You do do marking in secondary don't you?

[Berrie]

DS started middle school in September so he is in Year 6 but essentially in a secondary context.
He has worked hard on a number of lengthy written tasks for English and Humanities but had none of them back. He was enthusiastic and conscientious to begin with but I can tell he is wondering if it's worth bothering now.
Is this normal for secondary? Would you say anything?

Yes work of any length and books are marked at least every couple of weeks, strengths are identified and targets set for the piece of work.The students then respond to the targets set for the piece of work in our SMART time, we check then, initial to say that they've been done and move on.

So yes work should have been marked - how is your ds supposed to know how to improve otherwise?

I'd email / write a note in his planner.

Being a teacher myself I don't really want him to be the child of that parent (although perhaps this is less obvious when there are more children?) Also his English teacher has been off for 3 weeks which might explain some, if not all of the English stuff. We all get ill and so it can't be helped. I wouldn't like to add to her woes...
I've drafted an email but feeling reluctant to send it.

Also...how to you pace the giving out of homework? One weekend he will have little to do - the next three long written pieces which take him hours.
Again, if he were in Y6 in any primary I've taught in, he'd have one or two pieces a week with reading and spellings. DS has to field a mix of French, Music, Library Skills, Design, Humanities, Maths and English. It doesn't seem fair on any of us

Usually there is a homework schedule but that only gives days - ie mon and thurs are English hwk days. Generally there is a time limit / guidance and teachers are expected to set homework tasks that can be competed within this time. But there isn't any coordination between subjects ("I'm setting a lot of geography homework this week so don't set much please other subjects") as this would be totally impractical.

If it helps, though I suspect not, every teacher I know loathes homework. Largely pointless, creates work for us and stops kids having time with family / time to be kids! But we're not allowed to just not set it.

at dd's (secondary, she's y9) school they only have one piece of marked 'assessed' homework per subject per half term.

They get set 4-5 pieces of homework a week but anything other than the assessed stuff is either nor marked, checked (to see they've done it) but nor marked, marked online (mymaths etc), or peer marked. It isn't motivating for the children.

The homework tasks were actually really creative and interesting which is another reason I am loathe to complain.

DDs homework is rarely marked, nor is her work done in the lessons marked, it all seems to be peer marked now. I am quite shocked as a primary school teacher who spends a couple of hours a day marking to the learning intention with next steps and praise for what was done well for every lesson.

It's disappointing to have pages and pages of unmarked work when compared to the feedback I give my pupils.

I agree this isn't really on. I am probably slightly guilty of this the last few weeks.

But, in slight defence of the teachers, it is yr11 (and in my case yr10 and 9) mock times. So massive amounts of marking. Plus loads of end of term assessments for the other years. I am behind with book and homework marking.

Checkpoint-i can assure you that lots of marking gets done. But there are 5 years groups (or more) who all end up with exams and assessments at once.

Completely different to primary as you can appreciate.

We aim to mark every 6 teaching hours. We mark specific pieces of work, and students must respond to our marking by improving their work. There is no expectation to mark every piece of class work. I will be marking 143 exam papers this weekend. I will not be marking any books.

No marking by this point in the year is of course unacceptable, and this is one of the reasons why the much hated on here work scrutinies are done!

I don't want to diss any teacher we all have it hard enough! And I have huge respect for secondary teachers, I would be terrified of teenagers....

I honestly haven't seen more than two pieces of work marked from the beginning of this term. I appreciate that there are exams and assessments etc.

I don't really know the ins and outs of secondary timetables etc.

I mark three, often four sets of 30 pieces of work a day, all with next steps, all which gets checked every few weeks, along with a very brightly coloured feedback document detailing whether my marking and feedback is outstanding, good, requires improvement or failing.

I do feel like my dd isn't getting any feedback, none that I can see in her books. I have seen one next step written by her history teacher, which she responded to.

I think it's just different, maybe I need to get over myself a bit, and she needs to get used to far less feedback.

Whole term so far. Yes we sign her homework book and she does have homework.
Some subjects have nothing, and some have the odd tick. I will wind myself in and see what happens. Thanks for your explanation, it helps me to put it into context!

Nearly the end of term....

OP, you say no work has been marked. I'd be very concerned indeed, and the teacher's three-week absence hardly explains no marking over awhile term.

Send the email.

I really don't want to get into a "who does more work/marking" debate... However. Last week was assessment week in my primary. So in 1 week we had 30x reading, writing, maths papers x2 & spag to mark. This meant 150 papers to mark. In one week. Book scrutinies continued on Friday as normal.

Well, you do, clearly, want to get into that...

So, you win.

Do you think it's reasonable though? To mark 150 exam papers (what, 20+ hours work?), plus 2 hours marking a day of books on top of that? Plus planning? I don't. And I don't expect it of my staff. Just for exam fortnight mind you...

Can't your DC just ask or email the teacher and politely ask when he will be getting the marked homework back?

Threads like this make me laugh!

Do you really think a child in primary covers the same kind of quantity as a child in secondary? A weeks worth of lessons can produce 20-30 sides of work! In one group.

It really isn't the same thing at all.

And i agree that if you are spending hours marking a day then this ISN'T right at all. It is not the norm.

Having said that. If it were my dc who had not had anything marked all term, I'd be complaining. A lot! Not on at all.

Pelican that's a good idea. DS is too shy to ask but a polite note would make the point though he may refuse to give the note...
I guess I asked because I do not understand the pressures for secondary teachers however since it is a middle school there are no year 10 or 11 assessments to do.
Echt the first writing assessment was marked in September and a target set but the next one went in 5 weeks before she went off and another just before she went off but with no target from the second since it wasn't marked. Like I say though - I don't like to moan too much on that account - she might be seriously ill. I am concerned that the school sort something out if they can. I tutored a couple of girls towards their SATS last year who were without an English teacher for most of the year.
On a good note since posting DS has told me that he did a key task in Humanities which sounds like all the work he did has fed in to. That has been marked and he did really well. I guess that has made him see the point after all.

TheFallen no I don't think it's reasonable - for any of us. And I agree that sometimes we (both primary and secondary) have to cut corners for our own sanity! It's just that in primary it's considered imperative that every piece of work is marked in depth the same day So I can see why a parent might be surprised that things are different at secondary.

I really don't want to get into a competition, I think we both have ridiculous workloads and should support each other.

Well said teachermummy
And OP, I would put a note in his homework diary querying it, sorry didn't answer you OP to begin with!

The school itself must be on top of its teachers though?
I'm in secondary and we've had 4 monitoring periods this term (a round of learning walks, observations and book and folder scrutinies). We don't know which year group will be checked so have to make sure all is up to date.

I'm knee deep on mocks marking and assessment week marking this weekend so I'm aware my KS3 books are about a week behind but I've planned to catch up mid-week.