Marking school work

[Floatyboat]

So apparently the teaching unions think marking should not take place due to "health and safety". Surely this is straying into the territory of unhelpful disruption rather than constructive engagement with the government's wish to help kids.

There are so many work arounds to do it safely. Wait 48hrs to mark, wear gloves, wash hands etc

Given they are arguing this I can't help but think the unions are simply being unreasonable and not actually taking a balanced view.

@ilovemymonkey

Are you actually arguing that not marking at all is the same as taking 48hours to mark work? Often work takes a while to come back. It just seems like you are impulsively defending a ridiculous position.

I'm not sure what you mean DBML, some schools are marking but quite a few aren't ... I can express an opinion, surely? As I've said, I'm not blaming individual teachers at all.

DBML

Some newspapers (mainly the Sun) are interpreting the 12 step checklist where it mentions physical resources as unions telling teachers not to mark.

I've not seen the original source. This is how the guardian report. Extended quote to give context

"The guidance, which is also for members of GMB, Unite and Unison working in schools, provides a comprehensive checklist, including advice on everything from lidded bins to sanitising library books. At one point it says: “It will not be safe to mark children’s books during this period. Will clear instruction be given that no marking should take place and the books should not be taken to and from home/school?”"

They are calling for "clear instruction be given that no marking should take place". That is utterly bizarre and only feeds into the Katie Hopkins work shy narrative and undermines their support from more balanced people.

@ahorsecalledseptember

Apologies, I’m not referring to yourself, I’m just venting frustration with threads that say ‘teachers are doing x’ or ‘ school staff refuse z’. I should have worded it better.

Are you actually arguing that not marking at all is the same as taking 48hours to mark work? Often work takes a while to come back. It just seems like you are impulsively defending a ridiculous position.

I am marking the work set online - I reply immediately to all emails.
Our head has told us that when the kids are back in school we are not to mark books so this is what we will do.

Yes in primary (I teach year 2) it would be pointless marking work 48 hours after it was done - it would have 0 impact.

Good lord how are teachers coping with shopping? Have their unions told them not to go as, well you know, those products are touched by zillions of people.
Guess you haven't read all that stuff about people washing their shopping packaging and quarantining Amazon deliveries until they are safe to open then brake?

This isn't union advice floaty : it is the government that is telling school not to use soft toys, to out unnecessary resources away, not to bring in a pencil case for home or reading books and not to share anything : handing in anything for marking, putting it in a pile, handling it, handing it back, is by any definition 'sharing'.

I get that you don't like the unions but this is public health.

Online marking and feedback online and in school live will be the only sensible option.

When the unions advised against marking they meant marking piles of books. they have issued no advice about feedback. As you are not a teacher, perhaps you don't understand the difference , or the research into 'no more marking' , which is very highly favoured by - oh!- the DfE!

@ilovemymonkey

But surely it lets you tell which kids can write and which can't and then can help accordingly.

Our school are NEA(?) and NAS (my union). Unison tends to be for support staff, who wouldn’t tend to be marking as much anyway.

Not takes books to and from homes seems like a sensible suggestion though. As for marking, as long as it’s being done digitally, why are books a problem? It’s unlikely they’ll be much done in books anyway, for the rest of the summer term at least?

Seems like just another opportunity to teacher bash for me.

They're discussing books
Not saying pupils shouldn't have any feedback.

Piggy - to be fair, a few schools near to me are providing no feedback at all for the work children have done, online or otherwise. So it is happening, and for all I support teachers, I do understand how that must be disheartening.

FGS floaty re your last post, that is the unions asking a question BASED ON DFE ADVICE AND GUIDANCE!

@Piggywaspushed

Guess you haven't read all that stuff about people washing their shopping packaging and quarantining Amazon deliveries until they are safe to open then brake?

I guess the hope is teachers are more rationale than the shopping washers.

Those are not teachers unions Floatyboat that you have listed. They are support staff unions and would have nothing to do with marking really.
Do read the original documents rather than news articles.
Hope this clears a few things up and I hope people read the full thread rather than just the opening post and thread title.

floaty they may well be. Plenty of teachers are vulnerable and shielded and are under strict instruction to take such precautions.

And lots of MNers wash their shopping.

Seems like just another opportunity to teacher bash for me.

@dbml

That's my point. The unions invite in on themselves. Is it because they want a fight and militant Union types enjoy the drama, sense of purpose? Or are they just that out of touch with the concerns of the real world they don't realise how they come across.

Anyone who has ever seen a year 6 book will know why this advice has been given. Even leaving aside the fact that they literally breathe over the book for an hour a time, they also constantly touch them, sneeze on them, fiddle with them, leave nose pickings in them....

Primary marking is next steps based and done at the time ready for next lesson. I cannot safely mark a book in the required time window so I won't. I am hoping to go over to mini whiteboards and verbal feedback in the lesson so I don't have to physically be in proximity and can see immediately if they have a misconception. That's if there is enough money to buy enough pens. The guidance is eminently sensible in that respect so please don't use a H&S suggestion to further demonize teachers. 65 of whom have already died with only 2% of the school pupils in.

Given that we have been told to clean the tables and toilets in our lunch break and after school, I won't have too much time left to mark anyway.

@Floatyboat

Well, it’s not the teaching unions that have asked this? And it is asking. For clarification on the governments own advice.

So it looks more like a story that’s been spun, to appear as though teachers are looking for an excuse to get out of marking and unions have no consideration for the children’s learning.

But as teachers are marking digitally and as the main teaching unions are not named, you’ll excuse me for thinking the story is bollocks.

@ChloeDecker

This is advice from NEU. Sorry thought they were a teaching union.

Still no response form you floaty that this in the government's advice.

If anything, it is the unions that are a bit incredulous about the feasibility of this.

Please read what I wrote upthread about the NEU and the 12 step guidance. I am trying to be helpful here.

We’ve just got our first child of the day turning up, so I’ve got to go.
Take care all.

But surely it lets you tell which kids can write and which can't and then can help accordingly.

But it's not just about writing as a whole.
Marking focuses on your learning objective for that lesson i.e. in English it might be using adjectives - if they haven't used any or completely misunderstood what an adjective is then leaving it until 2 days later when you've since spent a lesson on full stops and then the next lesson looks at using speech punctuation they would be completely confused if you suddenly turned around and said you know that lesson we did 3 days ago on adjectives well you clearly didn't get it. Same with maths, if you're looking at using quarters, then mark it 2 days later when you've since looked at 3 quarters and then the fact that 2 quarters is equivalent to a half but didn't understand what a quarter is then waiting 2 days to discover that is pointless.

It'll be far better to give verbal feedback throughout the lesson by looking at what the kids are doing (as best we can over their shoulder from a safe 2m distance).

Written marking is generally pointless anyway - most KS1 kids can't (or don't) read it and implement actions from it anyway - it should be completely scrapped in favour of instant verbal feedback - that's far more beneficial to kids and has a much bigger impact.

the concerns of the real world are rather larger than whether little Jonty gets his physical work in a book collected in.

Teaching is the real world by the way. I don't live in some little fairy dell somewhere and my children don't appear form some netherworld to be taught.

Have you got anything to say about the lidded bins? Is that OK?