During the Great Marking Era, exercise books became disproportionately valued as a record of teacher performance. With that era ending, we must radically evaluate the purpose of exercise books and what we expect to see in them. In our dept, what we expect to see from books is: Titles/LO Basically no notes at all Lots of work 90%+ of work self assessed in purple Additions, emendations and corrections, not just ticks or crosses No teacher marking No full sentences Broadly consistency in the quantity of work across a class Do Nows in the back Limited doodling No random bits of paper floating around Very very limited bits of paper stuck in (we use booklets or textbooks for the questions [not writing answers], to limit the faf of cutting and sticking) Everything else (like notes) is provided to students separately. Their book is just an extension of their working memory. It's not a revision guide.