Marking - lack of

[onceamai]

Have checked through dd's school books during the last week or two. Have noticed that the following subjects have not been marked since March: Science, RE, Spanish, Geography, Design & Technology. DD says I mustn't complain about this because the teachers have been busy getting the Y11's ready for GCSE's. I think it's disgraceful and that if the children spend time doing homework then teachers should have a) the courtesy to mark it and b) ensure that misunderstanding is not becoming embedded.

I think that is shocking.
The boys' exercise books are marked at least every 2 weeks. There are some really busy times of the year, but it's a long time since March, even with Easter and the other bank holidays.

Has she been handing her books in? I mark books every week, if I set homework I mark it. GCSEs or not.

They haven't been taking the books in to be marked.

You need to pass on your concerns to their head of year or equivalent, this seems to be a school issuse. My books are marked every fortnight, I try and do every week.

I tend not to mark books that frequently TBH, especially KS3. However we do regular assessments on paper that are closely marked and then kept in folders at school. Could this be the case at your daughter's school?

Have one KS3 group this year (mostly GCSE and A level groups)and I last marked their books thoroughly before Easter - just did them again last week. Remember that teachers might well be looking over work, giving verbal feedback etc on a lesson-by-lesson basis - I know this is how I work. You have reminded me to initial their books when I do this though, to keep parents informed.

I agree that if h/wk is regularly set, then books ought to be regularly seen. (Ahem - don't set a lot of h/wk at KS3 either - except that students are aware that I expect them to do at least an hour's reading a week (English teacher)).

I mark every week, but there may be some situations where it appears that I have not marked.

1. the work hasn't been done and/or handed in. The dog might have eaten the memory stick.

2. the work was gone over as a whole class, and consequently self or peer marked.

3. the work was clearly not done by the student, eg copied, downloaded or done by a parent.

And then sometimes I fall short of perfection, usually with a good excuse.

I am a teacher and can say that amount of marking done does vary over the year for individual classes - there are times when some books don't get done as much as I would like, not through laziness but through sheer volume of work done (especially at this time of year for exam classes - which you will benefit from when your dd is older), but I have to say in terms of judging their understanding homework rarely helps as much as a lesson; it is much easier to tell if a child understands things in class. Homework is often a) rushed b) copied or c) completed whilst watching tv/msn. Also peer and self-assessment is much more useful as a learning tool than teacher-marked work, as all the latest evidence suggests. You might want to find out if the school is keen on 'Assessment for Learning' as this may explain things.

Not something I'd panic over, to be honest.

My daughter did a History assignment once in this term and has never had it back. She has just finished her GCSE with the same teacher and his commitment to them was second to none. I'm quite happy I never thought to say anything at the time of the assignment.

Everyone in my department (English) is catching up with KS3 marking right now after being thoroughly indundated with Y11, 12 and 13 coursework. We teach 3 different GCSEs and 4 different A-levels in the department and for the last two months the workload caused by coursework has just been huge. Now they are on study leave we have time to devote to marking books properly, doing assessments etc. It's not ideal but they don't give us extra preparation time when all the marking, cover sheets and coursework submissions need to be done so something has to get put on the back burner. They will get much more attention from now until the end of the year though.

I've worked sixty hours this week and my books aren't all up to date. It's not the way I want it but unfortunately there aren't enough hours in the day. I've had two free periods in the last two weeks because my Y11s have been coming for impromptu revision sessions and I can't remember the last time I actually took a lunch break because they haven't left me alone since they went on exam leave. All my planning etc has been done after school/at home. I've also had a Saturday revision sessions. This week I have 100 Y10 mock papers to mark (25 to a class, 2 papers each, at least 10 mins per paper) and 50 reports to write for Thursday. I also have a job interview and observed lesson. Guess what's getting priority (hint: not the job interview).

Teachers up and down the country are in the same position. Your DD will get the same treatment when she sits her GCSEs/A levels. If you want us to do more work, please write to your MP to get us more funding/more non-contact time/smaller classes.

I say this in the 15 minute break I've taken from marking on a Saturday night.

Thanks OP for making me feel more guilty

You don't say if it's the beginning or end of March. We've had Easter holidays, so no need to mark as no work done, and perhaps in the time before Easter it was copying notes, or a lesson which didn't require work in books (ICT lesson for RE perhaps, or research), so again, no marking requirement.

I used to teach 600+ kids per week, the majority of whom were KS3, so books go marked, but not weekly.

I work in a mainstream secondary school as an SEN TA and two of my students are in Year 8 (the other is in year 10).

The Year 8 maths books haven't been marked by the teacher since Xmas. Same applies to Science. Many other subjects (including History, Geography, Spanish and Technology) haven't been marked since Feb half term. This includes all classwork and what little homework is set/done.

It's so frustrating because I have to hound/encourage/force my students to do their homework and then end up marking it myself because the teacher can't bothered (this is the case with the maths teacher, he is a long term supply and does not have classes in year 10-13) or say they don't have time. The English department manage at least weekly marking and it's a core essay subject with many papers to prepare their students for!

And then the senior teachers wonder why the students never do homework, go into years 10-11 with appalling study skills and results don't improve!

My advice is to contact her head of year or do you have parents' evening soon?

In order to get some semblance of a work/life balance, my Head of Dept actively tells us to ease up on marking in KS3 when there is a shed-load of marking to be done for exam classes.

So I'd still set homework, but it would be online computer marked homework, or I would get them to swap books and mark in class.

Schools were off for most of April too, so March isn't as bad as it sounds. If I were you I'd wait till after half term, once most of the exams are over and only kick off if things don't pick up.

Marking seems to be randomly conducted for my DD as well (year 10). It is more promptly carried out when a parents' evening approaches.

If work isnt going to be marked then teachers should have the courage of their convictions and tell the students.

If I cannot mark a piece of homework within a fortnight I do not set it.

DS in year 9 is my third child and so I've got used to the ebb and flow of the school year by now. DD2 is about to take A2s and so her teachers are madly marking past papers, running extra revision classes and generally giving their all. In a couple of weeks she'll be on her own in the actual exams and the focus will return to the younger ones - noblegiraffe's suggestion to wait till after half term is a sensible one.

Thanks for all the advice. Have decided to wait until after 1/2 term. Once of the books has been brought up to date since my post. I understand the pressures but that doesn't mean I have to be happy about the impact of the system on my child. Scary Teacher - they haven't been marked since the beginning of March.

Blue - the English dept is presumably quite large....I was one of 3 RE teachers and we taught the whole school between us and KS5, and I also taught KS3 History and Geography.

That meant that for Year 8 once I had 5 year 8 classes (2 RE, 2 Geog and 1 History). That's 150 books give or take and reports just for Year 8. A English colleague expressed surprise I was struggling with the Year 8 reports as she only taught one set of Year 8 in common with the rest of her department.

If I were sill teaching now then half term would be spent marking exams for the exam board (which improves results at school) and catching up eith KS3 marking as my focus would have been on getting the Year 11 through the GCSE before half term (as both the papers for my board are sat before then).

If the books haven't been done since the beginning of March, they could have been done at Easter.

Onceamai - hmmm like you suggest I'd be more worried about whether misunderstandings are getting embedded than about actual lack of marking in itself- with that in mind, I know it's not the ideal solution but if I were you I'd just have a quick skim through myself and check there are no glaring recurring problems- if there are you can chat them through with DD yourself and at least that'd take the weight off your mind?

Interesting.
Ds in yr 7 is waiting to get back an online English assessment which was completed in mid Feb-I asked at parents night in mid March what was happening, and she assured me he'd get it back by Easter.
I had forgotten all about it till reading this thread.
Must get ds to chase it up tomorrow

I've been teaching at my current school since Sept and departmental policy is that I am not ALLOWED to mark exercise books, only major assessments, one per topic, which are done on paper and kept in folders at school. Small homework tasks are supposed to be checked in class. Parents never get to see marked work and I rarely get to comment on my students' writing. It's utter, utter madness. Obviously less work for me in some ways but I haven't seen some students' writing for weeks.

It must be really frustrating as a parent not to see regular feedback on your child's work, let alone for the child.

Sad, but in my school I literally would not get to bed until 4am if I marked everyone's book every fortnight. Workload for more pressing things is too high to allow for it.

Thing is when I was at school in the 70's there were no TA's, all classes of 30, and the books came back by the next lesson always. OTH we didn't have PSHE, Citizenship, and all the other gubbins, that was taught by families and general day to day school life. I suppose the other things is the fact that GCSE's are based on continually amended course work. Our teachers had to mark our work and make sure we worked independently to get up to the standard of the exam. I had never thought before what an impact the system we have now has on staff or on the children lower down the school. Do teachers think it's better. I have my doubts to be honest.

I was at school in the later 70s and early 80s and my lessons consisted of read this page in a text book and answer this question. Little evidence of planning. I think that is the major difference.

I have never continually ammended courswork, students draft I give comments.They the complete it and hand it in.

Most of the time student hand in work and get it back next lesson, I would say that is true for most teachers.

Coursework has now been abolished in many subjects and should never have been 'continually amended' anyway.

I was at school in the 90s and most of my teachers did their marking in lessons while we worked in silence. Compared to that, yes, this is a better system.