General Resources for 11+

[leanmeamum]

allowed and aloud also seem to be a common mistake!

They're, there and their and written as if they all mean the same and are therefore can be substituted for each other!

[southbucks3]

allowed and aloud also seem to be a common mistake!

They're, there and their and written as if they all mean the same and are therefore can be substituted for each other!

Ahem! I see I am not alone with my many many typing errors.

Lose and loose is my personal favourite.

[Marylou]

as we balance coffee cups and samosas as we type

[KS10]

I make allowances for my mistakes. It's everyone else's I have a problem with.

[mystery]

Mee two.

[Tinkers]

I'm dyslexic, so even when I check what I've typed I often miss mistakes I've made. Then there's my trusty friend autocorrect, which is often a misnomer, who helps screw things up for me even further.

I do know the difference between there, their, they're etc, and I admit I get a little wound up when I see them used wrong, but since I'm not error free myself I let it pass.

Some years ago I was a volunteer maths tutor and we often had teachers in the class improving their maths. One year we had a young lady, who had done GCSE maths previously, but was finishing a B.Ed I think. She had to pass a maths test at the end of her course before she could start her first job. She came in for several weeks to get her maths up to speed to pass this test.

She was going to be a primary school teacher.

I also have to say that one of my DDs primary teachers was not so great at the Punctuation and grammar, unfortunately he was teaching a year 6 class too. I could correct my DD's work better than he could.

[Stroller]

I also have to say that one of my DDs primary teachers was not so great at the Punctuation and grammar, unfortunately he was teaching a year 6 class too. I could correct my DD's work better than he could.

DD is in Year 5. At the parent teacher meeting before half-term I saw that her teacher had wrongly "corrected" the possessive form of "its" in one of her exercise books, by adding an apostrophe. I didn't say a word to the teacher, much as I might have wanted to. Last year's teacher demonstrated a similar level of 'literacy' at times. But they are kind and effective in other aspects of her education and she knows the correct usage, so 'sokay, right?

[Daogroupie]

I am afraid I would have told her in the nicest possible way. There should be zero tolerance on this. If they were using incorrect maths methods they would not be allowed to continue so why is there this free pass on English? Jackie Wilson commented recently that the letters she gets from overseas are written a lot better than those from home. The home ones are full of spelling mistakes and punctuation errors. Perhaps overseas parents are less tolerant of mistakes made by teachers. How can students mistakes be picked up if the teachers themselves do not know the correct terms? DG

[southbucks3]

I often wish they would teach them to completely avoid abbreviations and colloquialisms until they have fully grasped spelling and punctuation in the basic form. There is such a big emphasis placed on fully understanding the mathematical processes before taking short cuts, as DG suggests, the same standards should be followed in writing. Why do we place such importance on using apostrophes correctly, when the words they are forming are often just sloppy English. I am guilty as sin for making grammatical errors, but I can spot them a mile off in my children's work, so I too would be horrified to spot a teacher's mistake. However like Tinkers, I would have kept my thoughts to myself when face to face with the teacher, just in case it encouraged them to mention that little incident.

[pist]

I often wish they would teach them to completely avoid abbreviations and colloquialisms until they have fully grasped spelling and punctuation in the basic form.

Hear Hear! DD spent years being taught "can't", "don't" etc, only to receive back her first written work in year 7 with all of the contractions "de-contracted" in red! (FINALLY she paid attention to what I had been trying to tell her }