Exam marking

[af2000]

I am currently on maternity leave and not sure if I will be going back into full time teaching any time soon.

I have been thinking of signing up to do some exam marking this year, to keep my foot in and earn some extra cash to fund my gin habit. Haven't done it before so will probably just do GCSE to begin with. I have a 3.5 month old (who will be 8/9 months by then) and a 3 year old.

Am I mad? Please can I have your experiences of doing marking? It will be Geography if that makes any difference

I do GCSE and CA moderation (different subject though) for Edexcel. You will need to include referees in your application so I would apply asap whilst you still have a HT and HOD to support your application.

With Edexcel in my subject all exam scripts are scanned in and rather than whole paper to mark you have to qualify in each question (Mark questions that the chief examiner has marked accurately) if you have 8/10 questions marked within tolerance you qualify for marking that question. I have to do 1600 odd responses. If I meet the deadlines I also get a bonus. I still work FT and manage it a few hours a night.

CA moderation is similar. You get sent the work, have a days training (online) and you have to moderate a full sample then send your report with the work to your team leader. If TL is happy you then work through your pile of post (I have to do 6 per centre if they are within tolerance, all of them if they are out); reports get sent to TL and a further 2 centres sent in full. If you have any out of tolerance then also send them to TL.

I started doing it to inform my own practice (tbh best CPD I've ever had) but the money, whilst not a huge amount is very welcome!

Can you do this whilst getting maternity pay?? Would you have to tell Hmrc? Worth checking...

Thanks Cricketballs, really useful info there, esp the bit about the reference. I am thinking that if I do have a break for a year or two whilst the kids are little and I can't actually afford to work then doing exam marking will be something to put on my cv to show I've tried to keep up to date.

Samlovesdilys that's a good point, I will have to check it out. I assumed that as you can do it on top of your day job when actually teaching it wouldn't be too different when on maternity leave, but I will definitely check this out.

(Love your username by the way, I share my house with a fireman Sam super fan.. am convinced Sam is Norman's dad )

With some exam boards OCR and AQA you do often see the whole paper.
You need to apply asap as they start sending out contracts to examiners for the Summer soon.
You need a reference and the best policy is to apply to mark for the exam specification that you were teaching before starting maternity leave.