For those of you with children - School Reports.
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I have just recently read my Daughter's school report and was dismayed, nay, bloody annoyed at the number of fundamental mistakes in the spelling, grammar and punctuation used within the report written by her various teachers. I have just sent off an email to the Headteacher expressing my dissatisfaction with the quality of English used within the report. Right, now to the question: do other schools/colleges have such a bad command of English? If so, do you write and complain or just 'let it slide'?
I'm too lazy to Google it for you.
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I have just recently read my Daughter's school report and was dismayed, nay, bloody annoyed at the number of fundamental mistakes in the spelling, grammar and punctuation used within the report written by her various teachers. I have just sent off an email to the Headteacher expressing my dissatisfaction with the quality of English used within the report. Right, now to the question: do other schools/colleges have such a bad command of English? If so, do you write and complain or just 'let it slide'?
I'm too lazy to Google it for you.
Euhemerus wrote:
I have just recently read my Daughter's school report and was dismayed, nay, bloody annoyed at the number of fundamental mistakes in the spelling, grammar and punctuation used within the report**,** written by her various teachers.
I have just sent off an email to the Headteacher expressing my dissatisfaction with the quality correctness of the English used within the report.
C- : good attempt but some basic errors.
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
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A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^] -
Euhemerus wrote:
I have just recently read my Daughter's school report and was dismayed, nay, bloody annoyed at the number of fundamental mistakes in the spelling, grammar and punctuation used within the report**,** written by her various teachers.
I have just sent off an email to the Headteacher expressing my dissatisfaction with the quality correctness of the English used within the report.
C- : good attempt but some basic errors.
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]:)
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." (DNA)
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Euhemerus wrote:
I have just recently read my Daughter's school report and was dismayed, nay, bloody annoyed at the number of fundamental mistakes in the spelling, grammar and punctuation used within the report**,** written by her various teachers.
I have just sent off an email to the Headteacher expressing my dissatisfaction with the quality correctness of the English used within the report.
C- : good attempt but some basic errors.
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]Hey, I never said that MY standard of English was good. I even wrote that in the email to the Headteacher. However, I do expect a teacher's standard to be better though. This was the email sent: Thank you for your reply. I have to agree that there has been some improvement in the standard of English and punctuation in correspondence from Darton College to parents since the change of management. However, I have recently read Emily’s school report and to put it mildly, was dismayed at the number of fundamental mistakes within the report. I do appreciate that your teaching staff have many reports to write and probably do not have the time to proof read each report written. Nevertheless, there appears to be a vast difference, between staff, in the standards applied to report writing. Some of the mistakes could be seen as nit picking. I do not agree. We, as parents and teachers, expect our children and students to be able to achieve certain standards in their work. Is it not too much to ask to expect the same standards or better from those doing the teaching? The mistakes noted were: • A missing word within a sentence so that the sentence does not make sense without it; two occurrences. • Superfluous word in a sentence: “…. incorporating both her is own ideas and those of her peers into group projects.” • Incorrect use of the semicolon used to start a list within a sentence; should be a colon. • The word ‘contributes’ instead of ‘contribute’ when used within the context of the sentence written. “… but doesn’t regularly contributes to class discussions.” • Apostrophe used in expressing a decade! “1960’s”. This is fundamental! • Incorrect spelling; should be ‘from’, not ‘form’. • “Emily can carry out searches on the internet ….” The word ‘Internet’ is a proper noun when referring to the global Internet and as such, should have been capitalised. The word ‘internet’ is shorthand for interconnected network and, therefore, refers to an object. Finally, this is from the History report: “…. by focussing on the Tudors from 1485-1603 and the Stuarts from 1603-1734.” I would question that the end date referring to the Stuarts is correct. Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch died in 1714, effectively ending the reign of the Stuarts. The House of Hanoverians reigned from 1714. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that my standard of English is any better and probably does leave something to be desired at times. However, a College that specialises in English should not be making such mistakes in my opin
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Euhemerus wrote:
I have just recently read my Daughter's school report and was dismayed, nay, bloody annoyed at the number of fundamental mistakes in the spelling, grammar and punctuation used within the report**,** written by her various teachers.
I have just sent off an email to the Headteacher expressing my dissatisfaction with the quality correctness of the English used within the report.
C- : good attempt but some basic errors.
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]"I sent an email" does not convey the same thing as "I have just sent off an email". :)
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Hey, I never said that MY standard of English was good. I even wrote that in the email to the Headteacher. However, I do expect a teacher's standard to be better though. This was the email sent: Thank you for your reply. I have to agree that there has been some improvement in the standard of English and punctuation in correspondence from Darton College to parents since the change of management. However, I have recently read Emily’s school report and to put it mildly, was dismayed at the number of fundamental mistakes within the report. I do appreciate that your teaching staff have many reports to write and probably do not have the time to proof read each report written. Nevertheless, there appears to be a vast difference, between staff, in the standards applied to report writing. Some of the mistakes could be seen as nit picking. I do not agree. We, as parents and teachers, expect our children and students to be able to achieve certain standards in their work. Is it not too much to ask to expect the same standards or better from those doing the teaching? The mistakes noted were: • A missing word within a sentence so that the sentence does not make sense without it; two occurrences. • Superfluous word in a sentence: “…. incorporating both her is own ideas and those of her peers into group projects.” • Incorrect use of the semicolon used to start a list within a sentence; should be a colon. • The word ‘contributes’ instead of ‘contribute’ when used within the context of the sentence written. “… but doesn’t regularly contributes to class discussions.” • Apostrophe used in expressing a decade! “1960’s”. This is fundamental! • Incorrect spelling; should be ‘from’, not ‘form’. • “Emily can carry out searches on the internet ….” The word ‘Internet’ is a proper noun when referring to the global Internet and as such, should have been capitalised. The word ‘internet’ is shorthand for interconnected network and, therefore, refers to an object. Finally, this is from the History report: “…. by focussing on the Tudors from 1485-1603 and the Stuarts from 1603-1734.” I would question that the end date referring to the Stuarts is correct. Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch died in 1714, effectively ending the reign of the Stuarts. The House of Hanoverians reigned from 1714. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that my standard of English is any better and probably does leave something to be desired at times. However, a College that specialises in English should not be making such mistakes in my opin
Euhemerus wrote:
Hey, I never said that MY standard of English was good.
But you still feel it is OK to criticise others, not only directly, but on a public forum too. You are a programmer by profession, an Industry founded on communication, by the same dint your English should be better too if you hold this opionion.
Euhemerus wrote:
I do expect a teacher's standard to be better though.
Why? As long as the English is good enough to be understood, what does it matter whether a maths teacher makes the odd spelling mistake, very little English is written on the board in a maths lesson. The minimum requirement for entry onto a teacher training course is a C at GCSE which, frankly a well trained molllusc could get, perhaps the government is at fault. Assuming the report is not hand written (and few are now) many of your examples look like simple typos to me.
Euhemerus wrote:
I do appreciate that your teaching staff have many reports to write ...
Hundreds in a secondary school: Lets say 30 kids per class, you'd only need to teach 4 groups per week for there to be 120 reports. That would be a very light teaching load, during my PGCE year I had a heavier load than that. Normally you have a week to get them done, in your spare time (which is far less than people think).
Euhemerus wrote:
I am sure I am not expecting too much because correspondence from Wellgate Primary school does not contain fundamental mistakes. Whether this is due to better proof reading or higher standards, I do not know.
I do, it is due to the fact that: a) Almost all primary school teachers are BA graduates, who tend to have better English b) The fact that a Primary School teacher looks after one class per year, and so only has to write 30 reports or so.
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
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A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^] -
Euhemerus wrote:
Hey, I never said that MY standard of English was good.
But you still feel it is OK to criticise others, not only directly, but on a public forum too. You are a programmer by profession, an Industry founded on communication, by the same dint your English should be better too if you hold this opionion.
Euhemerus wrote:
I do expect a teacher's standard to be better though.
Why? As long as the English is good enough to be understood, what does it matter whether a maths teacher makes the odd spelling mistake, very little English is written on the board in a maths lesson. The minimum requirement for entry onto a teacher training course is a C at GCSE which, frankly a well trained molllusc could get, perhaps the government is at fault. Assuming the report is not hand written (and few are now) many of your examples look like simple typos to me.
Euhemerus wrote:
I do appreciate that your teaching staff have many reports to write ...
Hundreds in a secondary school: Lets say 30 kids per class, you'd only need to teach 4 groups per week for there to be 120 reports. That would be a very light teaching load, during my PGCE year I had a heavier load than that. Normally you have a week to get them done, in your spare time (which is far less than people think).
Euhemerus wrote:
I am sure I am not expecting too much because correspondence from Wellgate Primary school does not contain fundamental mistakes. Whether this is due to better proof reading or higher standards, I do not know.
I do, it is due to the fact that: a) Almost all primary school teachers are BA graduates, who tend to have better English b) The fact that a Primary School teacher looks after one class per year, and so only has to write 30 reports or so.
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
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A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]Keith Barrow wrote:
You are a programmer by profession
Err, no I'm not. I am an engineer by trade who writes programs as a hobby in his spare time. If I made fundamental mistakes in my job, I'd be sacked.
Keith Barrow wrote:
Almost all primary school teachers are BA graduates, who tend to have better English
Well then it's high bloody time that upper schools had the same requirements for recruiting staff. When a school/college promotes itself as 'providing a high quality education' I for one EXPECT, nay DEMAND better standards. After all, I, along with everyone else is paying for these teachers through taxes.
Keith Barrow wrote:
Why? As long as the English is good enough to be understood, what does it matter whether a maths teacher makes the odd spelling mistake, very little English is written on the board in a maths lesson. The minimum requirement for entry onto a teacher training course is a C at GCSE which, frankly a well trained molllusc could get
This particular attitude explains why software is riddled with bugs and gaping security holes. ;P If the software works, it's good enough. That seems to be what your saying if you apply the same concept. Any way. Peace
I'm too lazy to Google it for you.
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Keith Barrow wrote:
You are a programmer by profession
Err, no I'm not. I am an engineer by trade who writes programs as a hobby in his spare time. If I made fundamental mistakes in my job, I'd be sacked.
Keith Barrow wrote:
Almost all primary school teachers are BA graduates, who tend to have better English
Well then it's high bloody time that upper schools had the same requirements for recruiting staff. When a school/college promotes itself as 'providing a high quality education' I for one EXPECT, nay DEMAND better standards. After all, I, along with everyone else is paying for these teachers through taxes.
Keith Barrow wrote:
Why? As long as the English is good enough to be understood, what does it matter whether a maths teacher makes the odd spelling mistake, very little English is written on the board in a maths lesson. The minimum requirement for entry onto a teacher training course is a C at GCSE which, frankly a well trained molllusc could get
This particular attitude explains why software is riddled with bugs and gaping security holes. ;P If the software works, it's good enough. That seems to be what your saying if you apply the same concept. Any way. Peace
I'm too lazy to Google it for you.
Euhemerus wrote:
This particular attitude explains why software is riddled with bugs and gaping security holes.
The difference between engineering software and engineering physical products is that software can easily be patched. You make a mistake and your customers can have that fixed in a few days. You make a mistake with the hardward for, say, the iPhone or the XBox and that is very costly to fix, as you have to replace all the hardware. It often makes more business sense to make software so fast that bugs are to be expected.
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Hey, I never said that MY standard of English was good. I even wrote that in the email to the Headteacher. However, I do expect a teacher's standard to be better though. This was the email sent: Thank you for your reply. I have to agree that there has been some improvement in the standard of English and punctuation in correspondence from Darton College to parents since the change of management. However, I have recently read Emily’s school report and to put it mildly, was dismayed at the number of fundamental mistakes within the report. I do appreciate that your teaching staff have many reports to write and probably do not have the time to proof read each report written. Nevertheless, there appears to be a vast difference, between staff, in the standards applied to report writing. Some of the mistakes could be seen as nit picking. I do not agree. We, as parents and teachers, expect our children and students to be able to achieve certain standards in their work. Is it not too much to ask to expect the same standards or better from those doing the teaching? The mistakes noted were: • A missing word within a sentence so that the sentence does not make sense without it; two occurrences. • Superfluous word in a sentence: “…. incorporating both her is own ideas and those of her peers into group projects.” • Incorrect use of the semicolon used to start a list within a sentence; should be a colon. • The word ‘contributes’ instead of ‘contribute’ when used within the context of the sentence written. “… but doesn’t regularly contributes to class discussions.” • Apostrophe used in expressing a decade! “1960’s”. This is fundamental! • Incorrect spelling; should be ‘from’, not ‘form’. • “Emily can carry out searches on the internet ….” The word ‘Internet’ is a proper noun when referring to the global Internet and as such, should have been capitalised. The word ‘internet’ is shorthand for interconnected network and, therefore, refers to an object. Finally, this is from the History report: “…. by focussing on the Tudors from 1485-1603 and the Stuarts from 1603-1734.” I would question that the end date referring to the Stuarts is correct. Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch died in 1714, effectively ending the reign of the Stuarts. The House of Hanoverians reigned from 1714. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that my standard of English is any better and probably does leave something to be desired at times. However, a College that specialises in English should not be making such mistakes in my opin
Euhemerus wrote:
• A missing word within a sentence so that the sentence does not make sense without it; two occurrences.
Typo rather than error - easily done when editing, and did you understand the sentence or was it completely unintelligable?
Euhemerus wrote:
• Superfluous word in a sentence: “…. incorporating both her is own ideas and those of her peers into group projects.”
again I'd say a typo - may be an editing issue
Euhemerus wrote:
• Incorrect use of the semicolon used to start a list within a sentence; should be a colon.
Could be a simply typo again - just didn't hit shift - or could be a mistake. FFS - there are many worserer exmaples
Euhemerus wrote:
• The word ‘contributes’ instead of ‘contribute’ when used within the context of the sentence written. “… but doesn’t regularly contributes to class discussions.”
Typo - or more likely a template letter that is edited and the 's' failed to be removed.
Euhemerus wrote:
• Apostrophe used in expressing a decade! “1960’s”. This is fundamental!
Ohhh! Myyyy! Gooood! sack the teacher!
Euhemerus wrote:
• Incorrect spelling; should be ‘from’, not ‘form’.
Typo
Euhemerus wrote:
• “Emily can carry out searches on the internet ….” The word ‘Internet’ is a proper noun when referring to the global Internet and as such, should have been capitalised. The word ‘internet’ is shorthand for interconnected network and, therefore, refers to an object.
How pedantic do you want to be? God, I bet the teachers dread parent teacher night when you come along!
Euhemerus wrote:
I would question that the end date referring to the Stuarts is correct
Could be a typo? This is a school report, isn't it , not a lesson? Personally, I couldn't see much to whinge about in your examples. Mainly typos, which probably shows some lack of attention to detail - but having experienced the hell that is trying to do school reports, I can quite understand!
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way __________
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Keith Barrow wrote:
You are a programmer by profession
Err, no I'm not. I am an engineer by trade who writes programs as a hobby in his spare time. If I made fundamental mistakes in my job, I'd be sacked.
Keith Barrow wrote:
Almost all primary school teachers are BA graduates, who tend to have better English
Well then it's high bloody time that upper schools had the same requirements for recruiting staff. When a school/college promotes itself as 'providing a high quality education' I for one EXPECT, nay DEMAND better standards. After all, I, along with everyone else is paying for these teachers through taxes.
Keith Barrow wrote:
Why? As long as the English is good enough to be understood, what does it matter whether a maths teacher makes the odd spelling mistake, very little English is written on the board in a maths lesson. The minimum requirement for entry onto a teacher training course is a C at GCSE which, frankly a well trained molllusc could get
This particular attitude explains why software is riddled with bugs and gaping security holes. ;P If the software works, it's good enough. That seems to be what your saying if you apply the same concept. Any way. Peace
I'm too lazy to Google it for you.
Euhemerus wrote:
Well then it's high bloody time that upper schools had the same requirements for recruiting staff. After all, I, along with everyone else is paying for these teachers through taxes.
So teachers only teach 30 pupils at a time, that't the real difference. Let's see what that would do to your tax bill.
Euhemerus wrote:
This particular attitude explains why software is riddled with bugs and gaping security holes. ;-P If the software works, it's good enough. That seems to be what your saying if you apply the same concept.
I wouldn't apply the same concept to software, that's not comparing like with like, and I stand by what I said. What does it matter that a science teacher can't spell prestidigitation if he can get the pupils to apply Newton's laws of motion. Despite attitude this I have never had any complaints about the quality of my ocde. :-)
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
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A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^] -
I have just recently read my Daughter's school report and was dismayed, nay, bloody annoyed at the number of fundamental mistakes in the spelling, grammar and punctuation used within the report written by her various teachers. I have just sent off an email to the Headteacher expressing my dissatisfaction with the quality of English used within the report. Right, now to the question: do other schools/colleges have such a bad command of English? If so, do you write and complain or just 'let it slide'?
I'm too lazy to Google it for you.
You should have done a facsimile of the report fro each of the teachers, filled it in and given them to your daughter to deliver. After they had been delivered send a copy of them all to the Head with a covering letter.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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I have just recently read my Daughter's school report and was dismayed, nay, bloody annoyed at the number of fundamental mistakes in the spelling, grammar and punctuation used within the report written by her various teachers. I have just sent off an email to the Headteacher expressing my dissatisfaction with the quality of English used within the report. Right, now to the question: do other schools/colleges have such a bad command of English? If so, do you write and complain or just 'let it slide'?
I'm too lazy to Google it for you.
I haven't got a degree in English and it's also my second language, so I may lack the necessary knowledge to debate on this matter... but...
Euhemerus wrote:
I have just recently read my Daughter's school report and was dismayed, nay, bloody annoyed at the number of fundamental mistakes in the spelling, grammar and punctuation used within the report written by her various teachers.
This is the first time I saw the word "Daughter" capitalized in a common sentence when it is preceded by "my". I guess it's OK, as we normally would write "my Mum"...? :confused: Anyway, I think you should count yourself lucky that you get any kind of written report on your children. My school reports used to be just numbers from 0 to 10 per subject/category, but it was given that you never got anything below a 6 because that would mean you couldn't advance to the next year. The school would then get down-rated by the government, so they always made sure all students passed every year. We were lucky if we got a 1-line comment at the end. What were parents to think about how their children were doing at school with such a minimalistic report?
Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike... me...
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Euhemerus wrote:
I have just recently read my Daughter's school report and was dismayed, nay, bloody annoyed at the number of fundamental mistakes in the spelling, grammar and punctuation used within the report**,** written by her various teachers.
I have just sent off an email to the Headteacher expressing my dissatisfaction with the quality correctness of the English used within the report.
C- : good attempt but some basic errors.
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]Beat me to it. Skitt is never to be ignored.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I haven't got a degree in English and it's also my second language, so I may lack the necessary knowledge to debate on this matter... but...
Euhemerus wrote:
I have just recently read my Daughter's school report and was dismayed, nay, bloody annoyed at the number of fundamental mistakes in the spelling, grammar and punctuation used within the report written by her various teachers.
This is the first time I saw the word "Daughter" capitalized in a common sentence when it is preceded by "my". I guess it's OK, as we normally would write "my Mum"...? :confused: Anyway, I think you should count yourself lucky that you get any kind of written report on your children. My school reports used to be just numbers from 0 to 10 per subject/category, but it was given that you never got anything below a 6 because that would mean you couldn't advance to the next year. The school would then get down-rated by the government, so they always made sure all students passed every year. We were lucky if we got a 1-line comment at the end. What were parents to think about how their children were doing at school with such a minimalistic report?
Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike... me...
PaulowniaK wrote:
This is the first time I saw the word "Daughter" capitalized in a common sentence when it is preceded by "my". I guess it's OK, as we normally would write "my Mum"...? :confused:
You are right to question this, "My daughter" should not have a capital D.