The man in charge of improving standards in Oxfordshire's schools has been left red-faced by a number of errors in a letter sent to the Oxford Mail.

Former headteacher Michael Waine - Oxfordshire County Council's cabinet member for schools improvement - struggled to get to grips with the spelling of fellow county councillors' names and failed to use any apostrophes in a sentence about children's education and parents' views.

The errors are doubly embarrassing for Mr Waine because the former teacher taught in county schools for 37 years, 27 of them as a headteacher.

He misspelt the names of county council colleagues Jean Fooks (written as Fookes) and chairman Lesley Legge (written as Legg).

Responding to a letter from Liberal Democrat leader Zoe Patrick, published in the Oxford Mail earlier this week, Mr Waine said he hoped she was not "seeking to play politics with childrens (sic) education." He added: "May I assure your readers we are very aware of parents (sic) views..."

To make matters worse, the letter was sent to the County Hall press officer Paul Smith to be double-checked for accuracy. However, County Hall admitted the letter was forwarded without being read.

Mr Waine is charged with driving up educational standards across all areas of the school curriculum. He was unavailable for comment when the Mail called on Friday, but a County Hall spokesman said: "This letter was drafted in haste, with the intention it would undergo the usual checking for errors.

"Unfortunately, the letter was forwarded direct to the Oxford Mail in its draft form by a third party."

Ben Beer, of the Plain English Campaign, said: "Everyone is capable of making the odd grammatical or spelling mistake in a letter or email, but people who are involved in an official capacity with improving standards in our schools should be very careful not to be caught out.

"We recommend people always take the time to read through and check their letters before anyone else sees them. A sloppily-written letter gives the reader a bad impression of the writer."

Earlier this month, Mr Waine praised schoolchildren after league tables showed pass rates in Key Stage 2 tests, taken by all 11-year-olds, had improved again in Oxfordshire and pupils were performing better than the national average in English and science.

Among the best performers in the county - and in the top two per cent nationally for high pass rates in English, maths and science - were St Thomas More Catholic Primary School, in Kidlington; Watchfield Primary; Hendreds, near Wantage; and Trinity, in Henley.