Spell bind

23rd May 2003, 1:00am
Liz Moorsom, a teacher in Dorset, sent us the following anecdote about her experience supervising a Year 6 Sats spelling test:

“Having carefully stripped the walls of all possibly helpful material and obediently opened the test at the last minute, I suddenly realised that one of the test words forms part of the school logo and was embroidered on the children’s sweatshirts.Such is the paranoia of Year 6 teachers I am filled with visions of prison and disagrace.”

What to do? The word in question (“together”, part of the school motto) was also embroidered on children’s T-shirts.

Ms Moorsom wisely decided against reducing her charges to their underwear.

Then she found herself wondering how she could get the class’s least able speller, who was not in uniform, into one of the helpful sweatshirts before the test started: “At least he could get one spelling right!”

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