In this episode, Claire meets with James Holmes, owner and developer of MarkMate: a software-based marking system that enables teachers to significantly reduce the time they spend marking by enabling them to quickly give high-quality feedback on their pupils’ work.

Claire talks with James about his journey from starting out as a Year 1 teacher, through to working in Key Stages 2 and 3, and how the excessive demands on time for marking prompted James to develop his new system. James discusses how, without an I.T. background, he self-taught the programming skills he now has, and how his revolutionary new software featured on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den show.

James also discusses the wider implications of the current drive within schools to improve workloads by changing marking processes – including schools that are looking at removing it entirely.

In addition, James shares his thoughts on other ways he feels schools could improve workloads and work/life balance, the biggest changes he has seen in his time in education, and what the school system could look at to improve for the future. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• If you’re interested in it, anyone can learn programming skills.
  While technology – and in particular programming – can seem scary or confusing for those who do not have a background in the area, if you have the time and the drive to get into this field, there is a wealth of resources and support out there, and anyone can self-teach themselves.
• Technology can enhance all kinds of things.
  Although there has been a big drive to give computing a higher profile in the classroom, it has started to take more of a backseat again. However, the benefits of teaching children about technology and programming go way beyond the computing curriculum. Children can pick up and develop a wide range of skills which can be applied much more widely and are not necessarily linked to technology, such as logical thinking and considered approaches to problem-solving.
• Exposure of ideas will help get them ‘out there’.
  For any teachers (or entrepreneurs in any field) who have developed a revolutionary idea, it can be really hard to get your idea to ‘take off’. Getting your idea out there and showcased can make a huge difference.
• Teachers are being given more trust now than they have for quite a while.
  While teachers might say that it still feels as though there is a significant hill yet to climb, schools do seem to be giving more scope for trying things out in the classroom, even if it doesn’t end up working. A big difference now is that an increasing number of educational leaders will listen to those ‘on the ground’ about what works and what doesn’t, and what could work.
• Engaging pupils with marking, and making feedback as personalised and specific as possible, can encourage and motivate pupils.
  Marking with little or no engagement by pupils is not time well spent for teachers. Having a system which allows teachers to give useful, personalised and worthwhile feedback, and then allowing pupils time to do something with it, will see gains in learning. Pupils will be much more motivated to improve their work where they feel that it has been valued, and where they can see a benefit to following up on comments and suggestions.
• There could be a danger that ‘no marking’ policies might end up working to the detriment of pupil progress.
  Although there is definitely a place for on-the-spot verbal feedback, classroom conversations and one-to-one discussions about work, it is really hard for teachers to do this effectively with a significant number of pupils and for these approaches to have the desired impact. Teachers do work very hard to move children on, but there is a concern that ‘no marking’ policies might end up reducing pupils’ engagement with their work where they feel it is not valued or worthy of effort. James believes that MarkMate helps maintain a ‘conversational’ feel to marking which keeps pupils engaged, but also keeps teachers’ workloads to a minimum.
• School budgets are tight but, when looking for solutions, how are priorities balanced against money being spent?
  Decisions in schools will, particularly at the moment, always come back to money. While it can feel easier to dismiss ideas or possible solutions on the basis of cost, if something will demonstrably improve an aspect of the school, it can be worth additional consideration because the long-term benefits could well outweigh the cost.
• There are parallels between the skills teachers use and those needed in the business world.
  For any teachers wanting to make a leap into the commercial sector, many of the processes and skills that they regularly use in school can be really helpful: starting with desired outcomes and planning ‘backwards’ to achieve them, being target-orientated, and having good organisational skills are all very useful in a business environment.

 BEST MOMENTS

 “The students felt like their teacher was talking to them when they were reading [the marking comments] because it was almost conversational.”

 “When I was marking books, I knew what I wanted to say, but I would condense it as much as possible to fit it onto that piece of paper.”

 “Schools work in different ways and you don’t want to up-heave everything and change everyone’s systems. One personal bugbear… from when I was a teacher was the frustration with schools and higher-level bodies to allow change in policies if there’s something that has a positive impact.”

 “From personal experience, I’m hearing a lot at the moment from schools about going down the ‘no marking’ policies. On the surface of it it’s a fantastic approach for work/life balance and teacher retention and it’s a real positive step that people are listening. But for me there was always huge value in the marking I was doing because of the way I delivered it and the way I allowed the students to respond to that marking.”

 “[MarkMate] helps with that evidence… Anyone can pick that book up - supply teacher, TA, LSA can pick that book up - and see exactly what’s happened in the last week, in the last month… If you’re going away from written feedback, how is that going to be passed on to other adults? You don’t want to be going in an repeating the same things.”

 “There’s a huge emphasis at the moment on teacher retention and work/life balance and well-being which should have been there from day one. It’s not a new concept.”
“I’m so grateful that I got into teaching… for so many different reasons. I've taken so much away from that even down to the way that you meet new people and talk to new people.”

 “I wouldn’t be here doing this if I didn’t honestly know that it makes marking quicker… I had that light-bulb moment when I marked my first set of books. A set of English books would have normally would have taken me 2 or 3 hours, and even my feedback then would not have been not that great quality if I’m being honest with myself. And then when I marked with [MarkMate] it was 41 minutes.”

 “You love teaching for being in the classroom and for working with those students and having that impact however big or however small. What I don’t love is all the other stuff that goes along with it. There was a real turning point when my daughter was born and I was spending more time on other people’s children than I was on my child.”    

 VALUABLE RESOURCES

MarkMate: https://www.markmate.co.uk/  
Barefoot Computing: https://www.barefootcomputing.org/ 
The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/
Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/
Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/    
LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/

ABOUT THE HOST
Claire Riley

 Claire, alongside her husband Ed, is one of the directors of Classroom Secrets, a company she founded in 2013 and which provides outstanding differentiated resources for teachers, schools, parents and tutors worldwide.

 Having worked for a number of years as a teacher in both Primary and Secondary education, and experiencing first-hand the difficulties teachers were facing finding appropriate high-quality resources for their lessons, Claire created Classroom Secrets with the aim of helping reduce the workload for all school staff.

 Claire is a passionate believer in a LIFE/work balance for those who work in education citing the high percentage of teachers who leave or plan to leave their jobs each year. Since February 2019, Classroom Secrets has been running their LIFE/work balance campaign to highlight this concerning trend.

 The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.