Marks deducted for poor grammar as school hails finest GCSE results

The signs were placed outside Roundhay School to congratulate staff and students on record grades.

But the school moved to rectify the misuse of an apostrophe on the banners, which highlighted students’ GCSE results, after being contacted by the Yorkshire Post.

The signage read: “Congratulations to all Y11 students, their families and staff at Roundhay for our best ever results. 70% five or more A*-C GCSE’s (sic) including English and Mathematics. 88% of all students passed 5+ A*-C. Outstanding! Well done to everyone.”

A school spokesperson attributed the misuse of the apostrophe to a “printing error”.

She said: “It is disappointing that a printing error was overlooked on a banner celebrating the pupils’ superb examination results. Mistakes can happen, it is important to acknowledge them and this particular one has now been rectified.”

The National Association for the Teaching of English made light of the affair.

Ian McNeilly, director of the association which is based in Sheffield, said: “Congratulations to the school on its achievements.”

He added: “One can only presume whoever composed the message was so giddy from their success that they have temporarily forgotten some tricky rules of punctuation.”

Such has been the misunderstood lot of the apostrophe that the Apostrophe Protection Society was set up in 2001 to preserve the correct use of the punctuation mark, which often falls prey to misuse.