English - minimal marking and feedback in Yr11?

[markingmadness]

DS1 is in Yr11. Mixed state comp. School is generally excellent, support is fantastic in all areas, except English.

I've been raisimg concerns for months and would love to know if my expectations are unreasonable because I'm getting nowhere.

His book is marked (as in, individual red penned feedback on extended writing) maybe once every 3/4 months. He's not allowed to bring his book home. His homework is set but rarely collected in other than a cursory glance to see it's been done and never marked.

After an ongoing battle to see his mock scripts from the November exams I've just been sent a scan of his paper which shows it was given a score (just a number) and had a "whole class learning points" cover sheet with it. But that's it. No individual feedback. These papers are also kept on file and not returned to the student.

All the other subjects teachers turn round detailed marking of assessments and scripts in under a week which are sent home for him to learn from. Their feedback (particularly in long form writing like History) has made a huge impact on his grades.

Is there something about English that makes it inherently unmarkable? The volume of students because it's a core subject? Am I bonkers to expect that in Year 11 he should be having his work marked at least monthly?

Any egs of how often English is marked in other state comps would be gratefully received!

Whole class feedback is a standard assessment tool across subjects throughout school. There’s a lot of research suggesting that feedback can be standardised/generalised into a few key points based on the type of task being marked i.e. pupils misunderstand the same things and make broadly similar errors.

English teachers also do a LOT of moderation and use endless comparative judgement. Many of the judgements boil down to the same feedback.

Daisy Christodoulou heads up most of the research around assessment and marking, she is really informative on the subject: https://blog.nomoremarking.com/whole-class-feedback-saviour-or-fad-5c54c463a4d0

As above, a lack of ‘extended red pen’ isn’t a good indicator of whether or not your kid is getting quality feedback.

They could be having their work read over their shoulder in most lessons and getting verbal feedback right there and then. Which I think is arguably much better than extended written comments three weeks after the fact.

Or, they might have a teacher who isn’t marking or offering feedback nearly enough.

The question is, does your child know how to improve/are they improving? Have their exam results shifted in the right direction? Those are the questions you want to ask yourself, not, how much red pen can I see.

My DS is year 11 I have no idea what homework he gets set or if it is marked and if so what feedback he receives. I do know he does everything he is asked plus revision and is on target for his predicted GCSE results which are the GCSE results he needs for college.

Is there a particular reason you need to see the marking and the feedback? Is he on track? Does he know what he needs to do?

Mock papers are meant to be kept in school in case of another Covid type situation where they are needed to justify grades. I’m very surprised the other subjects are sending them home.

many schools are subjects are moving away from the extended personal feedback in writing and doing verbal feedback or coaching.

what are his predicted grades? Is he on track for those grades?

Yes as others say, lack of red pen does not mean no feedback is being given.

Is there something about English that makes it inherently unmarkable? The volume of students because it's a core subject?

I mean no, and no. For sure it is possible to mark English, otherwise how would GCSEs be graded. And yes everyone does it, but each teacher will have the same number of classes as a biology teacher (or whatever). English is a heavy marking workload for sure; but as long as your DS is getting feedback and knows what to do to improve, happy days.

Agree schools tend not to hand out mock papers now due to Covid fears. A scan is all you can expect. Check with your DS and get him to ask for more feedback on how to improve if he is not sure. It might be he is getting it; it might be his teacher is not great (obvs this can happen).

Thanks everyone this is really helpful and useful perspective.

He's not reaching his target grade and he's not really improving either, whereas in all his other subjects he is meeting/exceeding and still making improvements. He and his classmates are all questioning why they're not being given any feedback in English compared to other subjects.

He is dyslexic and dyspraxic with poor processing speeds so he won't process one off feedback in class he needs written notes to refer back to and digest in his own time.

His teacher was new to teaching in Year 10 so maybe we've just been unlucky but speaking to other parents the problems seem to be across all classes.

I presume you’ve had at least one parents evening by this point in the year - was anything mentioned then?

I’d reach out to the teacher, not mentioning the perceived (or real - who knows!) lack of marking at this stage, but expressing support and concern about your child’s progress. Frame it as a ‘what can my child be doing to improve / what can we be doing at home?’

Once the dialogue is opened between you and the teacher, then that leaves you open to check in in a few weeks or so (but by Christ not more than that!)

I've been meeting with his teacher, the Head of Dept and Director of Learning at various stages since July of Year 10. Both 121 and with a group of other concerned parents. The SLT all acknowledge that there are issues with the dept and that they're working to make improvements. Until the start of Yr 11 all homework was automated through Seneca - just quizzes on content. When we pushed for some actual written homework they responded by setting tasks but it's never collected in let alone marked.

DS needs a 6 to get into 6th form and I'm panicking that despite asking for more support for months it's just not going to happen now.

After nearly 9 months of trying to negotiate better support I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall. Particularly because the school does such a fab job with all other subjects I'm so surprised that they seem incapable of fixing it, and I'm trying to work out if I'm missing something about the way English is taught and/or assessed, that's why I've posted here.

I'm wondering now if it's more that this generic whole class, over the shoulder feedback technique just doesn't work for a lot of kids like my son who need to see it actually written down and related to his actual paper/answers to process it?