Do teachers not mark books anymore?

[Heckythump1]

DD just finishing Y2, brought home all her books yesterday (including some Y1 books that were kept for moderation) not a single thing has been marked? No spellings have been corrected? There's the odd tick here and there, mainly in the maths books.

Is that normal? Her spelling is awful, which I suspect isn't helped by never being told she's spelling the same words incorrectly over and over again!

She will have been told, verbally. That's the most effective way to tell someone/teach someone. (Caveat: there's a chance she hasn't been, but if she was in my class, she would have been, but you'd have seen no marking in her book).

Some schools have marking policies with no written marking, focusing on verbal feedback, which is more effective and a much better use of time.

Some schools have marking policies with written marking, which evidence has shown is one of the least effective uses of teacher time.

Ask her teacher what their marking policy is and how your daughter is given feedback. If she's spelling some words wrong repeatedly, maybe she could practice the correct spelling of these over the summer. It's good you've got her books and noticed.

I'd have been stuffed with that type of learning. I need to see things written down (or have chance to write them down), in order to learn or remember. Can't take in spoken info at all. Fortunately none of my teachers either as an adult or a child has taught in this way.

One of my teen's A level teachers does teach this way, and discourages note taking. Sends my DD's anxiety through the roof.

I don't think many 6 year old would read the actual marks anyway. My daughters was pretty much the same. Spelling atrocious but that's normal at that age. There are certain worlds they want spelt correctly but they are not bothered about the rest.

My 11 year olds books are the same. Brought them home yesterday from year 6. Not one comment just the odd tick. Thought a well done might have been nice on the pages he has tried really hard on

As previous repulsed said, most feedback will be oral rather than written marking. The school will have a marking policy, which you could ask to see.

*replies not repulsed!

She's getting basic words wrong repeatedly, definitely going to be doing some spelling practice over the summer!

Just a well done or excellent work would be nice, so I know if her work is on the right track or not!

Wow. I'm a primary teacher and I mark! It would be 100% unacceptable not to in my place of work. I cannot imagine a situation where we would send home unmarked jotters. We are expected to comment constructively as well. I agree at age 6 comments will be read less so clear marking is a must.

'But' clear marking is a must, not 'so', apologies

I don't understand how a teacher can possibly give 30 children verbal feedback for each piece of work in each lesson?!
Surely that means some children's work doesn't get looked at properly/at all and errors/issues get missed?

We do a mixture of oral and written feedback at my school, even if the marking is just ticking the lesson objective for afternoon lessons. But in English books it's always words and letters to practice, in maths it'll be a couple of extra questions to try next lesson. Usually ticks are from live marking, walking round checking work.

I've never written well done, or good job. I do complement the work when talking to the children though.

The issue I’d have with being told verbally, is that my 5 year old probably wouldn’t relay the info to me - so how am I supposed to help at home, which they are always saying is so important? She might take it in, might not, but at that age I would like to, as a parent, see the comments 🤷‍♀️

Exactly this!

We certainly mark every piece of work in my school. The amount and depth will vary between year groups and subjects.

In English, we only have to "deep mark" once a week. Other days, it might be just a tick and a few spellings to practice.

In maths, children mark their own work in KS2 when we go through the answers so some books will just have a tick for most pieces of work to show that the teacher has checked the book.
Some will show that the teacher has supported the child eg by scaffolding work that they were struggling with.

We are expected to write "vf" when we give verbal feedback. Sometimes we write a question or comment that summarises the feedback.

For foundation subjects, I often just tick (or correct). Sometimes, children have a feed forward or challenge to complete at the beginning of the following lesson.

I sometimes do "well done" kind of comments but they are more specific than that.

All of the above is standard for my school.

I think the idea is that they give verbal feedback to a highlighted group each day, so feedback to each child once a week.

Then

They look over books and give group feedback that informs planning.

EG lots of people spelt because and said wrong so that becomes a spelling target.

People aren't using question marks correctly so a SPAG lesson is taught on this and so on.

It's imperfect for sure but then so is the traditional way of marking books which often superficial and ignored by students unless they're supported to respond to it.

As other posters have suggested, please ask at your school. This may highlight a weakness in the teaching but equally you may just need an explanation of how she's being helped.

No teacher has time to do work for the benefit of the parents. If your child is given feedback in class, it is for the benefit of your child. At home, you should do the stuff schools always stress: reading daily, letting dc 'buy' things with cash, count and add and subtract, do times tables practice.

That said, I mark the books in line with our school's marking policy. So I always mark the children's writing and next-step spellings or grammar or misconceptions. I mark maths.

I would query totally unmarked books. Is that in line with policy?

We often get books hoke with an stamp saying verbal feed back given. No actual marking. I assume having the stamp relies on the teacher buying it and having spare ink etc

No, teachers don't seem to mark books as much as they used to. Please bear in mind they only get 13 weeks holiday a year, and spend a good portion of the time they are meant to be at work having coffee mornings inset days or going on strike as they don't get paid enough. They don't have time to mark books.

All of my 30 Year 2 children get useful verbal feedback in every lesson. My TA and I spend time with each child, discussing their work and giving them feedback. It's only 15 each and works well. We do it as all the children are completing tasks. If there's children struggling I bring the others onto the carpet for a plenary and the TA spends more time with them. Instant intervention is most effective. This is so much more positive and useful for children than me writing 'well done' in their book. I have a 'verbal feedback' stamp that I use in books.

What bollocks.

I know it is really @Sherrystrull ...

But we have just finished a school year in which ordinary people have been very inconvenienced by teacher strikes. I don't disagree that more could be done to reduce red tape etc. for teachers, but the strikes affect ordinary people far more than the likes of the government ministers who actually have the power to do anything. I doubt Gillian Keegan (if she has school age kids? I've no idea) was especially impacted. Meanwhile me and DP kept having to take time off work, and as DP is self employed it means we lost money too. I was just venting, sorry.

I understand they're disruptive. Please know that teachers hate to strike but the current situation in schools cannot go on. There is no money, no support for children with SEND and buildings are falling apart.

Unfortunately there is even less now. The pay rises had to come out of budgets. As a result all our temporary TA's have been paid off despite record numbers of need coming up with the next primary 1 intake and no dc that currently have 1:1 help that can realistically manage without it. Conditions for teachers and provision for these dc is about to get far worse

During each day, children will usually do a lesson in grammar, writing, maths and then at least one other. Even if a teacher just spent 2 minutes per child marking the books, that would be 240 minutes of marking every night.

Came to say this.

You can’t mark everything, and it’s not about that, it’s about recognising who needs more help, and who needs more challenge. So, a lot of the practice work done in books, will be followed by group work/class assessment/plenary where the teacher will ascertain as a class who ‘gets it’ and who needs to attend an intervention with her 1:1. This isn’t going to appear in books.

Also, writing a comment which doesn’t further learning such as ‘well done’ in 6 books (Eng, spelling, reading, maths, sci, his/geo), for 30 kids, might be nice, but unfortunately, teachers just don’t have the time. In my school, it is explicitly written in the behavioural policy that teaches must not make such comments, as the biggest issue for head teachers is reducing their staff workload to prevent teachers leaving the profession.

And another thing to bear in mind, when marking a piece of writing, there will only be certain things the teacher is looking for (success criteria, usually written at the top of the page on a label). For instance, in one piece of work, the children might be demonstrating the correct use of speech marks, ‘tion’ suffix and paragraphs (plus all previous learning). So, it may appear that the teacher is ignoring certain mistakes, but that’s because they haven’t been taught yet.

OP, it’s wonderful how engaged you are! Keep talking to the teacher, your LO will reap the benefits of your involvement 😊