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

Yeh that number of classes is really standard. In my last year of teaching, I taught 1 yr 11, 1 yr 10, 2 yr 9, 4 yr 8 and 3 yr 7 - about 23 hours out of a 25-hour week.

And yes, planning, marking, prep, pastoral - has to be done outside 8.30-3.30. I wonder how many parents don't realise this then? You have to do it, if you don't (eg marking) you get into trouble - but there is no time in your working day to do it.

I used to put mine in childcare in the holidays to catch up on marking.

I will speak directly to the vice principle and see what he says. I’ve heard he’s quite stubborn and likes things his own way. Let’s see. Also, this week we have CPD on Tuesday, 6th form open evening on Wednesday and then parents even on Thursday. I’m really starting to think this is not normal! Who on earth would set up a week like this!

That really doesn't seem normal. Is this one of the very large and well known academy chains, by any chance?

Gosh I thought my school was intense, but yours is nuts. You're making me feel like my job is a holiday!

So many ridiculous suggestions here I don't know where to begin - get other ex English teachers to mark? You do know it is a different subject! Get other students to mark In Spanish - it's not a right or a wrong answer! As for the suggestions that you stop teaching classes - yes the SMT would really love that and let's not forget about the parents.

Sorry OP but your school sounds shit and toxic and can’t even organise the school planner to not have such a chockablock week in the marking intense period (but this shouldn’t happen on a normal week either). I’d be using your next spare time post marking to find a new school. In the meantime, speak to your line manager with facts about how long it’s gonna take and the little time you have to do it. Beats me when schools do a load of stuff taking away from teachers’ time to plan and time to recharge their batteries which actually makes them better in the classroom.

@Supermummy88 Desperate times, desperate measures - if this is what your HoD wants. Get the students to mark their own papers - you guide them through each question - make it as much of a learning exercise about understanding the way exam mark schemes work and what the expectations are in the quality/content/clarity of their answers etc - basically you use up lesson time.

Another way to tackle it is to present the problem you think you face to your immediate line manager - pass the problem up the chain of command that's what managers do - they make decisions to solve problems - that's what they get paid so much more than you to do. IME people working in education who have not had a few years experience working in other organisations/businesses/industries, etc don't seem to understand, know, agree that - you can stand up for yourself as an employee - I worked for years in many any different engineering roles/companies - you see management very differently - I worked in education - taught full-time many schools/many levels - IME the actual quality of anyone in a managerial role in a school was very poor - many would struggle in any other management role outside education.

They're not allowed to mark their own mock exams.

Just to reassure you this is unreasonable and not my experience of working in a secondary school at all. They will not want you to leave, so be firm with the senior teaam about current expectations…. and then look for another job from September.

This isn’t your problem to solve and you should not be calling in favours from other teachers, professional services staff, or plucky A level students. This is a workload and resource issue and needs to be handled by your manager. Go to them and tell them that the workload is too high and is not achievable, and that you need additional support. Let them sort it out.

In the school I work in (large state secondary) you would definitely be given time off timetable for this workload. Your lessons would be covered by the cover team.

This makes for interesting reading. I am responsible for all the GCSE and A Level for my subject and will have over 120 GCSE papers to mark too. We also have 2 meetings this week. I am part time.
However, I will get some gained time when they are taking the exams, and obviously when they leave.

Speaking as a fellow teacher, I think you were quite naive to go back to work full time with 2 small children, taking on a Head of Dept. role & expecting to be able to do all that entails plus have enough of you left to give to your family.

That's just the job, unfortunately. You need to speak to your SLT & let them know how you're feeling.

Tell your line manager that you will either be setting then a reduced paper - ensuring that the papers will be much quicker to mark (smaller questions, only one or two extended questions) or you will require up to two days off timetable to mark that amount.

as head of geography, you should just be setting them what is manageable to mark. It was a mistake to give them a mock that was so like the real paper.

dont set them a full paper!!!!!!

They've already done papers 1 and 2 as year 10 exams, yes. So why not say that they only do paper 3 this time?

How big is the school?

There are only 2 geography teachers?

Who marked the papers before?

Does every head of subjects have to do this?

There will be no one going into teaching in a couple of years.

Don’t mark the unreadable, redline through it. A lesson to be learnt as unreadable work won’t be marked when its for real inte summer.

This isn't true.

My school is a bit like this, @Supermummy88 and im a HOD with little say over what gets done in mocks too. Loads to mark and then loads on after school in the same week as well!

I would do what @Cherryana says and either stick on a dvd/textbook work and if that's not possible, set cover and take a sick day to do it (which I know is a ridiculous way of having to keep on top of workload!)

Definitely let your line manager know, though! With how many hours it adds up to and everything. Sometimes I think slt are just really blind to the actual time it takes to mark extended questions subjects!

Things that will speed you up:

• only mark one question at a time - the mark scheme gets in your head and it's much faster
• minimal annotation - words from the mark scheme/symbols/whatever the mark scheme dictates but nothing else
• set yourself manageable targets - say 50 of a question then a ten minute break

BUT:

This is clearly insanity. They don't need to do all three papers, and you don't have time to mark them all and keep up with the rest of your workload.

Your school sounds toxic and I would highly recommend getting far far away.

This isn't true.

Completely true for my subject and exam board (I am an examiner)!

*Speaking as a fellow teacher, I think you were quite naive to go back to work full time with 2 small children, taking on a Head of Dept. role & expecting to be able to do all that entails plus have enough of you left to give to your family.

That's just the job, unfortunately. You need to speak to your SLT & let them know how you're feeling.*

No no no no no. That's a terrible attitude. I have 2 very young children, am full time HoD of a large department, and it is (mostly) fine (mocks marking excepted!). I love my job. The issue is NOT with the OP; it is with her school. Do not try to blame the OP's 'naivety' when the school clearly has insane workload.

180 papers at 40 minutes each is 120 hours of work- 15 eight hour days (or you’d have to do 13.3 hours a day over the 9 half term days to get them done). Clearly that is just impossible. Even splitting it with another person would still leave each a crazy work load. Sorry that’s not helpful but I feel for you, and no wonder teachers are leaving the profession. It’s one thing putting a few extra hours in- this is not that.

And completely untrue for mine.