NQT - school expects 13 hr days - can I do anything?

[SandyBeachandtheDeckchairs]

Hi all Just in case my post sounds familiar I have recently name changed. I am starting a job at a London primary school next week. Have spoken to many teachers during the setting up days over the holidays and it appears that 13 hr days are the norm there. Every lesson work is done in a book, and each book needs to be marked before it is seen. Marking is done very thoroughly using various different symbols, coloured pens and comments. The sentiment seems to be that the staff are knackered and have had enough of the workload. If it's bad for them, it's going to be worse for me, and I am pretty old so don't have the wealth of energy you'd expect from an NQT. So, my question is: Can I actually do anything or will I just have to buckle down and get on with it?

Sorry Maisy

It the norm at the school I'm out.

Teachers arrive between 7:45-8:10 ish for an 8:30'start. All have to leave by 6 as that's when school is closed but most leave before 5. Most do some work at home but certainly not every night.

Teachers share the workload - 3 classes per year and all classes do same work plans. So planning is shared and then class teachers modify for their own class needs.

Not every piece of work is deep marked. Only two colours used for marking and not for every piece of work done.

We are a good (with many outstanding features) school with good results.

Sounds like an SMT issue.

Re the displays.

Can you ensure all display work is done on the same size paper? Then set your display with the double backing on the wall - then add the pupil work with blue tack on top of these. We also have children's names and photos in various sizes cut out and laminated to go along side the work out up.

OP
That's ridiculous!
My room is neat and my displays are pretty good but I do one board a term and get our curriculum support person to do my laminating etc.
Love hula idea. I also like having a washing line and pegging work to it.

My old head introduced a ridiculous marking scheme that took hours. There was also the expectation to be in school from 730 til 6 and work during lunch. Then we got a new head who had a young family and believed in work life balance. Scrapped the marking scheme pointed out that when a 4 year old has written a decipherable letter or word why are we writing "well done you wrote the letter a your next step is to write a word using a" and use colour highlighting. They are 4 they can't read it!
Smiley face / tick and verbal feedback on the spot for reception/ year 1 and slightly more for older children but it has to be done immediately during lesson so it's effective. No more hours of marking after school.

Lesson plans can be as detailed as you want them to be - no longer have to read like a script.

We are not allowed to be in school after 530 anymore and she expects us to have at least half hour out of class at lunchtime to eat lunch.

Because we have done most of marking during day after school time is spent getting resources prepared for following day. I rarely work at home now and weekends are spent with dd.

I'm lucky as I have experienced the long hours and hated it - I never saw my family and I was tired and grumpy. I thought all schools were like that but now I know they are not.

Also for us, the school email is switched off every evening and turned back on in the morning. This is another attempt to reduce workload.

Some of the stuff on here is just unbelievable!

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince
I'd hate that.
My school works on the principle of working hours only (unless you have already agreed you'd send stuff).
There's someone always sending things at 11pm or 5am but they are known for it and everyone just goes .

At my last place I'd have loved your way though. It was email cental and the brownnosers would always reply all at silly times. The best bit was people emailing p2 asking for information/job doing by lunch when you're busy, sort if teaching. I used to ignore them and figured if it was urgent they'd come to my room for me.

My school is like Emoji's. We are trusted 100% and not scrutinised. In fact, our Head stood up a couple of years ago and said that he didn't expect us to mark books. It's a waste of time and the kids get nothing from it.
I can totally believe the crap that's described on here though. I worked in a large, well known South London chain a few at one point. It was truly awful. Long hours in school then working until midnight, etc. Hideous marking expectations and stupid codes and symbols.
Honestly, it's no wonder people are leaving in their droves.

I can't either! The fact that l work in one of the top ten schools in the country( just a normal comprehensive) says it all imo. We are totally trusted to do what we need,

How do the parents react to non-marking Emoji and Maisy? I get the feeling my school expects it because the parents love the thought of us poring over their child's work.

I really love the idea of giving vf and then getting the children to write it up - genius!

We do some marking! I will mark students work about once every 1/2 term. Otherwise they mark themselves.

Homework is marked too, but only once a fortnight. Or we can use codes. My dept don't give much homework though.

Parents are fine. It's a massively oversubscribed school.

And l seem to mark never ending piles of coursework for GCSE and A level!

The expectation at my school is one marked piece of work per half term and one marked test.

It's our school's view that time is best spent planning excellent lessons. The parents know this and as far as I know, no one has complained.

Our kids all work off iPads anyway. Some staff don't even use exercise books although I do.

Oh, we are also an outstanding school and have just had the best results in the history of the school despite all the changes to English and Maths.

sandy
We keep the books in school usually! I mark assessments in loads of detail.
I talk to students in class so every child gets my time each lesson.

I have great students (which helps!) so I'm just honest with them. I tell them feedback is more than written marking. They can either have more regular feedback on how to improve or I can spend hours and hours not marking their books in 2 weeks time because I have a backlog. They all would rather have more feedback.

I do whole class feedback so I'll read a class set of work and make a list of good things/bad things and talk through it as students annotate their own work. It also means instead of writing 'EBI - Develop your analysis next time in greater depth and include more language terms' 20 times I can SHOW them what it looks like and explain what developed analysis looks like. They learn more thay way.

I'm at the point in my career where if it helps children learn I do it and if it doesn't then I don't do it/tokenistically nod at it when required.

I didn't mean to imply you were shirking Emoji! As if!

Lol! I wish!

Your subject and classes has a big impact on marking workload

20 students doing AS English is significantly more marking than a KS3 French class for example.

I have taught German, French, RE, English and General Studies up to A Level.

From a marking point of view, English was horrific.

There are some great time savers on here eg take books in open at the 'homework page', peer assessment etc.

SLT culture also plays a very big role

Agree class and subject makes a difference.
I teach English so have had to be strategic with marking and feedback. I just wish I's been doing some things I do now when I first started.

Do they expect you to be in the building until 6pm?

I would seriously think about leaving at xmas if that is the case. This is not how it should be.

I'll be in Y3 so not sure how self assessment is going to work yet - will find out in my first week to guess! Will keep you posted
Thanks all
Your support has been greatly appreciated

You'll need to teach them how to self assess. Do examples on the board, have comments to choose from/things to look for - but it'll be worth it! It took me a while with Y4 (and there was still always someone who just wrote 'nice handwriting' or drew stars everywhere) and I plan to teaching better this year, right from the first week!

My first week next week!
Do I smile before Christmas? How will I remember their names? How the hell do you write legibly (and in cursive) on a whiteboard ugh!

I used to have an easy life in a safe office job with flexible working, what the hell have I done!
(I am quite excited really, just panicking a bit).

Definitely smile! Just don't let behaviour go because it's "only the first week" or whatever.

10 hrs a day so far and no marking to do yet. Ugh! I can't work out what would fix it - less kids, more PPA, more subject teachers (pe/NFL/IcT) to allow class teachers time to plan? I know I'll get more efficient but lots of experienced teachers are dreading the beginning of marking...