes, it would bother me. I didn’t send my child to a school that had several errors on the boards when I looked round.

@LemondrizzleShark

Wow. You are doubling down on your snobbery.

By the way, I live in London.

I'd not be happy and I'd be telling the school about it too.

It's really not great.

Having said that, I suspect the website isn't written by an English or humanities teacher; it's probably an administrative assistant. Alternatively, it's SLT, and a lot of SLT seem to be former PE teachers, in my experience...😂