A school has been criticised after one of its teachers sent an email to a pupil’s parents containing 14 spelling and grammatical errors.
The message was sent from a form tutor at Gleed Girls’ Technology College in Spalding, Lincolnshire, after the teacher was unable to meet with one pupil’s parents at a parents’ evening.
It contained errors such as “role modal” and “attenance”, as well as a number of misplaced apostrophes.
Marie Clair, spokeswoman for the Plain English Campaign, said she thought the email was an “extreme case” of bad use of language and also highlighted the importance of considering how we communicate.
She said: “On a personal basis, I’m not impressed and I am sure that the parents of that pupil are not impressed either.
“But if we stand back from it a little bit and think why that is happening, there’s all sorts of reasons that could be responsible.”
Some of the errors made by the unnamed teacher such as “requriements” and “everning” appear to be typing mistakes, while others such as “boardering” and “occaisions” could be genuine spelling errors.
The message was revealed by the pupil’s mother, who has not been named, because she said she was concerned about the teacher’s ability, and it came just days after Education Secretary Michael Gove called for more emphasis to be placed on good spelling and grammar.
But Ms Clair said the email could be indicative of the high-pressured occupations many people find themselves in and did not necessarily mean the teacher was not good at their job.
She said: “All of us live in a really fast moving world and what we need to do is think before we communicate. We’re responding to things all the time and we don’t think enough about thinking things out and getting the process straight. It gives us all the opportunity to understand how easily things can be exposed. Whether it’s a text, an email or a WikiLeak, what you say can be out there in seconds.”
