Year 7 - how often do teachers mark the books?

[CeliaFate]

Looking through dd's books, most of them have only been marked once or twice so far. There's lots of self marking.
Is this usual? How can you tell who needs what help if you only see the books twice in 6 weeks? I'm a bit cross about it, but wondered if this is normal for secondary school.

Once every 2-3 weeks is the norm for most subjects in my school, particularly if there is lots of self/peer marking going on. Has she also been doing tests/assessments on separate pieces of paper that are levelled by the teacher? In my subject we collect quite a lot of evidence that is not actually in their exercise books.

If this is not the case though and it has only been looked at once in 6 weeks then maybe I would email the teacher to check?

You see the books????

I ask dd to show me when she comes home, or I look through the books she doesn't need that day so I'm aware of what she's doing in the lessons.

Yes, she's been doing CATS tests and has had homework that is levelled. There doesn't seem to be a great deal in the books, so maybe she has been doing lots on paper.

Just because they're not marked doesn't mean they've not been looked at. I often look at the books in class while they're doing tasks but wouldn't always mark on the book that I've seen it. Peer marking is often checked by the teacher too to make sure any comments given by another student are relevant.
The way my dept works is we'll formally mark 2 or 3 pieces of work every half term and the levels for those pieces will be recorded (but not necessarily shared with the student).

That sounds about the same then. I'm surprised because I'm a primary school teacher and at my last school if there was no teacher mark at the end of a piece of work we'd be slated!

It seems that DD is rarely allowed to bring her books home, though we have inspected them thoroughly when they do appear

She does 99.9% of her homework on the computer, not in her books.

I think the marking probably works like at Debi's school.

i agree, just because it doesn't have ticks or comments on doesn't mean it hasn't been assessed by the teacher. we do much more peer assessment and self assessment from yr 7 and teacher takes in around once a fortnight to flick through and thorough summative marking/comments once a half term (so take home books at half term to do that).

Books don't get sent home much because they don't come back! so you will find sheets being sent or asked to complete homework topic on paper or on VLE (online homework system).

If you don't know what happens this is a completely sensible question to ask the school 'can you tell me your assessment policy for yr 7?' it may be different for different subjects don't forget. Also, you may find it on school website. Our policy id 30 mins H/W per week for each subject at yr 7.

In Maths, never so far. They have done lots of peer marking but homework is not looked at by the teacher at all. Their policy is that an assessment piece of work is marked once a month (half-termly for some subjects).

DD just brought geog book home - all work marked with comment! She is in Y8

I mark mine on a 3 week rota. I work 3.5 days a week, so mark one day's worth of books per week.

bigTillymint if I did that much marking my dc wouldn't know who I was and would never get fed!

Debi, the geography is a keen young thing

^ teacher!

DD yr10 - Maths is marked weekly. Some homeworks are peer marked but the Teacher doesn't just rattle off the answer he explains how to get to the answer. DD's exercise book is marked at least once`a fortnight and her Teacher adds comments etc.

Science - this depends on the Teacher. DD is doing triple Science. Chemistry Teacher has homework back the following lesson but he does have a week as DD has a double lesson on a`Monday. All books have been marked at least once a month.

English - DD did her first CA last week finishing on Friday her teacher informed them Monday they all got a C or above and would know Friday when it had under gone internal moderation as to what their grades where.

Marking of books etc appears to have got alot better from when DD was in yr7 as it was a bit hit and miss.

I thought English CAs couldn't be graded until the exam board advises grade boundaries. All my daughters year have been told their work can be put ona band but the bands have not been given grades by the exam board.

Bit random at our school. Some teachers mark every piece of work and add lots of comments. Some books have no teacher writing in them at all. As others have said, they do lots of tests which I never see.

I mark books on a weekly basis. We also do a lot of self or peer-marking, but I still review them and give them a tick. It is really important that students write in their own corrections, IMO.

Kez, all I'm going on is what DD told that her Teacher had marked them,all were a C or above and were awaiting internal moderation. I wasn't aware they were given bands. Poor DD just wants to know how she's done as she really put her all into the prep.for it.

Teacher shouldn't have done that, magenta. AQA haven't issued the grade boundaries yet, so we are just giving comments that indicate the bands their work has fallen into.

Schools seem to be making up CA rules as they go along...sigh...

All the children want to know how they have done, teachers want to know as well and SLT are probably demanding % and those on target. however, if it's AQA they are giving nothing away and that, in itself, is unfair as if the teaching is great and the cohort had working there ought to be capacity for greater grade Cs. I'm a statistician and I have a funny feelin they are not going to do that. They'll decide how many they want at each grade and fix it accordingly - that fixing won't be done until everything is in - so who knows where the C grade may be. I do hope your daughters peers are not disappointed.

I may appear cynical but my daughter fell foul of this with history this year. grade boundaries for her b and c changed the same mark to worth a c and d leaving her with a d overall. If she had sent in the very same coursework last year it would have been awarded a b and c. The system stinks.

The board isn't AQA, it's WJEC. From the WJEC site it states that each band is "worth two GCSE grades" ie Band 5 A*-A so I'm assuming that Band 4 would be B-C and that all the DC in DD's class were a band 5 or band 4.DD understands that CA are open to external moderation and can go up or down depending on this -Her GCSE Statistics CA went down last Summer. I'm sure her teacher will give out marks with the precursor that they could go up or down.

I try to mark once a fortnight but as I have mostly shared classes and am only in 2 days a week, it is sometimes hard to nab their books, especially KS4. My year 7s I see once a fortnight and mark when I can. Our dept policy is once a fortnight but pressure is on to mark once a week at the moment as we are likely to have an OFSTED inspection sometime soon!