To wonder if other people’s kids don’t have their homework marked either?

[MumblesParty]

Posted this in Chat but no replies, so I’m trying AIBU.

DS is in year 11. Good state comprehensive - motivated head teacher, school is generally well run, good range of subjects, teachers always seem involved and enthusiastic at parents evenings.

DS is a good student - not a star but predicted mostly 6s for GCSEs. He always hands in his homework on time, but I’ve noticed that less than 20% of his homework is ever actually marked. He just shrugs when I ask him about it, and says “no teachers ever mark homework”.

Is this normal? My homework was certainly marked back in the 80s. And I used to have friends who were teachers who seemed to spend a fair amount of time marking. But that was 20 years ago, so maybe it’s changed. Is there generally an expectation that homework isn’t marked any more?

I’d be interested in hearing from other parents and also teachers.

Depends what it is.

"Marking" is not actually that effective at moving learning on.

I rarely mark sixth form homework - it's consolidation work for them, or pre-reading. If they write an essay, that's always marked.

Exactly the same experience as you OP, unfortunately. I have two DC in secondary school, years 13 and 11 (so, crucial years).

I don't understand it, you'd think that it would hugely benefit pupils to get feedback on how they've done. It's not very motivating, when work is rarely marked.

DC1 is a straight A student. DC2 does well academically but could certainly do with guidance and feedback in the form of marked work to help her know how she's doing. It seems so odd, to me.

Secondary teacher here. Depends on the task. If it's an exam style question or essay then yes. If it's make notes or comprehension questions we're more likely to look at it in class. At that level, as a pp said, it's more about directing them to revisit or consolidate the material, rather than giving them detailed feedback like "use full sentences".

@MrsHamlet I agree, some homework clearly doesn’t need marking. “Re-read your notes on Henry VIII and create some revision aids about his reign” obviously doesn’t need marking.
But “answer questions 1-10 on this GCSE physics paper” surely does.

Most secondary schools have a policy on marking.

At my most recent school, the policy for year 11 and below was that one piece of work per two weeks would have marking from a teacher.

I taught maths. We would normally go through the answers in the lessons and students would either mark their own or swop books and mark each others.

For maths, and for a lot of other subjects, homework is now set on websites that mark it for you, this helps because they can often give hints or show you a video if you've got it wrong so it's fixed immediately.

For subjects like maths, science, or mfl this means the teacher can concentrate on marking the longer answer type questions and not spend time marking very simple 1 mark type questions.

DS had English homework over half term, to write one of the “high marker” (can’t recall how many marks) essay-type answers. He did it, but tells me there are no plans for anyone to hand the work in. I actually emailed the teacher to ask for some guidance, and she said yes sure, she’d have a look at it. I just found it surprising that the whole class could have written a load of crap and she won’t know, unless they specifically ask for it to be marked.

I was a maths teacher and it can be incredibly difficult to mark all homework in Year 11 and 6th form and often taking it away and taking a week maybe to mark 30 exam papers for example, is less effective than giving them the mark scheme themselves or targeting key questions as a whole class. If they are getting regular feedback from say class tests or some of the more important homework tasks, that should be fine. Of course the teacher may not be putting the effort in where needed, there are lazier ones out there. But usually it’s am impossible balance between planning and marking and a lot of marking has been proven to be ineffective, so I would choose teaching better lessons the majority of the time!

Depends. Some schools would go through the physics in the lesson together rather than the teacher mark 10x35 questions.

If you have concerns, you should follow it up with the school. It's not an unreasonable question to ask.

Well, as an English teacher, that's absolutely shit. I'd be embarrassed if I were that teacher.

I’m not impressed to be honest. And I’ll be even less impressed if she never actually returns it now that DS has handed it in.

On the plus side, I know it's not me we're talking about :)

You've got to put it into context.

1 book - 10 minutes (wishful thinking, more like 20 minimum). Times 30 in the class. At least 3 hours work.

That teacher will have minimum of 5 classes. So you're looking at 15 hours a week of marking. Teachers get 1 or 2 hours a week of planning and prep time.

Lesson preparation HAS to come first, because no planning, no lessons OR chaotic lessons.

Yes, we all want their work to be marked. Can teachers manage all that workload? Of course not.

This is my experience OP.

DD1 - state superselective grammar. They had learned their lessons about giving too much homework and putting too much pressure on pupils in the past. Homework was a reasonable amount and there was always at least three days to complete it. It was written in homework diaries and completed in exercise books which were handed in and marked by teachers.

DD2 - state comprehensive academy, 4 school years later. I as a parent had to download various apps for communication and homework. DD2 had about six different apps for different subjects and types of homework. Some things had to be printed out, some completed on screen. Some homework was still to be done in workbooks or stuck into books. There were no homework diaries or timetables, everyone was expected to have a smart phone and a computer of their own and printer at home. Yet they would be given detention for looking at phones in the corridor to see what lessons were next. Half the apps were confusing or did not work properly, or DD2 would forget the login details. There was homework every night, absolutely loads, from Y7 which took loads of my time not just DDs faffing about with IT issues on her very good home PC and trying to work out how to practically do/submit the homework in the first place. If you missed one night because of after school activities it really built up. Then DD2 would do things like leave a workbook in her locker for the one subject where it had to be submitted that way and she couldn't therefore do it. I would get constant pings about homework to my parent account on my phone during my working day. It was ridiculous. And then she would spend half a weekend doing all this and it isn't even marked or any feedback given. Very quickly she saw there was no point, other than to avoid detention.

Which system do you think is best? One that encourages kids onto screens, smartphones and tech constantly and to be stuck in bedrooms, which is a constant source of distraction, danger and bullying? One that overloads kids and parents with shitty apps that don't work and assumes that everyone is comfortable with tech and has the right devices to be able to access them properly? Or has parents who have vast amounts of time and energy to help?

-Give them a paper homework diary where the timetable is printed and stuck in or handwritten

-All homework to be completed in exercise books

-Set less homework and give at least three days to complete it

-Mark all homework

-Better still, get all work done at school, do fewer subjects and give them free periods in school to get independent work done and leave home for home.

Our students mark their homework in class, I mark assessments. A far better use of my time and better for students, too. They pay far more attention when self -marking.