Letter to the school. Please help me word it.

[nkf]

My son is in Year 8 in a supposedly good secondary school. The thing that is bugging me is that books are never marked. Or marked very very rarely.

My son told me his books weren't being marked. So I looked at all his books for this term and he's not exaggerating. Only one has been marked. And that one was marked once. And in Maths, he has done some self marking.

It's not right of course and I feel as if I have to say something. Head of Year? She's one of the non markers unfortunately. Head of KS3. And what do I say?

One teacher/one subject might be a sloppy teacher but this, I think, is systematic.

What would you write? And to whom?

Marking and assessment are big deals in the new OFSTED framework, so I would imagine most schools will be looking at their policies. We were looking at our this morning- I teach a practical subject, so a parent could be forgiven for thinking I never mark anything- the students don't have books or folders. However, I have detailed records of their achievement and progress- enough to keep an inspector happy and to be able to have detailed discussions with students about targets and how to reach them.