Why does the NEU say that teachers should not be expected to mark work during the pandemic?

[Thenagainmaybenot]

The national education union says that:
'Worksheets and textbook pages for maths and English can work if they are already used in school and all children have them at home. However, teachers cannot be expected to mark work. Schools should not be setting SATs tests or mocks at this time.'

Why shouldn't teachers be expected to mark work? Fair enough they shouldn't be marking as much as they do normally, but (say) 1-2 maths and english tasks per week to be marked is surely reasonable?

The union guidance was written for teachers not parents so was in educational language.
It was also as pointed out written A few months ago and the advice has since evolved as the situation has evolved. However I know it suits to say ‘the unions are terrible’ . I feel that people forget what the job of a teaching union is.
Should feedback be given in some form yes, does it have to include ‘marking’ to be effective.No. It didn’t need to say that because teachers are trained to understand the difference.

If schools are not doing that it is a school based issues as based on their policies so take it up with leadership at that particular school and they should be able to explain their reasoning .

What comes out of this thread, and so many others, is the basic lack of understanding of what a trade unions is for.

Civics 101.

Or just educate yourself about something that people fought and died for.

Horse. Water.

Lots of primary schools don't mark all work now, even before Covid-19.

We know from our professional experience and research also proves that marking after a lesson is almost completely ineffective for improving progress and learning in primary children, especially if they are very young. Live feedback is much more effective.

We asked parents to email us any work they wanted a teacher to look at and most of them didn't.

• What comes out of this thread, and so many others, is the basic lack of understanding of what a trade unions is for.

^^ This. Trade Unions are about protecting workers.
If this was March guidelines rather than May or June then you are being very unreasonable. Don't you remember what March was like? No childcare if you have nursery/pre-school kids, teachers unable to come to school for health reasons? I understand why a union would have advised teachers in March not to kill themselves over trying to maintain pre-Covid standards.

The enormous differences between schools is a serious issue now but in March it was hard to envision some kids not going back until September.

I think that the teachers are damned if they do and damned if they don't. You say that you'd be happy to test your child on spellings and submit their test but a lot of parents wouldn't like that at all. They are struggling with the current amount set and want work that the kids can ideally do without adult input as they are WFH. In the case of spellings you can get lists of words for each year if you want to work on it from
home.

The government really should have stepped in earlier and suggested an amount of work that each year group should be doing a day so that there was more consistency. For every family wanting more work, I suspect that there will be more who have totally ignored or been drowning in work so they are left further behind than the first group.

In the case of primary I suspect it's hard to mark work done at home because unlike work done in school, some pushy parents will have made the child correct mistakes so their work is perfect or told them the answers to get it done with. I suspect there's more fact to face feedback than us parents realise.

I mark all the work I receive! Very happy to. Last week it was down to one submission, though. According to our parent survey, it's unreasonable to expect parents to email in work done once a week. Maybe they're all in the union.

I'm providing instant feedback in class. That's now considered best practice for YR and Y1, because, y'know, they can't read what you write. Regardless of whether there's a pandemic or not.

Unnecessary touching of paper is what the unions suggest should be avoided. Like paying with cash.

So here's a

the government suspended the curriculum- that’s still the case

Is there a DfE link to support this? I haven't seen it in any of the documentation of theirs that I've read.

in March it was hard to envision some kids not going back until September.

In March, it was reported that the government stated that if schools closed, it would be for between 13-16 weeks so they have been envisioning a September return from the start.

Is there a DfE link to support this? I haven't seen it in any of the documentation of theirs that I've read

No, I made it up. FfS.

To be fair to you, there are so many updates and guidance changes it’s probably tricky to find. But honestly - why would I make it up and how else would it work, given that schools aren’t running in any way normally?

Haven’t got time to trawl but if you can find the initial govt guidance it’ll be there. Union websites may have links.

Op, I am a teacher.

I’ve marked every bit of digital work, sent to me by pupils.

I have not marked a single physical piece of work. (Obviously)

Very much like every other teacher I know.

It’s just that I see it repeated on numerous MN threads but no one can provide a DfE source for it, only the NEU stating that it’s the case. It’s not in the initial government guidance and a number of the updates explicitly talk about the curriculum and how best to adapt and deliver it via remote learning (for example 5/5/2020 - “Adapting the curriculum for remote education”).

I haven't RTFT but I should think that they are trying to protect those teachers whose workload has increased exponentially.

I realise that it won't apply to every teacher, but many teachers have seen their workload increase dramatically, and I suspect that removing the obligation for thorough marking is one way that the NEU has supported them.

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross

It’s just that I see it repeated on numerous MN threads but no one can provide a DfE source for it, only the NEU stating that it’s the case. It’s not in the initial government guidance and a number of the updates explicitly talk about the curriculum and how best to adapt and deliver it via remote learning (for example 5/5/2020 - “Adapting the curriculum for remote education”).

It was announced in press briefing by Gavin Williamson. All these links mention or quote what he said. Likewise so many different sources ranging from unions/press/universities would not be able inaccurately quote or publish the same misinformation so accuracy. Which leads to it being almost definativily more possible that he did indeed say what everyone keeps mentioning on threads...

www.google.com/amp/s/www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-open-schools-wont-be-educational%3famp

www.naht.org.uk/news-and-opinion/news/coronavirus-school-closures-and-the-governments-expectations-for-schools/

www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/news/news-articles/2020/04/expert-blog-how-covid-19-has-transformed-education,-overnight

www.google.com/amp/s/www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/school-closures-exams-free-meals-3964303.amp

Previous link didnt work

www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/news/news-articles/2020/04/expert-blog-how-covid-19-has-transformed-education,-overnight

I totally agree with you OP, there is absolutely no reason why teachers could not have used a bit of initiative and worked out ways of getting kids to submit work to be looked at (quite frankly I don’t care whether the terminology is marking or feedback)
Believe it or not the whole of the commercial world has continued to operate throughout this despite all their staff being forced to work remotely at absolutely no notice at all. We have adapted our processes and changed very quickly to a world of paperless working and virtual meetings all day. We’ve had to raise money from investors, negotiate new agreements with banks, manage the furloughing of lots of employees etc to keep businesses afloat whilst juggling home schooling. Whilst some jobsworths on this thread say that they can’t possibly mark work unless it’s physically on paper in front of them and they have the right colour pens??

there is absolutely no reason why teachers could not have used a bit of initiative and worked out ways of getting kids to submit work to be looked at

Many of us have. What sort of success rate do you think we have in getting kids to return work?

Whilst some jobsworths on this thread say that they can’t possibly mark work unless it’s physically on paper in front of them

O do fuck off. Where are these teachers who have said this?

and they have the right colour pens??

Teachers in many schools are obliged to use the "right" coloured pens.

It does make a mockery of the amount of work teachers were expected to do before lockdown. Teachers were working hours and hours because they were told, by ofsted or headteachers, that'll work had to be marked and that marking was crucial and that kids dont make progress without marking. Suddenly its not important anymore. What a waste of everyone's time then.

Well done @ceeveebee! I suspect that working in the commercial world is VERY similar to teaching. I mean we’ve definitely all been provided with the tech needed for us and our clients (students) to work remotely... oh hold on a minute 🙄🤦‍♀️

Shame you’re not able to read the information that has been provided in the thread by numerous posters. Answering the specific question in the OP about the NEU guidance. Hopefully you manage to digest information better in your amazing commercial work world and this is just a minor embarrassing slip.

I don’t think I’m the one that should be embarrassed. Seriously, the right colour pens??
And given that all schools were given access to ms teams and google classrooms, and everyone has email accounts, and there are many other free ways to send information electronically, there is no excuse

I guess the question is - what do you mean by marking? I am giving feedback to work sent but parents may not think I am marking it as it doesn’t confirm to traditional ticks. I am however commenting on what is done well and any mistakes. Then using this to inform any future planning. I am however getting very little work sent to me.

free ways to send information electronically, there is no excuse

This assumes the student has an Internet connection and a device that is able to send pictures/text. Many of our students don't have this.

I have provided feedback to students where appropriate. Not every lesson needs marking. I wouldn't mark everything in school either. They can self mark using answers given.

I usually print out the work from emails or classroom then mark it and scan it in as a PDF and send it back. It is just the way I have decided to mark. I can't be doing with trying to mark online.i so think it is a personal touch that is missing as we work from home.

I think the lack of marking or feedback has been the biggest failure in home schooling for us, since I don’t know what he is supposed to be doing then I cannot tell if he is doing it right which means all of there random “ideas” for home learning are useless really..I mean I get him to write a newspaper article but it’s not submitted to anyone I can say it wouldn’t really belong in the times or the guardian but then he is nine so it isn’t supposed to be that good right? But how good is it supposed to be for that age group? What should I look to concentrate on to make it better?

..and yes I know that is now called “being a parent” the constant get out clause for the reason teachers do not need to teach in a pandemic but actually my lack of knowledge of how to teach with no feedback from anyone with a teaching qualification makes most home learning next to useless. It also means that an average kid from a non disadvantaged background has fallen behind The catch up plan will need to go well beyond just the vulnerable.

@ceeveebee

I don’t think I’m the one that should be embarrassed. Seriously, the right colour pens?? And given that all schools were given access to ms teams and google classrooms, and everyone has email accounts, and there are many other free ways to send information electronically, there is no excuse

The OP’s question wasn’t about ‘sending information’. Many of our staff don’t have laptops, certainly not school provided ones. Far more of our students don’t have appropriate technology or internet access. Hence One of the very many, frankly obvious, reasons why you cannot compare it to the commercial world. Which is why your post was a little bit ridiculous.

The question was about marking. The responses clearly explain that whilst we can’t physically mark bits of paper, and why this wouldn’t work, they have, repeatedly, explained that we’ve been giving plenty of feedback in many cases.

I’m not sure what you’re reading but it certainly isn’t this thread if you think we’ve all come on and said we’re not marking because of coloured pens.

I was just surprised that for someone that is clearly so amazing at working during lockdown in the commercial world you were unable to understand the responses so far.