Dd in year 7 - how often should books be marked?

[CeliaFate]

Dd has brought home books when she's had homework/revision. Last week I went through her history book with her to test her for end of year exams. The book hadn't been marked at all this term - the last time it was marked was in March.
Is this usual? Or just for some subjects. I was shocked it was left so long before being marked.

re paying to be a class of 25, later on the class size comes down to about 10-15 when things get serious.

At the moment it is assumed that if you got through the entrance exam then in Year 7 no one is struggling and that Year 7 work doesn't require hand holding.

Theroseofwait. If a teacher has had a series of big promotions they should have lower teaching load. I don't care how far up the scale a member of staff is, I still expect marking to be done. Marking informs lesson plans. There are times that I spend more time marking exam type work than books but I stand by my earlier comments and take pride in my professional standards.

I just had a thought. If the teacher doesn't mark the homework then how does he/she know if the pupil has understood the material?

Through Q&A, presentations, application of knowledge to practical demonstrations, quizzes or time to teach a unit not heavy on the marking.

My school is very high performing but my HT knows that KS3 take a bit of a back seat marking wise in the run-in to exams. I still prepare, I hope, stimulating and challenging lessons (HT observed me last week) and I put in other modes of classroom assessment that meant I could mark the leaning tower of controlled assessment and exam timed essays in the evening. Am now caught up with KS3 classwork, am marking KS3 exams this half term, and writing reports when we get back.

wolfiefan - not really. I'm on the equivalent of an old fashioned +5, as are two of my colleagues, and we still teach for 20 hours a week.

You don't lose much teaching time until you hit SLT and then the planning and assessment is replaced by other things.

I have extremely high standards, thank you, but I also have 2 dc under 4 and a very nice life. I think class sizes should be smaller in every school so the teacher can spend more time on every student - I've spent my entire career in state schools but I'm beginning to see the likeness to a sausage factory now.

I still wouldn't pay for my child to be in a class greater than 16 though, no matter what stage of schooling. I think the 'serious' time is KS3 as that's when making the two levels of progress is so vital, by the time they're in KS4 it's too late.