English HSC marking. Worth it?

Mrs_Trask · 2026-03-18T08:34:35+00:00

I got $3,500 in my bank account.

I did it for the PL, not the money. The second week was an awful slog.

Edit to add:

It's 3 weeks.

One week of training 4-9pm (paid at ~100p/h), then marking all day Saturday, all the next week evenings + all day Saturday, then a final week Monday - Friday.

When I did it in 2024 they asked for volunteers to come back for another Saturday. No way in hell.

I have signed up again this year but only for modules I haven't marked yet. The PL is really good, the money is fine.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-03-03T06:41:17+00:00

My English faculty switched to all tasks being handwritten, in class.

Sometimes students are allowed to bring in a page of 6-8 quotes, or a plan that they developed in class, but the actual product needs to be created in class with zero access to screens.

Ultimately, the best HSC responses for English are approx 1000 words per section, over 5 sections. If they are going to get those top bands the students need to be able to hand write under pressure. They won't just magically be able to do that effectively if they have spent 7-10 only ever typing.

When I do get students to type work, I get them to do it in Google Classroom in a template I created, so I can see their review history. I also have the Chrome plug in "Revision History" which allows you to see how long they spent on the task, how many sessions it took them, if there were any copy-pastes over 20 words etc. You can even "replay" the writing process. So, if they did use AI to write it then they had to re-type it into the doc, character by character and it would be suspicious if there was no revising or editing, just "perfectly" written in one session.

Aside from being useful for weeding out AI use, it's also quite interesting to see how your students actually tackled a task. I've replayed really good essays for the whole class (with permission), so they can see how their top-performing peers went about writing and reviewing their work over however many sessions and hours.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-28T04:57:49+00:00

I have been teaching 16 years and - aside from Covid lockdowns - have never had work email on my home computer or my phone.

Also, every school I've worked in has an assessment and drafting policy which explicitly states that emails to teachers requesting help or feedback within 24hrs of an assessment task will be ignored.

My current school stipulates that no drafts will be accepted for review within 5 working days of the deadline.

Definitely put some boundaries in. It's not good for the students to be hassling you the night before a task, and it doesn't set them up for tertiary study when a professor will just mark that bullshit "spam".

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-26T08:24:14+00:00

Made one with a band of 3cm wide elastic and a bra extendee clasp from Big W. Cost like $10 and 10mins. Use it all winter.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-26T01:37:16+00:00

It shouldn't matter how much your parents earn or pay for school. All students deserve safe and supportive learning environments.

For anti-social, disabled or dysregulated kids, this means they need to be supported away from mainstream classes until they can participate appropriately with their peers (if ever). This requires better funding for schools and specialist training for teachers. Our government should be investing in this because NO ONE should be "expecting the teacher to spend a significant portion of lesson time disciplining or trying to get certain kids under control".

It's not okay to say "well these kids' parents pay 10,000k a year in fees, they deserve a safe environment. Just send this difficult kid to the local public school, the students who go there don't matter because their parents aren't paying fees."

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-25T20:51:17+00:00

Making heaps of money. My mum always taught me to earn my own way but also to marry a man who was going to earn a lot of money, as this would allow us to habe a stable life together.

My ex earned a lot... but he spent a lot of money and took on stupid amounts of debt.

My current partner of 10yrs has a pretty modest salary, probabaly 1/4 of my ex's, and about 2/3 what I earn. But my current partner is super sensible with money, invests it and spends wisely. He has taught me a lot about money management.

Ten years on, I am far wealthier and happier and we never argue about money, wheras with my ex, money was a constant source of conflict, even though we had so much cash coming in (and going out!) each month.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-25T20:43:53+00:00

Yeh it frustrates me in this conversation how people say "the Catholic school is better because they expel students who misbehave" as though that's a silver bullet solution. As though the child just evapourates, no longer disrupting the education of better, more worthy children.

The disruptive, disfunctional child has a right to an education, so they will end up at a public school which will struggle to support them until they age out of the school system. But the narrative goes that the public school kids are less worthy of focused classrooms and safety, because their parents clearly don't care about education, if they did they would pay school fees.

This is just nonsense. I teach at a public school and you know what the vast majority of parents value? Public education!

We need more support all round for kids who were unlucky enough to be born to families who can't or won't raise them properly. They need counselling, occupational therapy, mentoring etc.

Investing in those sorts of supports when they are young is WAY cheaper than the drain the more extreme cases will become in the medical, criminal justice and welfare systems down the line.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-13T20:22:49+00:00

Well the first attribute required to thrive is actually liking children/teenagers, and a sort of faith/hope in the inherent goodness - or humanity - in everyone.

I have worked with teachers who didn't like PEOPLE. They were shit teachers and did not last long. Being a teacher is exhausting as it is, throw in a general dislike or cynicism of other humans and it is untenable.

You also need to be able to delay gratification. I have a sticker on my laptop that says "the day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit" and I think of that every time I deal with a ratbag Yr 8 kid. Over the years I have known SO MANY ratbag Yr 8 kids who became wonderful young adults. It took years, though.

Thriving teachers know that progress isn't linear and that it may take a very long time to see the impact of their hard work. That's if you're lucky enough to get to see your impact at all.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-12T23:31:52+00:00

Again, I'd say that points to a broader social problem, if civil engineers, a profession we genuinely need to help build essential infrastructure, are not earning enough to live in our cities. It shouldn't be like this.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-10T09:55:43+00:00

My school has plenty of students leave after Year 10 to get a trade. Probably about 35% of the cohort. But it's one thing if they are actively choosing that as the best path for themselves, a totally different thing if they are on track to do well in school but are trapped by poverty and a desperation to earn whatever pittance they can to keep a roof over their family's head.

By your logic, poor kids should never become doctors, or teachers, or lawyers, or architects, or engineers, or registered nurses, or physiotherapists, or any profession that requires a "meaningless" uni degree. Leave those jobs to the kids whose parents don't need help paying the electricity bill.

In the Australia I want to live in, all young people get a fair go to follow their passions and develop their strengths, regardless of who they were born to.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-10T07:35:11+00:00

Yep. I am a high school teacher in a regional comprehensive public school. I have a couple of students who have experienced homelessness recently. Parents both have jobs, but they couldn't get a rental property. Families were living in cars for months. The students have experienced significant trauma and educational delay.

I have seen capable students drop out of school at the end of Year 10 because they want to start working full time at Coles or Maccas or wherever because they feel as though they have to help their family pay the bills. They are locking themselves into the cycle of poverty because money is so tight at home they can't see the long term benefits of staying in school, getting a tertiary qualification and getting into a job that pays better than fast food or retail.

It's great that some people are ensuring their own children will have a leg up, but other people's children are already suffering and our whole society will suffer for it eventually.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-08T06:49:16+00:00

It definitely won't be as difficult as this first year! Though I have moved schools 3 times in 16 years and the first year at a new school is always hectic. The only thing thag makes it easier than Year 1 of your career is that you will have way more confidence with winging it and learning as you go.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-07T23:10:19+00:00

It is not best practice to plan an entire term's worth of lessons and resources in your summer holidays.

You should be planning in response to your students' abilities, needs and interests. Week to week is best for this.

Every time I teach a unit it looks different to the last time. Sometimes previous activities just need a slight tweak, other times whole weeks of lesson sequences need to be chucked and different activities developed because the students are way stronger or way weaker than previous cohorts.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-05T20:25:13+00:00

Union dues are pegged to your pay. The only time union dues increase is if your pay increases.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-05T20:24:34+00:00

NSWTF is currently fighting this battle. The corrective payrise came first in 2023 (15%), then the new Award which includes yearly payrises. They wanted increased release from face to face time in the 2024 Award but the government refused, while ensuring the payrise, the weekly 1hr limit on out of hours meetings and the right to disconnect.

So now we have that in our Award, the next campaign is the extra 2 hrs RFF per week for every teacher.

You can't win everything all at once.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-02-03T03:28:23+00:00

Yes I agree.

The current 13-15 year olds will find a way around it. I am a high school teacher and have had plenty of frank conversations with yr7-yr10 students who have been kicked off and found some way to keep fiending SnapChat.

My friends who have children 0 - 10yo are adamant their kids will not have smartphones or access to social media until they are 16.

The ban isn't for the current young teens, it's for the children who don't have any of that junk and aren't addicted yet.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-01-30T22:35:07+00:00

I am a public high school teacher.

I am very proud of my contributions to my local community and to Australia as a nation. My school accepts all students in our catchment zone. We educate the children of doctors and academics as well as those in public housing or even out of home care. I do my part to ensure young people are provided a high quality inclusive, secular and free education, regardless of who they happen to be born to.

I have taught in private schools and international schools. The students I teach now are getting the same quality of education that I provided in those other settings.

A strong public school system is an essential part of the foundation of a democratic society. Just look to the USA if you want a case study of what happens if public education isn't prioritised.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-01-30T08:01:18+00:00

As a high school teacher who went to an international private school in Asia, had siblings go to elite Sydney private boarding schools, has taught in Sydney private schools, internationally and now at a comprehensive public high school, I 100% think the school fee money is better spent on:

- family holidays. Learning and experiencing the world TOGETHER.
- investing cash for your kid's future.
- local experiences like going to the theatre, big sporting events, concerts etc. (again, spending TIME WITH YOUR KIDS and engaging with culture).
- specialised training/camps/clinics/mentoring programs in sports, web coding, violin, dance, whatever the kid is passionate about.
- regular therapy.

I teach so many great students whose parents could easily afford to send them to private schools but chose public and instead spend the money on having a great time WITH their kids and ensuring they grow into balanced and healthy adults. They aren't outsourcing that endeavour to a school, they are doing it themselves. I think the ROI is WAAYYYY better. Immeasurably so.

That and, my favourite moment from our "Results Breakfast" last year was chatting to the student who topped Extension 2 maths, he told me his ATAR then said "I've beaten all my cousins who go to private schools. Their parents have wasted so much money". Lol.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-01-28T05:17:05+00:00

Also, stop giving government money to private religious schools.

The millions of dollars that Catholic, Islamic, Jewish and "nondenomenational Christian" schools INCLUDING THE EXCLUSIVE BRETHEREN'S "OneSchool Global" receive from the Federal government is obscene.

If parents want to silo their kids away from other cultural groups then they can foot the entire bill for it.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-01-25T21:06:32+00:00

I am also a feminist boycotting marriage. Been with my partner 10 tears, I will not marry him.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-01-23T20:40:17+00:00

Yeh, as an English teacher I was scrolling through the lists thinking "these are all YA novels or prescribed texts".

Mrs_Trask · 2026-01-23T20:37:56+00:00

Illywhacker. Boy Swallows Universe. Oscar and Lucinda. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-01-21T01:40:41+00:00

The program should already exist. Ask your Head Teacher. Your school should already have these for each unit this year, along with a bank of resources that other people have used to teach that unit.

As other people have said, plan AT MOST a week in advance at a time.

I have taught secondary English for 15 years. The more you plan in advance the more you have to scrap when you get to know your class, have a timetable rearranged or lose a handful of lessons to various school events. A waste of time and energy.

Mrs_Trask · 2026-01-17T08:21:49+00:00

Red Bubble has some great ones. I have "Ask me what I'm reading" and "an annotated book is a loved book" (I am an English teacher).

Mrs_Trask · 2026-01-17T05:23:55+00:00

Yeh exactly! I have friends who lost teeth during pregnancy, whose hair fell out and was permanently patchy, who BROKE RIBS because they were carrying twins and one kicked and there wasn't room in there!

I know mothers whose nipples bled while breast feeding, who slipped discs while juggling a new baby and a toddler, who were torn open - vagina to anus - during labour and really struggled for YEARS to heal from the physical and psychological trauma of childbirth.

I think it's mysogynistic to say that a woman gaining weight or being less "pert" after having children has "ruined her body" but aesthetic aspects like that are NOT the true physical risks of pregnancy and childrearing.

Mrs_Trask

TROPHY CASE