Is it normal for teachers not to mark exercise books?

[Milomonster]

DS is at a prep. He has some learning support issues eg handwriting. I checked one of his exercise books which hasn’t been marked by his teacher for months. One of his homework tasks had mistakes and hadn’t been corrected. Is this normal practice?

Writing VF has no benefit to the child or help learning. It's just a way to evidence what you did. If a child is getting regular verbal feedback and improving then taking in a set of books to mark adds very little learning.

Trusting teachers are actually doing verbal feedback without evidencing it would be a step to far in trusting teachers to do their jobs Herc.

Mind you I work with a couple of work shy colleagues so sometimes I can see why.

The VF doesn't actually show the feedback was given...

Depends on the book. If its a Geography book or similar it might get marked less often than an English/Maths book.

Teachers might not highlight every mistake in a child's work: if there are lots of mistakes it would be demoralising and counter-productive because they can't improve on everything at once

One of the downsides of being in private I'm afraid. It can be a bit wild west compared to state. Little consistency across school, not informed by current approaches in education.

My dc were both at private primary and the marking was just all over the place. It just depended on the teacher - some were awesome and some didn't GAF. I remember sobbing after a parents evening in November after seeing my sons big writing book had been marked once that year. Meanwhile, my daughters books were thoroughly marked in pink and purple gel pens

Yep private can do what they like.. doesn't always mean better teaching...

F there are LOTS of mistakes we sometimes just correct a couple....otherwise it can be quite overwhelming for a younger child ....also not all written work is marked for spellings....ie it might have been a piece of unaided writing ....or a plan ..that was then written up neatly for a display ....or the focus was the content of the writing ...send form teacher a message jus asking or look up the marking policy.

In my dept we haven’t marked books since COVID. Before COVID we marked books once every 6 weeks. We don’t consider marking books to be a cost effective form of feedback. It would be quite possible to find exercise books from my students that I had never written anything in. Those students however would have received plenty of feedback - how the hell do you teach without assessment and feedback?

We weren't allowed to mark books due to covid. To minimise touching etc. Verbal feedback only given

We weren't allowed to mark books due to Covid either (state secondary).
We did, however, mark any work we set online, so the pupils got regular feedback (at least once a week). No record of that in their books though, so doesn't look great to parents. Hopefully we can get back to writing feedback in exercise books this September, I personally find it much easier!

It will be dependent on the marking policy. In my school the rule is there must be written feedback on one piece of work per half term. That can be online though (which is what I do), so I don't make books. I'll just check them periodically to make sure the students are doing what they're supposed to be doing. If they're not, I'll talk to them, so you won't see any teacher comments in my book. Written feedback isn't the entirety of feedback, there's lots of verbal feedback in lessons though, and of students writing down my feedback themselves.

Btw there is a fair bit of evidence to suggest that "old fashioned" marking of books isn't effective. Often the feedback is ignored by students and other means of feedback is a better use of teachers time. Ofsted has switched their focus because of this, at one point the perceived marking expectation was ridiculous and meant teachers didn't actually have time to do what was effective, so Ofsted expressly stated it wasn't necessary. If schools haven't adapted their policy in light of this, they'll lose staff to those who have because it has such a big impact on workload.

Also (sorry for the repeat posts!), if a school has a policy that teachers need to write VF in books whenever verbal feedback is given, their marking policy is shit and I'd question their motives for all of it. It has no educational value whatsoever, and schools should not be burdening teachers with onerous expectations for things which do not have educational value. I'd leave that school if I worked there (but then I have the luxury of working in a shortage subject so can!).

So 'marking' books is generally not that useful. It takes HOURS, but in fact kids barely look at it. Verbal feedback is much more effective or, even better, adjusting your lesson in response to student errors and giving whole class feedback.

Honestly, the main reason you mark is because parents want to see loads of random red pen in books even though it rarely actually achieves anything.

In a prep school I'd expect everything to be parent driven. While I think in the instances you're talking about (what would be the point in marking handwriting exercises?) there probably isn't much use to the student, you're the parent. You're paying. It should be marked to please you. I'd certainly expect to see evidence of something from the teacher in the book to show that they'd looked at it. Prep schools are not held to the same standards as state schools however.

If he's at a prep then he has the same teacher for all subjects? Do they mark his other exercise books?

Whole class feedback is where it's at now, with the new style trad teachers. Not individual written feedback. The school will almost certainly have an assessment and marking policy, which you could ask to see. Then you'll know what the school thinks should be happening, and whether you would expect to see marking in books if they are following the policy.

You're right Curious, in a fee paying school, parents should get what they want. But parents really need to question if what they're asking for is reasonable. Precisely because it does take hours, for no real benefit, onerous marking is universally hated amongst teachers. If the policy is too unreasonable, teachers will leave to work somewhere else. It depends what the overall working environment is like, well behaved kids and small class sizes go along way, and ridiculous marking expectations will be tolerated. But in some subjects in some areas there's a shortage of teachers for all types of school. I've no desire to work for people whose priority is evidence rather than education, so I wouldn't accept that. Do you really want to lose excellent educators for the sake of a lot of red pen in their books?

It may be that they have a separate book for more formal pieces which would be given detailed feedback.

I mark every book every week, BUT some other departments in my school don't. They have an exercise book that is used in class and for homework, which is purely for the pupil and gets verbal feedback when needed. Then they have a separate book for assessed pieces, which are done every few weeks, at least one per half term, and marked in detail with lots of feedback for improvement. Parents don't see that one, it stays in school until the end of the year.

Alot of feedback is given verbally now. It's more effective than written. That said, we still have to indicate there was verbal feedback using a written code.
If we give feedback though we'd expect the child to change or improve their work as a result.
I think the best thing would be to simply ask what the policy is for marking.

Our marking policy is detailed written feedback fortnightly and weekly for examination year groups.

Wtf?! Poster above marks every book every week??? That can’t be true. Not secondary surely because you would have maybe 120 books to mark every week

Our school policy changed last year. We do one written feedback in books with detailed annotations every half term and one whole class feedback. It works well. That’s at KS3. More at 4 and 5 because of all the exam essays.
Our Lead practitioner team presented lots of research about the benefits of WCF and how written feedback really isn’t that effective

Also after the WCF students have to put that into practice so they have to show they have made changes to their work/edited/redrafted etc.

It is not normal but might be Covid related - we had to quarantine books before & after marking. However I did still mark books.

Ours have been submitting work online.

She needs to reply to your email about marking work though. I’d except work to be marked, whether state or private.

That was me @Faffandahalf. I'm secondary maths, and yes I do have to mark every book every week. That's the expectation in my department. I have 6 classes of between 15-30 pupils in each class, and I mark 2 pieces of work for each pupil each week, unless that class have done a test when obviously I mark the test instead. Most of the classwork is marked by the pupils as I read the answers, but homework/tests are marked by me. It's a huge marking load!!! I hate it, but it's our department policy and I'm apparently the odd one out for wanting to do anything different.