Online Markbooks module

Straightforward, powerful, online markbooks for continuous tracking

Why collect classroom assessment data instead of just summative grades?

We do this because we've spoken to senior leaders, subject leaders and data managers who want to:

• Plan interventions based on today's data rather than summative grades collected at the last reporting cycle – these can be weeks, or even months old, and very 'stale'.
• Identify students that need help and where they need help. Our online markbooks can provide a level of detail that summative grades can never do.
• Allow students to be more engaged in their education by seeing subject-specific marks online, e.g. for coursework, projects, modules etc.

Why use GO 4 Schools to collect classroom assessment data?

We know many schools that have tried to use Excel to supplement the summative grades in their MIS with classroom data. They quickly run into problems with the sheer number of spreadsheets, 'broken' calculations and colour coding, out of date class lists, and the lack of any real way to see what is happening across a student's curriculum. GO 4 Schools removes these problems entirely.

 

Key features and benefits:

• Markbooks are really easy to set up, taking just minutes in most cases, with no need to be an expert in Excel or your school's MIS. In fact, markbooks are so easy to set up that subject leaders can have ownership of them. They determine what makes sense for their subject, their particular scheme of work and their exam courses, and GO 4 Schools works out each student's summative grade as assessments are recorded.
• Once set up, it is also easy to adjust markbooks by adding, removing, renaming and changing the weightings of the assessments etc.
• Markbooks apply to all groups taking a subject so they bring consistent recording of assessments between groups and allow like-for-like comparisons.
• The classlists are automatically updated from your MIS every night. There is no problem when a student changes group – their marks follow them automatically.
• The markbooks are available to teachers online, 24/7, from school or home.
• Online markbooks bring transparency. If a teacher is absent, you still have access to their marks, and if a new teacher takes over a group they can see where the students are from the outset.
• Markbooks can be re-used, year after year. You can even copy a markbook, plus all of the marks if you want, between academic years and build up a 2-year portfolio of marks for students. This is great for GCSEs and vocational courses.
• The calculations and traffic-light colour coding in GO 4 Schools online markbooks can't be accidentally 'broken' by teachers when they are entering marks.
• Summative grades calculated by GO 4 Schools markbooks feed straight into school statistics, giving all staff an up-to-the-minute view of each student, group, subject, department and year group.
• Our markbooks provide immediate access to additional information about students in a group such as SEN, G&T, FSM, language and ethnicity, as well as the grades they have earned in previous academic years and at reporting cycles within the current academic year.
• If you use GO 4 Schools for producing progress reports, summative grades calculated by markbooks feed straight into these, so there is no need to copy marks between systems or 'guestimate' summative grades when report-writing time comes around.
• You can enter descriptive text for a subject to provide context for students and parents to help them understand the structure and assessment rules for each course.

The GO 4 Schools Online Markbook module removes the need for Excel spreadsheets scattered all over the school. It puts subject leaders in control and allows the whole school to benefit from real-time, evidence-based statistics.

 

And for the more technical:

• You can use markbooks to collect marks or grades/sublevels and you can control how assessments are combined, right down to controlling the weighting for each assessment if you need to.
• There is no limit to the number of marksheets you can have within a markbook or the number of assessments within a marksheet.
• You can set 'due dates' on assessments so that overdue marks are flagged to teachers.
• You can adjust grade boundaries for the course as a whole and for each marksheet and individual assessment if you need to.
• You can have zero-weighted marksheets to track things like homework. The marks collected are recorded, but are not used when calculating a summative grade.
• Each markbook is linked to a specific qualification, so GO 4 Schools knows what grades or sublevels are available, GCSE-equivalences, APS/SCAAT points etc.
• Special BTEC, OCR National and NVQ markbooks make tracking vocational subjects a breeze.

 

Request a free demonstration

 

Pricing

GO 4 Schools is supplied as a managed service, charged annually. The annual price depends on the size of your school and the modules you select. You can read more about pricing on our Pricing page, or contact us using the GO 4 Schools enquiry form.

 

Links to other GO 4 Schools modules

The Online Markbooks module provides real-time assessment information to other GO 4 Schools modules. Information entered into online markbooks:

• Is summarised into key school statistics within the GO 4 Schools Hub.
• Is used to produce summative grades in progress reports using the GO 4 Schools Progress Reports module.
• Can be viewed by staff and students within the GO 4 Schools Hub.
• Can be viewed by parents within the GO 4 Schools Parental Engagement module.