Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Knowing how accurate Old Blues are with punctuation, I'm after some help.
I'm setting up a website for an annual event which is called
The Schools Challenge.

My question:
Should there be an apostrophe after Schools.
i.e. The Schools' Challenge.

The event is for multiple schools to attend, and hence it's definitely not before the s, but should there be one at all, especially if used in capitals as an event title?

If it were "The Schools' buses" then that'd be easy.....!

J

Better get Great Plum's dad on this one.

I'd be included to say "not necessarily." You don't need an apostrophe if you're using the word "schools" as an adjective. If you think of the Barclays Premiership, Barclays does not have an apostrophe, not that you have lots of bank branches playing in the league!

where is Lynn Truss when you need her?

Oh yes, on my bedside table, and I am at work.

Schools' Challenge I think.

Howard should know though!

Its a challenge for schools, not 'of' schools, isn't it?

ben ashton wrote:Its a challenge for schools, not 'of' schools, isn't it?

Oh, I interpreted it as a challenge between schools.

Having recently taken (and passed!) a course in Literacy I really ought to be able to answer this. However ...

My interpretation is that the Challenge belongs to the Schools, so use of the apostrophe as indication of possession is correct. There is more than one school involved so a plural 's' is used with the apostrophe following =

The Schools' Challenge.

icomefromalanddownunder wrote:

ben ashton wrote:Its a challenge for schools, not 'of' schools, isn't it?

Oh, I interpreted it as a challenge between schools.

As I see the question it is a challenge for schools and between schools.

I can't see any element of ownership by any school or schools so I would omit any apostrophe. This would make it similar to the previously mentioned Barclays Premiership.

That said I was eddicated at Christs Hospital and the masters I suffered were not too hot on the English language. Mr Bourne was OK on Spanish and there was someone else into Urdu in a big way - the oulu - but English, that was too common.

BTW - can anyone recall who it was called everyone an oulu? (that is phonetic!)

englishangel wrote: where is Lynn Truss when you need her ?

Oh yes, on my bedside table, and I am at work.

I'm sure she'll thank you for your SUPPORT!

(start the car................... !)

Another thought on this one....

If it were "The Schools' Favourite" then I think it would be obvious?
BUT, if it were "The School's Favourite" - this could be ambiguous ("The School is favourite" - so where does that fit in?

The main issue here I think is that the item of belonging isn't a real tangible thing......i.e. "The Schools' minibus" would be the minibus which the schools owned between them....

I'm erring towards needing the apostrophe at the moment.......but then again, is it REALLY important?!?

I'd put "The School's Favourite", Julian!

The context would explain it, as in "The School's favourite pub is The Bax!" (which I believe to be the case?)

But it would be the same for "The School's favourite to win the Best Band in the World Contest".

Or if, back to the pub again, speaking for all the schools in Horsham, you could write "the Horsham schools' favourite pub is The Bax".

At least I think so!

Incidentally, the wording in the Forum Advice always makes me (but only me) giggle a bit - I've worked in several environments with addicted patients, and find that, as far as the Forum is concerned, I'm not just a regular user, but a registered user. Maybe one day I will find the strength to stop using!

Love, Munch