How to track coursework grades across a year
Most coursework tracking falls apart in February, not September. The spreadsheet still exists, but nobody is certain which version is current, which assignments have been resubmitted, or who is actually behind. Here is a system that survives a full year.
Start from units, not assignments
Set up the units first, in the order you will teach them, and hang assignments off each unit. Tracking by assignment alone makes it impossible to answer the question you will be asked most often: is this learner complete for the unit, and what is missing?
Record three things per piece of work
The grade or mark, the date it was achieved, and its status – submitted, referred, resubmitted or capped. The status field is the one most teams skip, and it is the one that causes disputes later. A merit achieved on a capped resubmission is not the same as a merit first time, and the record should say so.
Handle resubmissions explicitly
Never overwrite the original grade. Keep the first attempt, then add the resubmission with its own date and outcome. If your course caps resubmitted work, mark it as capped so the final grade calculation is defensible and any internal verification has a clear trail.
Use RAG by half term for the overview
Detail is for the student conversation; colour is for the cohort view. A red/amber/green grid with one row per student and one column per half term tells you in seconds who has drifted, and it is the single most useful thing to put in front of a head of department. Six half terms across the year is usually the right grain – fine enough to intervene, coarse enough to maintain.
For individual percentages, the coursework grade percentage calculator handles weighted marks across several assignments.
Make progress visible to students
Learners who can see their own outstanding work chase it themselves. A read-only link they can open, showing what is achieved and what is outstanding, does more for completion rates than another reminder email. The same link works for a parent, an employer or a curriculum manager.
Keep grades next to attendance and behaviour
Missing coursework almost always has a cause visible elsewhere – a run of absences, a pattern of lateness, a support need. When grades, registers and notes live in separate files, that connection is only spotted at the end of the year. Keeping them together is the point of a single student hub.
Doing it in My Register
My Register supports units and assignments, percentage or criteria-based grading, resubmission and capped statuses, a six half term RAG tracker, and shareable read-only views – alongside the registers, profiles and behaviour records for the same students. It is completely free for teachers and tutors.