Marking becomes mechanical when it means...
- Opening and organising files
- Locating criteria repeatedly
- Re-entering the same context
- Recording who is complete
- Rewriting the same structural feedback
- Moving between disconnected systems
About Markqo
Built by teachers who were tired of giving marking their evenings.
Markqo did not begin in a boardroom or a software laboratory. It began with teachers doing what teachers everywhere do: finishing the school day, going home and starting another shift.
We built Markqo because we know that experience. We know how quickly marking expands beyond the work itself: files, criteria, evidence, feedback, records and one more task before bed.
We believed there had to be a better way.Built from inside teaching. Built to give teachers more of their time back.
Our story
It started with another evening lost to marking.
Marking matters. Good assessment matters. Thoughtful feedback can change what a student understands, what they improve and what they believe they are capable of.
But too much of a teacher's time is spent on everything surrounding that judgement.
Finding the right files. Rechecking the criteria. Repeating similar feedback. Keeping track of progress. Moving between documents, systems and conversations. Work that begins in school follows teachers home and quietly takes over the time that was supposed to be theirs.
What if teachers could spend more time assessing—and less time managing everything around assessment?
Shared experience
We are not looking at teaching from the outside.
We know what it feels like to care deeply about doing the job well while also wishing the job would stop consuming so much of life beyond school.
We know the tension between wanting to give every student useful, individual feedback and knowing there are only so many hours in an evening.
We know that teachers do not need another company telling them to work faster, become more productive or lower their standards.
They need tools built around the reality of the work.Markqo is being built for teachers because it began with teachers. Not as a shortcut around assessment, but as a way to reduce the repetition, fragmentation and unnecessary administration that make assessment take longer than it should.
- 01
We know the work follows teachers home
- 02
We know meaningful feedback takes thought
- 03
We know standards cannot simply be rushed
What we want to change
Less time moving work around. More time thinking about what it means.
There is a difference between marking and assessing.
Assessing is the skilled part...
- Understanding what the student has demonstrated
- Weighing the available evidence
- Applying subject and assessment knowledge
- Identifying what would help the learner improve
- Making a fair and defensible judgement
- Communicating feedback in the teacher's own voice
Markqo exists to protect more time for that second part.
The aim is not to remove teachers from assessment. It is to remove more of what stands between the teacher and the judgement only they are qualified to make.
Our principles
The beliefs shaping every decision we make.
Teachers deserve their time back
Time outside school is not spare capacity waiting to be filled with more work. Teachers have families, interests, responsibilities and lives that matter.
Simple should not mean weak
Markqo should feel intuitive from the first use. The complexity belongs beneath the surface, not in the teacher's way.
Technology should serve education
We will not add AI merely because it is fashionable. Every capability must make assessment clearer, more useful or easier to manage.
Evidence matters
A recommendation without visible reasoning is difficult to trust. Markqo is being designed so teachers can understand what supports a decision.
Teachers should remain active
The goal is not passive automation. Teachers should continue reviewing evidence, refining feedback and applying their professional judgement.
Honesty matters more than hype
Markqo will not pretend certainty where uncertainty exists, invent accuracy statistics or promise capabilities before they are ready.
Real people. Real teaching experience.
Markqo is not a faceless technology company.
Founder and teacher
James Clack
Markqo was founded by James Clack, a teacher who experienced first-hand how easily marking could consume evenings and weekends.
He set out to build the tool he wished teachers already had: something clear enough to use without training, powerful enough to support serious assessment work and respectful enough to recognise that technology should support teachers rather than lecture them about their profession.
Markqo is still being built with that original perspective at its centre.
Not: “What can technology make teachers do?”
But: “What can technology take off teachers' shoulders?”
Our promise
We will build alongside teachers, not above them.
- We will listen when something is confusing.
- We will be honest when something is not ready.
- We will protect simplicity as the product grows.
- We will never mistake automation for good assessment.
- We will keep returning to the realities of classrooms, departments and qualifications.
Teachers should be able to do meaningful assessment without sacrificing so much of the life waiting for them afterward.
We built Markqo for teachers like us—and teachers like you.
Bring student work, assessment rules, evidence and review into one clearer process, and keep more of your time for everything beyond it.