- Writing feedback comments faster
- Building mark schemes and rubrics
- Differentiating questions and worksheets
- Report writing without the repetition
- Planning quicker marking sessions
- Where teachers get this wrong
- Building your own prompt library
- Fitting this into a real school week
- Frequently asked questions
- Primary sources
The short version: ChatGPT can't mark your class's work for you and it shouldn't grade anything final on its own, but it can draft feedback comments, mark schemes, differentiated questions and report comments in a fraction of the time it takes to write them from scratch. Use the prompts below, then check and personalise every output before it goes near a pupil.
The rule I'd stick to: ChatGPT drafts, you decide. It's brilliant at giving you a strong starting point for repetitive writing tasks. It's not a replacement for your judgement on whether a piece of work really meets the standard.
Writing feedback comments faster
Feedback comments are where most marking time disappears, especially when you're writing similar things over and over for thirty different pupils.
I teach [subject/year group]. Here is a pupil's answer to the question "[question]": [paste answer]. Write two positive comments and one specific, actionable next step, in a tone appropriate for [age group], without giving away the correct answer.
Write five different versions of feedback for pupils who got the right answer but showed no working out in a [subject] task, encouraging them to show their method next time, each phrased slightly differently so they don't look copy and pasted.
Turn this rough note into a proper written comment for a pupil's book: [paste your shorthand note, e.g. "good intro, weak conclusion, spelling errors"]. Keep it to two sentences and end with one clear target.
Write a bank of ten sentence starters I can use for feedback on [type of work, e.g. persuasive writing], ranging from "needs significant improvement" to "exceeding expectations", that I can quickly adapt for individual pupils.
Building mark schemes and rubrics
A clear mark scheme before you start marking a stack of books cuts your actual marking time down more than almost anything else on this list.
Create a mark scheme out of [number] marks for this question: "[paste the question]" for [year group/exam board if relevant], showing what a full mark answer, a partial answer and a weak answer each look like.
Write a simple rubric for marking [type of task, e.g. a group presentation] against four criteria: [list your criteria], with three levels for each (needs work, good, excellent) described in plain language pupils will understand.
I need to mark [number] essays on [topic] against these learning objectives: [paste objectives]. Write a quick checklist I can tick against each essay to speed up consistent marking across the whole set.
Differentiating questions and worksheets
Writing three versions of the same task for different ability groups is exactly the kind of repetitive task ChatGPT is built for.
Take this worksheet question and write three versions at different difficulty levels for [year group]: one for pupils who need extra support, one at the standard level, and one extension question for pupils who finish early. Original question: [paste question].
Write five multiple choice questions on [topic] for [year group], with four answer options each, including one common misconception as a wrong answer for each question so I can spot who needs re-teaching.
Simplify this exam-style question into plain, accessible language for a pupil with [additional need, e.g. dyslexia or EAL], keeping the actual content and difficulty the same: [paste question].
Report writing without the repetition
Report season is where marking fatigue peaks. These prompts help you get through a class set without every comment sounding identical.
Write a school report comment for a pupil in [subject] who is [describe effort and attainment, e.g. "hard working, average attainment, needs to speak up more in class"], in a warm, professional tone of around three sentences.
Give me ten alternative ways to phrase "needs to work harder" for a school report that are honest but constructive and won't upset parents.
Write a report comment template with blanks I can fill in for each pupil, covering effort, attainment, one strength and one target, so my reports stay consistent across [number] pupils.
Planning quicker marking sessions
Sometimes the biggest time saving is a better system, not a better sentence.
Suggest a marking approach for [number] books in [subject] that I can realistically finish in under [time], balancing useful feedback against speed, including which parts of the marking I could do as whole class feedback instead of written comments.
Write a whole class feedback sheet template covering common errors, a model answer, and next steps, that I can read out and hand back instead of writing individual comments in every book for this set on [topic].
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Where teachers get this wrong
The most common mistake is pasting a pupil's full name or identifying details into ChatGPT. Keep prompts anonymous: "a Year 8 pupil" not a real name. The second mistake is using an AI-written comment word for word without reading the actual work first. It should reflect what the pupil really did, not a generic version of what a pupil at that level might do. The third is over-relying on it for anything that counts towards a formal grade. Use it for drafting and speed, not for final judgements on attainment.
Building your own prompt library
The prompts above are a starting point, not a fixed list. The real time saving comes when you adapt a handful of them to your own subject, year group and marking style, then keep them somewhere you can reuse them every week rather than retyping from memory.
A simple approach: keep a document with your five or six most used prompts, each with the parts you change highlighted, like the year group, the topic and the specific skill you're assessing. When a new set of books lands on your desk, you copy the relevant prompt, swap in the details, and you're marking within a minute rather than starting cold.
It's also worth testing a prompt on a handful of pieces of work before trusting it across a whole class set. Run it on three or four books first, check the tone and accuracy against what you'd have written yourself, and adjust the wording of the prompt if it's coming out too harsh, too vague, or too focused on the wrong thing. Once it's giving you comments you'd be happy to put your name to, you can move through the rest of the set with much more confidence and speed.
Some schools are starting to share prompt libraries across departments, which is worth suggesting if yours hasn't yet. A good mark scheme prompt or feedback template built once by one teacher can save the whole department hours over a term, rather than everyone solving the same problem separately.
Fitting this into a real school week
The busiest weeks, report deadlines, parents' evening prep, the last week before a holiday when every subject wants books in, are exactly when this kind of prompt library pays off most. Instead of starting from a blank screen at 8pm with a stack of books still to go, you've already got a set of tested prompts ready to adapt in a couple of minutes each.
It's worth building this gradually rather than trying to switch your whole marking approach over in one go. Pick one recurring task, maybe report comments or feedback on a specific type of essay, and get comfortable with a prompt for that first. Once it's saving you real time and you trust the output, move on to the next task. Trying to change everything about how you mark in one week usually means nothing sticks, while one solid habit built slowly tends to last the whole year.
A few colleagues finding this useful together tends to spread faster than one person working alone too. If a head of department or a trusted colleague is willing to try a couple of these prompts alongside you and compare notes on what worked, you'll land on a stronger set of department wide templates far quicker than working it out solo, and it gives you both someone to sense check the tone against before it reaches a pupil's book.
Every ChatGPT prompt guide I have written is indexed on the ChatGPT prompts hub.
If you want your own numbers, use the free prompt generator.
Frequently asked questions
Is it against school policy to use ChatGPT for marking?
Policies vary a lot by school and multi-academy trust. Check your school's AI and data protection policy before using it with real pupil work, and never paste in a pupil's full name or other identifying information.
Will this make my feedback sound less like me?
It can, if you copy and paste the output straight into a book. Treat every answer as a draft: read it, tweak the phrasing so it sounds like you, and add anything specific to that piece of work.
Can I use these prompts for exam board marking?
No. Formal exam marking and moderation must follow your exam board's own rules, which currently do not allow AI tools in the marking process itself. These prompts are for classroom marking and internal assessment only.
How much time can this really save?
Teachers using these kinds of prompts for a full class set of books typically report cutting the writing part of marking by around a third to a half, since the thinking about what to say is mostly done for you. The reading and judging still takes the time it takes.
Marking will never be quick, but a lot of it is repetitive writing rather than actual judgement. Hand the repetitive part to ChatGPT, keep the judgement for yourself, and you'll get your evenings back a little sooner.
