Should you just use ChatGPT to mark writing?
An honest read for primary teachers. Where ChatGPT helps, where it doesn't, and what changes when a tool is built to put actionable feedback in front of every child the moment they finish writing.
Can ChatGPT mark writing?
You can prompt it to. The question is what you have to bring before it can produce anything useful.
Curriculum criteria pasted in. The year group and learning objective for this specific task. What “good” looks like at this stage. Age-appropriate language guidance so it doesn't write back like a university tutor. A transcription of the handwriting, because it can't read a child's pencilled exercise book. Then editing the output so it actually sounds like you when the child reads it. By the time you've done all that, you've marked the work.
Howay starts where that runs out. Curriculum criteria already loaded. Handwriting recognised on the page. Feedback written in a teacher's voice.
And the point of the whole thing isn't marking faster. It's getting actionable feedback in front of the child the same lesson they wrote the piece, while the words are still warm in their head.
Who does the work, and when the child sees the feedback
One task: give a Year 3 actionable feedback on a piece of writing they just finished.
With ChatGPT
- You paste in the curriculum criteria
- You transcribe the handwriting first
- You supply year group, age and learning objective
- You draft the rubric and what “good” looks like
- You re-edit the output so it sounds like you
- The child still waits for you to hand the feedback back later
With Howay
- Grounded in official curriculum criteria
- Proprietary AI models trained on children's handwriting
- Every child gets feedback the same lesson, not next week
- Written for a 9-year-old to act on, in a teacher's voice
- Curriculum standards on the work, not numeric grades
- Same standard across every child in the class
About the children's work
Howay was designed around children's data from the first day: how it's stored, how long it's kept, who can see what, and how schools stay in control of it. Consumer ChatGPT's terms and data flow weren't written with a class of 9-year-olds' exercise books in mind. That doesn't make ChatGPT wrong. It makes it the wrong shape for this particular job.
When ChatGPT is the right tool, and when it isn't
ChatGPT is a useful general-purpose tool for teacher-side tasks: drafting a worksheet, rewording an email home, generating a model paragraph to show the class. For getting actionable, curriculum-aligned feedback into every child's hands the same lesson they wrote the piece, Howay is what you want.
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