Exercise Book Expectations

[Laauren]

Hi,

Just wondering what are your schools' expectations for frequency in books?

I'm pretty new at my current school and the expectations are 2/3 pieces of work in books each week. Obviously I'm not complaining but in all of my placements they expected daily work in books. Not necessarily a sheet/writing but even if it was a practical lesson there had to be photographic evidence.
I'm interested to see what other schools are like!
My current school argue that as long as it is on the MTP that is enough to evidence that it has been covered and work should only be in books if it is needed.

Your new school sounds realistic. Your old one sounds OTT.

What age group?

I'm guessing you're primary, possibly KS1 from references to photos.
I'm secondary but your first school sounds over the top. Not everything has to be in books. I worked in a school where there was an obsession with recording all feedback. The result was 'time saving' verbal feedback stamps, but then I'd have to have the discussion with the student and have it again as they wrote down the feedback.

Your second school sounds like it has a much healthier approach.

No expectation at all at my current school - we put stuff in books when it is meaningful & worthwhile to the children to put stuff in books. Evidencing everything that’s ever happened does nothing to benefit the children’s learning.

One of the very many reasons I love my current school.

Yes Primary. I trained in KS1 but currently teaching in KS2. It definitely has helped massively with marking!

My school doesn't have a policy, but for each subject I probably put work in books three quarters of the time. I teach LKS2.

I should have added: what does make a difference is not having to detail mark work. We just discuss with children (and don't write down what we discussed!). School is graded Outstanding - I feel so annoyed at all the hours I used to waste at my old and not outstanding school writing comments which many of the children couldn't even read.

No set expectation where I am. We're very much believers of not creating work for works sake - Quality over quantity n'all that. We try to plan for collaborative or practical work where possible so have turned to SeeSaw for evidencing which reduces workload massively! Most teachers keep a floorbook of photographs and children's responses just to 'show off' learning in the classrooms and this works well, along with the fact our children can talk confidently about their learning. Up in KS2, the children take responsibility over the floorbooks to reduce teacher workload too - they love it, especially the creative children!

There is no expectation. I can go a whole week without writing anything in books and nobody would be worried about it. I'm good at my job. My classes tend to make excellent progress. There's no need to keep checking up on me and what I'm doing constantly. I'm generally trusted to get on with it and to know what my class need.
I teach 1st Grade abroad, though. It's perfectly ok for me to just tick their work (they wouldn't be able to read lengthy comments anyway, so what would be the point?) and my planning consists of a short LO for each session on our shared Google document for the whole grade. We are four-form-entry.