Book marking frequency

[Glittercandle]

How often do your children’s teachers mark their books?
DS is in year 7 and his teachers only give written feedback once per half term, they rely on peer marking/self assessment the rest of the time.
Is this normal for secondary school?

Bump

I'd say normal as per our experience. I seem to remember there is some research that says that peer marking and self assessment is more effective than teacher marking (active rather than passive).

Interesting to see that other schools do the same.
My son recently had a report and some teachers gave him a good grade for literacy skills. DS has very good verbal skills but appalling literacy skills! When I looked through some of his books I noticed that some of the worked marked by the teacher was actually written by a TA! If the teachers marked more frequently then they would see his strengths/weaknesses more clearly.

Were your books really marked at secondary school? I know mine weren't. Some schools have scrapped book marking entirely to reduce staff workload, lots of marking was briefly popular. Marking a book isn't the only way your teacher sees how your child is doing. There isn't anything wrong with a TA marking it either, it's v nice they have one and they are just as good as a teacher when used well.

I really can’t remember what happened re marking when I was at school.
I meant the teacher marked the work the TA had written (DS has 1-1 support in some lessons) . I wouldn’t mind a TA marking as some are amazing.

Ah I see, my misunderstanding than. Maybe speak to the teacher and explain that it would be good to differentiate what is ta what isn't. DD has an EHCP and often has a TA writing extra things down but she always does it in green pen so we know what DD missed out on.

Do t conflate books marked with students understanding Feedback. The question is how does the teacher know if kids are making progress and how is s/he getting them to understand what to do to improve. It needn’t be marking.

The teacher should know during the lesson by questioning. It takes ages to mark books. TA marking isn’t a problem. The TA has been in the lesson and if supporting the pupil should know how much is understood and will report back to the teacher.The current method is that it is marked and labelled if anyone else but the current teacher so supply teacher, TA or HLTA. Different coloured pens also used though they change the blooming rules sometimes and you have to have that colour on you.

In my day there were no TAs, the teacher marked them and wrote things like WAFFLE in very large letters over your work. Maths was marked in red with large crosses if wrong. Funny comments in your books and on your report.

Fellow student had written on his report that “ Garry would do better if he worked harder . “ Garry won’t amount to anything.”

Garry was a bit of a Jack the Lad, always playing pranks and a bit of a class clown. He and his mate were always getting the strap like several times a week -day- He is now a History teacher apparently.

It may be that your DS dictated the writing that the TA did. In which case, thebteacher is marking content, not technical skills.

How long do you think it takes to marks a book properly? Multiply that by 30 and then multiply by 15.
That’s a long time just marking books before you consider marking assessments, marking homework, intervention, report writing and I haven’t even mentioned planning lessons yet.

Unfortunately it’s often physical impossible to mark books more frequently.

Thanks all the replies - it’s really helpful to know that the frequency of marking is normal. DS has his EHCP annual review next week and it’s really useful to know what’s ’normal’ when trying to work out the best help for him.