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

Same. In English, it’s escalated up through different people if it can’t be read.

This!!! You should have a manageable workload.... You cannot actually do all this.make this very clear to head and suggest some solutions..Hope you are in a union...contact them. Good luck.its definitely not you !

If they have already done mocks for Papers 1&2, can you suggest final mock is just paper 3, so you have the full set?

And yes, say that you will be handing in your notice unless they reconsider your workload as it is utterly unsustainable.

@whiteshutters My bad. I wrote ex-English teachers instead of ex-Geog teachers.

it is normal for a HOD to be KS 4 heavy.

It’s time he learned then. Give him set of papers and ask to mark all the Q1-3, or the easier one word/ phrase answers.

It is not reasonable to dump extra marking on the other teacher.

Surely if there is a mark scheme anyone can mark them? I've marked GCSE papers in the past and just followed the sent mark scheme.

No easy answers OP except to suggest they do the mocks before Christmas so you can mark during your Christmas holidays (!!!).
I’m a bit surprised by some of the comments on here. In my school mocks in year 11 were the previous year’s exam papers in full- it’s intended to be a ‘mock’ version of the real thing and give an accurate mark for what the student has produced in the exam. So no possibilities to cut some of the tests out.
Students can learn from doing their own or peer marking but the mock exams tests would not be considered a suitable context for this. The marking would be too hard/complicated.
( Actually in some exams eg MFL A level the exam boards sometimes want you to use about half a dozen different mark schemes for different parts of the paper, which is ridiculously cumbersome and totally unnecessary)
Marking exams takes hours, I volunteered to mark a colleague’s MFL papers ( smallish group) because they had been off for an operation. Regretted it because it actually took me over 17 hours and that with limiting myself to 2 very brief comments/targets in addition to the mark.
Check out how they handle this in the English department.
‘By the way ‘Gained time’ used to be a perk for teachers with exam heavy timetables but does not really exist anymore. They have made changes so you don’t get this time, which used to be used for planning and preparation.

Hi everyone,

Quick update…vice principle will not accept anything but full papers for paper 1 and 2 and half of paper 3 as they haven’t covered all topics yet. I’ve only just spent weeks marking their mocks. We didn’t even have the Xmas holidays to mark because the deadline was 2 weeks before we broke up. I was going out of my mind! And now I have to do it again. He said there should be clear progression of skills from December to end of January.

I’m ill again and feeling very run down. Even though we have open evening and parents evening this week, we still have to all attend CPD. I’m not quite sure what to do with this job in the long term.

You need to allocate some of the marking to the other Geography teacher, regardless of whether he has taught GCSE.

I assume there is a mark scheme and they are a qualified teacher?!

You just need to moderate his marking after he has done a few scripts, far less burdensome than taking it on yourself.

And SLT have to accept this or spend some money on farming some scripts out to be marked externally.

I'd be very tempted to go off sick. What they are expecting of you is ridiculous. Then find another job or do supply. Look after yourself

Well this is why they have such problems recruiting good staff. That is such bad line management. They should listen to your concerns not just dismiss them out of hand. Honestly, I would hand in notice and go back to supply. Apply for full time work at a better run school.

Not dumping, training.

Please go back to your vice principal and ask when you will be released for the 180 x 15 minutes for marking. Copy in the head. This is ridiculous and we should not just shut up and put up with it.

Ultimately OP it sounds like you are the only person available to mark these papers, the school wants them marked… this is your bargaining tool…so they should be putting in steps to support you. you should demand this given the number of exam groups you teach. Perhaps talk to colleagues to get a feel for how widespread this expectation is.

it might make you unpopular with SLT but schools have been run off the goodwill of staff for decades and ultimately, if this is the culture of the school, is this school a long term solution for you? i would hazard a guess it’s probably not.

@Supermummy88 how many students? What syllabus?

This' jogged a memory. Some years ago......

I left a school after 20+ years after a severe shafting. I left at Christmas for pastures new.

I was replaced by numerous supply staff.

Mocks were easy to set - the last year's GCSE paper. When it came to making it they had problems. I wasn't there.

In a meeting the HOD wondered if I could be asked to do mark them. A former colleague said it wasn't a good idea and that I'd probably give a two word answer, second word OFF.

He was right, I would have said that. Not sure who marked them.

Assuming you teach each class for 2 hours a week, that gives you 18 hours classroom time. Add on another 5 hours for form time/registration that gives 23 hours. If you can get ahead with your lesson plans, and drop all extraneous activities such as meetings and clubs for a week, working 40 hours you would have 17 hours a week to mark 180 papers. Say you have 2 weeks - that's 10 minutes per paper, or 30s per page.

That feels like a boring slog to me, but possible.

It's not training, though, is it? Training is a few. EXPECTING someone to take additional work on top if their actual work is not reasonable.

Just like this situation is not reasonable.

@MrsHamlet ,

It is normal for departments to share the workload. Part of a HoD’s job is to allocate work fairly.

I have often offered to mark extra scripts when I have had far fewer.

And, learning to mark GCSE papers is training.

You then however have to do moderation to ensure that you are both on the same page. It adds to the workload.

Ok, so he wants 2 and a half papers. Fine.

How does he suggest these are marked? Did you ask him? 10-15 mins per paper x 180. Sit down with him, with your timetable and a list of meetings after school that you already have scheduled in and ask him to help you come up with a plan to find 40 hours for you to do this marking and the data input before the deadline.

I would be worried if each paper was being marked in five minutes. There is no way surely you can properly read all the answers and give an accurate mark, however efficient you are.

maybe this attitude is what led to the fiasco last year, where many students were getting their papers remarked, and the grade changed.

As an aside, why on earth have two mocks. My kids did just fine with one set of mocks after Christmas.

This is ridiculous. You are the geography department. What on earth would they do if you were off sick for a week. There would be no high-level geography being taught at all in the school. A School, depending on one person to teach a key subject is just insane. It is unsustainable and you need to leave.