Marking 180 mock papers….can’t cope

[Supermummy88]

Good everyone.

I’ve been teaching for over 10 years and had a career break for 2 years whilst my children were young and not in full time school. I was doing supply a few days a week. However, I’ve now gone back into work full time and taken the role as head of geography. I started in October. I have 3 year 11 classes, 2 year 10 classes, 2 year 9 classes, 1 year 8 and 1 year 7.

The year 11’s had their mocks in december and I marked both paper 1 and paper 2. Both papers were about 20 pages long each…120 papers in total! I really struggled to mark them all. I have 2 young children of my own and I felt they really struggled as I spent no time with them at all.

Year 11 now have mocks again in February and I will have to mark again, however this time I will also have to mark paper 3. I know deep down I won’t be able to cope…especially because of the work load I already have. I’m now thinking that I perhaps should have just stuck to supply teaching. It took me about 40 minutes to mark each paper as there are many extended questions.

What are your thoughts on this? In previous schools I’ve only ever had one year 11 class so the mock marking wasn’t as intense.

Thank you

Have you looked at using the grievance procedure? Submit one.

You should definitely return to supply teaching. This school is so mismanaged.

Wouldn’t have any idea why they left on bad terms and took all their hard work with them then? 🤔

Toxic awful school.

The school sounds terrible. If you are a member of a union (I don’t think I’ve seen that clearly annswered other than you saying there is no union representation at the school) then you need to talk to them. Also phone one up if you’re not and ask if they could sign post you to help if they can’t help with this issue (unsure if they could help or not..).

You need to remove yourself from this school.

Perhaps document everything you’ve spoken of here such as the lack of resources, lack of time for planning and marking and the VP refusing to work toward a solution etc. in a letter to send to the principal as governors: the VP clearly isn’t interested in being supportive so you need to go higher now and as another poster suggested raise a grievance.

I know it’s more work again but document everything with times and dates

I would leave OP. I'm really sorry this job hasn't been what you hoped. The VP is awful.

Also the school should have been able to retrieve deleted documents from Google drive, their IT should have a backup. The fact they haven't explored this option or implemented it speaks to a very poor grasp of what needs to happen to support you as a new member of staff in school picking up vital GCSE classes.

As I mentioned earlier, we have CPD today, tomorrow we have sixth form open evening and then Thursday parents evening. On Wednesdays I have year 11 intervention classes from 4-5pm. I genuinely thought interventions must have been cancelled because of the open evening tomorrow. However, about 10 minutes ago we all just received an email from the vice principle saying that interventions must go on and not be cancelled. So that means a full day of teaching for me tomorrow, then a 1 hour department meeting from 3-4 and then intervention from 4-5 and then opening evening from 5-7. I have honestly never come across such awful management before. Will be talking to the union today, (if I get any time) and taking this further. I have already started to document everything.

My experience with my teaching union was dire - no use at all... sympathised but no practical use whatsoever.

@Supermummy88 ,

Have you considered the private sector?

It is not all rosy there either but smaller classes, longer holidays and easier pupils go a long way to compensate for feeling that you are not doing quite as much good!

There is this idea that teaching is a vocation, not a job. Well, up to a point-if teachers got the same respect as a doctor or a priest, just maybe. But they don’t.

Time to put your resignation in and look for another post or retrain in something different. I was a second career teacher (and may be again) and it always struck me how big the skill set of a good teacher compared to those in my first career, who were paid multiples of the salary.

Sounds to me that the school is understaffed.

I agree that someone should be able to retrieve data, and despite issues, no teacher should be allowed to delete plans made during employment as they belong to the school. But do you actually want his/her work?

I think you have hit a mental block too - if your pupil did this, you would be saying, you cannot do this YET. So.....

• Unless to feed back that you cannot be expected to deal with this situation, how will they know? It is not that YOU cannot cope, it is that ANYONE could not be expected to.
• Do this with a positive plan that does included no/reduced marking and/ or teaching
• See my comment above for some coping strategies for the upcoming mocks IF you agree to their going ahead. (I would actually guess that any student who was happy with their previous mock results, would be happy to skip a resit and be happy simply to look through the paper for ideas. )

• Could you take your angst to a teacher forum, simply saying you are new, with no predecessor data, and are shifting from AQA to Edexcel b and could anyone share their plans to help you out, please. This would be a positive spin with no complaint.?
• I found these: https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/Geography-B/2016/teaching-and-learning-materials/grtt-sessions-1-3.pdf

https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/Geography-B/2016/teaching-and-learning-materials/Edexcel_2016_GCSE_Geography_B_Topic_5_The_UK's_evolving_human_landscape_Scheme_of_Work.docx would it be acceptable to point your students here while you get on with marking? https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/examspecs/zsytxsg

While this has a number of links to guides, it does make for a good outline plan that you could give to you students and get them to tick off their level of confidence in each, and plan the next few months to fill gaps (it is probable that your predecessor has left holes):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/examspecs/zsytxsg
The physical environment
Weather hazards and climate change
Changing UK landscapes
Ecosystems, biodiversity and management
The human environment
Global development
Places and people in the UK
Resource management
Skills:
Geographical skills
Introduction to fieldwork skills - Edexcel
Cartographic skills - Edexcel
Graphical skills – Edexcel
Numerical and statistical skills - Edexcel
Qualitative and quantitative data - Edexcel

Vice principal op. PAL. Not principle. You are a teacher and many have corrected, it's hurting my head to see you keep writing it. It's the principle that a teacher should be able to spell a role in a school like Principal or Vice Principal.

I believe it's one reason many schools now have Head and Deputy Head.

Also Facebook groups for each exam board are excellent and full of lovely people and resource banks.

I know nothing about teaching contracts and how they work, except that every teacher I know works incredibly hard and is stressed. But, I'm curious to know if any teacher has ever raised the fact that they are working over the working time directive limit? I know averaging over 17 weeks usually means you've got a long "holiday" in there so it might not average to over 48 hours in the end.

Principal is an Americanism. They've only been a thing since MATs came on the seen (lord knows why). We've always had Heads (or Headmaster/Headmistress), and Deputy Heads in the UK.

Regardless it's never been principle. Because that is a different word.

I wonder if the previous HOD who "left on bad terms" had seen a long pattern of unreasonable demands from the school and wanted to get out as they knew it wouldn't improve? If that is the case then given the issue with the mocks it looks they were correct.

And another potential fed flag for me is that the only other person in the department is "an unqualified teacher from abroad as they couldn’t find anyone else". Well that makes we wonder why the school is in that position, and why they can't be more open to changes to actually attract and retain staff.

Leave.

@EnidSpyton Would love to know what subject you mark- because, despite being a very fast reader, I’m damned sure I couldn’t read a full GCSE biology paper and mark it properly in 5 minutes, given there are two or three extended responses in there- so any essay subjects will have it far worse.

Given the ridiculous meeting, intervention and open evening day this school is not going to support you. Take a few days off sick. They are taking the piss frankly. You should not be doing the meeting and intervention on the same night as the open evening. Someone needs to get the union in to talk to the head. The expectations are unreasonable.

I'd leave - resign now leave at Easter. Or negotiate to leave at summer with way adjustment to working ie give me some cover and a lighter load and I'll see this through and I will stay Summer. Maybe drop a day?

In your resignation state change of personal circumstances.

Depends how badly they need you to stay.

The school sounds SO badly organised and run, OP (only one colleague who is unqualified and this person can't mark, so you get the lot to do with no time allowance? What the hell's going on there? Does this mean you ARE the whole department?).

Those who are saying you need to really get tough are right - go for the jugular here and tell the Vice Principal you can't do it and will not be doing it. Be frank and tell him that what you are being asked is totally unreasonable and you will be making the complaint formal. Keep a record of everything you're doing this week and what meetings, open evenings, etc. you're attending - it sounds to me as though the Vice Principal is "being creative" (aka pulling a fast one) with the hours you are supposed to be working - don't let him get away with it. If you elect to stay put, I'd advise you to keep a timesheet, although it's a pain.

Get on to your union and insist they offer you support, write a complete account of what you are being asked to do, the amount of work and timescales, also make clear your commitments, open evenings, etc. and add up the hours you will actually be doing in just one week, in addition to normal teaching. Send it immediately to the governors - they need to know asap. Just don't do the work - they are treating you abominably, and if you refuse/walk out they'll be further in the shit than they are at present, unless they pay to get it done elsewhere. I agree with previous poster who said post on the MN education section for advice as well. And they wonder why teachers are leaving in droves.

The working time directive makes no odds. We have a clause in our contract about doing whatever if needed to get the job done.

It's clear that - no matter the suggestions - the school will do nothing to help the OP. I'm not a cut and run person in general but I really think that's what the OP should do now.

She's not letting the students down. The school is.

I cannot believe that the number of after school commitments they have this week. It should be just one of those in a week not all 3. Ridiculous planning by whoever wrote the calendar.

The only time the working time directive is like to apply is a late finish e.g. 9pm and being expected to be working before 8am.

You are such a shortage subject - you don’t need to put up with this nonsense!!!!

just leave!!! Find a decent school and get a job there.

this will not change and the deputy head will not change - so vote with your feet.

i wouldn’t even say your reference matters that much these days - you’ll be in such demand! Remember you are gold!!!

I don’t believe that to be correct, @MrsHamlet We still have directed time restrictions. Is the clause you’re referring to the one that says we can be directed as per the Headteacher’s needs? That’s true but it isn’t referring to hours worked.

I’m a secondary deputy and we give all of our staff a directed time calculation at the beginning of the year. This takes into consideration parents’ evenings, open evenings, CPD, meetings etc and arrives at a personalised calculation based on working pattern etc.

We only have meetings one day per week and then, if we have parents’ evening that week, we don’t have one of our ‘usual’ meetings. It means we’re keeping to the directed time allowance and no one is over their 1.265 hours. We’re a single academy trust.

And to second what @Smerpsmorp said: this is totally right. Mainly due to our fair working arrangements, we are never usually short of teachers who want to work here but I’ve got an English teacher off long term and I cannot cover them for love nor money. There seems to be practically no one around, except a few Maths teachers. I’m not even being offered PE teachers and there are usually a lot of them about!