A parent in Devon has been fined £60 by his local education authority after taking his children out of school for five days to go on holiday. (Telegraph Aug 11th 2018)
The letter he received from the county council, according to The Daily Telegraph, was riddled with spelling mistakes including, “hte,” “guitly,” “notie,” and “dtealed.”
In response Devon County Council explained that the problem lay with a new printing system. What a nonsense; a printing system will only print what has been typed in. Forget spell-checkers, how about a visual check, how about reading an item to check it. This is something that all good English teachers drill into their charges.
Has this matter been brought to the attention of other parents in Devon? How might any parent feel if this was the standard of work produced by the people who were responsible for the education of their children?
Persuade the father not to pay the fine, ask the courts if necessary whether these children are really so harmed by missing a few days at a school run by these people, then seek damages from a council that is clearly not up to the job.
Not only are members of the council’s staff unable to spell, but they seem not to bother with checking their work, and are incapable of providing convincing reasons for this appalling carelessness on their part.