To expect teachers to mark homework in a timely fashion?

[Snog]

AIBU to expect that secondary school teachers should mark essays within a 2 weeks timeframe? What is the teacher point of view on this one?

I'm also an English teacher and I don't really have a life just now unfortunately. I hate to be whiny and think sometimes teachers do exaggerate their workload, but at this time of year it becomes a bit mad for a while in any English dept. The sort of stuff we've done in the last half term:

Moderating (and in fact remarking) controlled assessments from last year - just moderating took us about seven hours
Moderating two Y12 courses
Moderating two Y13 courses
Getting in last-minute exam practice for Y11, 12 and 13 and marking that
Inputting pupil grades on exam board paperwork (took aaages)
Hosting revision sessions after school for Y11, 12 and 13
Y11 predicted grades to SLT/parents
Y11 and Y12 coursework has now been called up - completed front covers for each child called (writing out quite detailed summative comments)
Typing up S&L entry forms

This is in addition to the usual marking (just now my Y9 assessments are halfway finished, a pile of Y8 ones awaits me and I still have a controlled assessment to mark from Y10) and planning about 25 lessons per week. Our SLT also saw fit to make us do inset sessions and various after school meetings during this time, which has really annoyed everyone as we have so much to do and they could easily have been scheduled to take place at another time.

Once the KS4 and KS5 classes have finished for the year the pressure will ease off a bit and KS3 marking will improve. It's just about priorities just now, and your child will be prioritised too when they get to KS4/5.

We get brilliant holidays but that doesn't make the days any longer during term time...

Again, I don't want to be whiny but I don't think non-teachers realise how long marking can take. I teach about 150 children. If I spend five minutes per week marking each child's work, that's 12.5 hours. I get four free lessons per week. Essays and assessments take much longer and A-levels ones can take about 20mins each. This is in addition to planning (teachers tend to make their own resources - we don't just pick up textbooks or lesson plans ready made, and even revision packs etc have usually been written by teachers) and administration.

I love my job but if you think the teachers are finding it hard to meet your child's needs in this respect you should get in touch with your MP and ask for smaller class sizes/more teachers.

Exam time is a nightmare for marking. At the end of the day, there's only so much we can do - and that is taking into account the 30+ hours I spend in my own time each week on top of contracted hours.

In the last couple of weeks I've done final A Level and GCSE CA push, marked everything that came in at the last minute, sent off my A Level sample of 15 folders which took me days to do, marked a huge stack of AS and A2 mock exams (3/4 per student x 20 students who write a lot and need incredibly detailed feedback), sent my GCSE sample of folders for Lang and Lit, prepped and taught my 23 hour week plus 3-4 hours of extra revision sessions that also have to be prepped. I've also written a set of Year 7 and a set of Year 8 reports due this week.

I get no additional time on top of my 3 free periods to allow for the HUGE marking load that having GCSE, AS and A2 English exam classes brings (thus suggesting that the government thinks I can manage all of the above in those 3 hours as that is the remainder of my contracted time). If we were given extra time, it means we would be taken off our KS3 groups, which would impact them more negatively than simply not having an essay marked.

I think a parental complaint would probably tip the poor teacher over the edge. It is a very emotional, fraught, exhausting time of year. We have to put exam groups first. Please remember, it is not laziness - we are doing our best. My own children hardly see me at the moment.

Believe it or not, I understand the frustration. My own DD did a Year 10 CA with her English teacher a few weeks ago and we really want to know how she did, but I understand why it hasn't been done as I know what it is like for English teachers in May. It will get marked at some point soon - many of us are waiting for the break so we can catch up on all of the things that have had to be put to one side through exam season.

Roll on June!!

Love the MP suggestion freerange. Everyone should do that!

Obviously, I am having a MN, Revels and cup of tea break at this moment in time.

Sounds good KinkyDorito :) I didn't bring anything home tonight as I have some gained time tomorrow. Just bath, internet, tidy (visitors this weekend) and bed!

freerange First A Level exam tomorrow - doing before school exam briefing for 40mins so am prepping for that, plus all other lessons including an extra A2 session. Need the sugar to get me through!

Does this include any holiday time?
Check the school's policy then enquire.

Thanks to all for the insights here about workload and time of year.
The school doesnt have a sixth form but obviously has gcse. My dd has been told to improve her efforts in english and has been very anxious about english lessons so could do with some positive essay feedback. This will now be nearly 5 weeks after submission at best.
She doesnt undersrand why she needs to submit hw on time then teachers don't find time to mark it. Whilst it's an assessed essay it's only internally assessed. I dont want to criticise her teacher unfairly but why not set the hw only at a time when you actually have time to mark it? if not it discourages the kids surely?

Please don't make a formal complaint about a KS3 homework essay that has been unmarked for three weeks. If marking is usually timely and this delay is a one off, it will be because of public exams.

At this time of the year, most teachers are on their knees. Your child's teacher will have been sending their Year 11, 12 and 13 classes off to start public exams this week. For the last two or three weeks, they will have been bombarded with students handing them practice mock exam papers, essays, PEE paragraphs, essay plans etc etc. They will also have had GCSE speaking and listening folders called for moderation, alongside all of the paper work for those.

If it was any other time of the year, I'd suggest your child politely asks your teacher when they might expect to get their essay back, and write a note to the teacher if it doesn't materialise in a day or two.

At this time of year, I'd assume that the teacher is now trying to get on top of all of the KS3 marking that slid due to prioritising the exam classes. I'd give it until Monday, then let your child ask, then write a note if it's not returned by the next lesson.

I know that 3-4 week waits are unacceptable for parents, but schools are chaotic around this time. State schools have big classes and the mark load is just horrific. The private schools I've worked in have had a lot of parents who confuse teachers with private tutors and who expect teachers to spend lunch times, after school and evenings marking practise papers just for their child. They think it's all part of the service. It is really, really stressful.

As others said, when your child begins GCSE work, they will be the one having their work prioritised, and rightly so.

Crossed post!

If the school doesn't have a sixth form, then the teacher is being a bit slack to set homework and not mark it for 3 weeks (or it it 5, as your last post suggests?).

I think a little note would be right in these circumstances. You could mentionin your DD's keenness to improve her efforts in English, and her concern that her essay might it be very good. However, you have been unable to reassure her because you have not yet had feedback.

Might NOT be very good!

Thanks RedRoom. It will be 4 1/2 weeks assuming she gets it back next week which is not guaranteed! I don't want to add to any teacher's burden without reason but wish they would set homework at times when they can mark it more promptly as I think its unfair on the kids. So if the teacher is busy at this time of year and cannot mark Y9 work until 17 May why not ask for it to be handed in the week before rather than 4 weeks before? Would that not work better?

I had one English teacher who always took and age with homework. 18 months was his record for our class!!!

4.5 weeks seems more than reasonable!!!

Snog, now I know that the teacher has no sixth form classes and it is nearing five weeks, I think your concern is totally reasonable. The GCSE students will all be on study leave now as exams started on Monday, so they have already had nearly a week to prioritise this essay marking. I agree: the teacher should not have set an essay if they didn't have time to mark it for a month.

I wonder if they are new to teaching, or if they have been ill.

I do think a gentle note might speed things up!

Year 11 students aren't all on study leave - ours don't go until we break up and we are filling up every available minute with extra classes until then - I'm doing a full week and several hours after school next week. I'm also doing a full day in the holiday and a full Year 11 day on the first Monday back (before exam). Can't wait until 9th June when I'm finally done with all of it - AS, GCSE and A2.

Agree that they have timed it badly and could have extended deadline for them, but these decisions will also be down to some pressure from SMT to continue teaching KS3 normally through exam season. It will be a whole-school policy that will be easier for some staff, without exam classes, to adhere to at this time of year.

But exams have started! Are yours still having to go to school between exams?

A gentle note to the teacher (not Head of Year or Department - I hate it when people don't come to me directly) is probably a good way to address it, as Red says; perhaps wait and see for next lesson in case they've managed it over the weekend. If not, write and say you are keen to know how your DD has got on in this piece of work as she is feeling very anxious and will be beginning her own GCSE course very soon - that you are looking for ways to support her? Kind of a 'helpful parent, where is the mark, nudge, nudge' letter? If she is anxious, she does need reassurance, then I can understand why you are frustrated.

I hope it's not me!

I've just brought all my Year 9 books home for the weekend.

Red yes - it is chaotic. But every school I've ever worked in hasn't started study leave until the Friday before we break up. Every blummin year it is the same fight to get hold of students. I really need mine as I have a crucial intervention set, but I've hardly seen them this week. Next week, am doing an extra 3/4 hours with them during school time and after school too. Oh, for study leave!

Blimey, Kinky- that is mad logic. No pupil wants to be in lessons right before exams!

Ours don't go on study leave until next Friday Red - & then they're in for any lesson for which they still have exams.

I think it's the fear of trusting them to study themselves. I know study leave at my current school would be 'sitting in the garden sunbathing' leave! However, last school (where I worked for a decade) was outstanding across the board but never let them leave early.

It is so draining. I would love to have a fixed deadline for teaching and then set them free, instead we are compelled to keep teaching them until the last possible minute. I'm even doing a breakfast session on the day of the exam! I just turn up and do as I'm told .

I agree with KinkyDorito. A concerned letter to the teacher will probably be enough.

Even though they don't have 6th form, it's still a difficult time. This is the first year I've had 6th form and it has been much worse, but it's usually difficult anyway.

Lots of school require teachers to give a set amount of homework per week and will check individual teachers are following policy by looking in the pupils' planners periodically. Also, lots of departments require assessments to be completed at certain times. I find it bizarre that an assessed essay was set for homework, but I know a number of schools who do that as policy. In short, English departments are rubbish at organising assessments generally and don't make things easy for themselves; the teacher in question might just have been trying to do what was expected of him/her and not managing it very well, given the time of year.

Red our Y11 don't have study leave at all. They are expected in until they finish their last exam. If they have finished your subject you are expected to provide a silent revision room for them. There is also a timetable of extra lessons right before each exam for which your usual class will be covered. It works for some.