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.
| Aspect | With ChatGPT | With Howay |
|---|---|---|
| Curriculum criteria | You paste them in | Already loaded from the curriculum you selected |
| The handwriting | You transcribe the page first | Read from a photograph by proprietary models trained on children’s handwriting |
| Year group and objective | You supply year group, age and learning objective | Set once on the class and assignment, not per child |
| What “good” looks like | You draft the rubric | The curriculum standards for that year, plus your own success criteria |
| The voice it comes back in | You re-edit the output so it sounds like you | Written for a Year 3 child to act on, in a teacher’s voice |
| What lands on the work | Whatever your prompt asked for | Curriculum standards, not numeric grades |
| When the child sees it | Later, when you hand the feedback back | The same lesson, not next week |
| Across a whole class | Depends on how consistently you prompt | The same standard for every child |
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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Get startedSee also: the AI marking guide, AI marking for handwritten writing and Howay for teachers.