But As for You, Teach What Accords with Sound Doctrine. Titus 2 V 1

Marking Policy at Highfield CE Primary School

“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.” Titus 2 V 1

Marking is primarily about supporting children to make as much progress as they can.

It should be accessible for children and manageable for teachers.

It should be motivational. This means that it should offer children:

• Praise for their success
• Acknowledgement of learning
• Recognition of progress

It should relate to:

• The Learning Objective or WALT (are they better at what you wanted them to be better at in this lesson?)

and/or

• Any appropriate Curricular Target (have they shown progress towards a longer term target? Eg atarget step)

It should be formative. This means it should offer children at least one of the following:

• an explanation
• a strategy
• a way forward
• a clear correction
• a target for future work
• a worked example
• a response task to do related to the feedback given

It should inform planning:

• by looking at gaps, misconceptions and trends in a lesson or series of lessons (eg. “Nearly half the class got that wrong!”)

It should inform the setting of curricular targets by subject leaders:

• by highlighting year group or whole school areas for development over time (eg. “They’re struggling with paragraphing extended pieces of work” –“Yes, we’ve found that too...”)

It should not be done to please external audiences:

• Marking is about children’s progress, not for parents or inspectors.

It should be consistent across the entire school:

• The marking codes in this document must be followed.

The marking process

Implementation of the marking process incorporates four stages. All of these stages are most effective when marking and feedback are given at the time eg. during a task, when teaching a focus group. Marking is only effective when the pupil has a clear understanding of the learning outcome, specific criteria or agreed targets. This understanding needs to be shared in an age-appropriate and accessible way in order for it to be most effective.

1. Showing Success

For a closed task with right or wrong answers then ticks and crosses can be used. Aspects of a pupil’s work that links with the learning objectives can be circled, highlighted or underlined (with good, very good). Teacher’s comments should not be long pieces of prose and should only focus on supporting pupil progress through specific feedback and motivational praise.

2. Indicating improvement

Use a symbol (square bracket) to indicate precisely where on the work improvement could be made

Whenever possible pupils should be encouraged to self-mark. The following are examples of how this could be shown in pupils’ books:

Pupils/teachers use traffic lights colours of red, orange or green to indicate outcome against specific criteria

Response partner assessment – another pupil assesses work against specific criteria. This then leads to direct improvement with each partner reflecting on what their peer has suggested

Pupils self-assess against the overall WALT, specific criteria using a checklist of success criteria or their own target step

3. Giving an improvement suggestion

Write or discuss an improvement suggestion to outline to the pupil how to make the specific improvement. Three types of improvement prompt can be used. These should be evident when work is sampled:

reminder (of learning objective)

model/scaffold (providing examples of what pupil needs to do)

example (giving exact sentences, words or processes to copy)

Posing a question to reinforce the improvement needed and give the child an opportunity to respond directly

4. Making the improvement

Time should be given within the lesson and before the next learning starts for the pupils to implement the marking and feedback given. ALL children within Key Stage 1 and 2 should be expected to respond to the feedback given on a daily basis.

Where peer coaching for editing and review is built into the lesson, this should similarly be given sufficient time for the children to reflect further on how they can make the improvements needed. Any improvements that the children make must be made in red pen to demonstrate the quality of their edit and review processes.

It is key to making improvements that all children are explicitly taught how they can be effective peer and self-reviewers early in the Autumn term and that this is revisited to maintain high quality review processes throughout the year.

When answering questions about their work such as:

• How well have I done on this work?
• To what extent have I met the learning objective?

Children can use smileys….
 / I feel really confident about this work
I think I’ve met the learning objective really well
I am ready for new challenge
 / I need more practice on this work
I think I’ve met some of the learning objective
I need more time or practice to make more progress
 / I really didn’t understand this work
I don’t think I’ve met any of the learning objective
I need some help to make more progress

For photos/whiteboard learning, annotations should include the pupil’s name, either I/S/CI, the short date and a statement that shows the learning engendered. For I/S learning a face should be used to show development towards a WALT as the learning was completed on a directed/adult led task.

In the Infant department, traffic lights are used with colours to indicate how the teacher and child feels about the learning of the day and recorded onto the learning train!

Date:

Achieved LO / Showing evidence of working towards LO / No evidence to show understanding of success criteria
I feel really confident about this work.
I think I’ve met the learning objective really well and am ready for a new challenge. / I need more practice on this learning.
I think I’ve met some of the learning objective.
I need more time or practice to make even more progress. / I really didn’t understand this learning.
I don’t think I’ve met any of the learning objective.
I need some help to make more progress.

Across the school, the following 4 symbols link to how well the children are attaining against the LO of the lesson in relation to core English and Maths target steps which are part of the National Expectation. Target steps for Writing and Maths are in children’s books and link to our tracking system on SIMS.

TS fully embedded links to a coding of 3 on our SIMS system.

It indicates that the child has achieved a depth of understanding. Progression is not simply a matter of ticking off what pupils can do. Instead we are concerned with how well they can do things, their fluency and their depth of understanding. Therefore we think it is important to track two things:

the breadth of learning (i.e. how many examples of learning we can see)

the depth of learning (i.e. the fluency of pupils, how well they apply knowledge and skills and their depth of understanding)

Children who achieve this TS fully embedded symbol will have demonstrated that they can describe the idea/concept in his or her own words; represent it in a variety of ways: explain it to someone else; make up his or her own examples (and non- examples)of it;see connections between it and other facts or ideas; recognise it in new situations and contexts; make use of it in various ways, including in new situations. Especially for writing, it should be consistently demonstrated and sustained across a range of learning over time. The teacher would not need to remind of the core learning when it has been sufficiently mastered by the pupil in a range of applied situations.

TS MET links to a coding of 2 on our SIMS system

It indicates that the child has maintained their knowledge and skills in this area of learning. They will be continuing to apply and practice this in a range of situations but will be competent in the core understanding. They will not be able to demonstrate their depth of learning (compared to the pupils above) without a medium level of support.

WORKING TOWARDS TS link to a coding of 1 on our SIMS system

It indicates that the child has been introduced to the key skill or knowledge but is still requiring the teacher to model and explain the learning to enable them to acquire it for themselves. The level of support for these learners will be higher at this stage of refining and understanding the learning points. They may be beginning to demonstrate the knowledge and skills required but are not independently competent.

TS NOT MET links to a coding of 0 on our SIMS system

This code would be used to indicate that the child is unable to be assessed as meeting the target step because it is above their stage of current attainment. This may be due to the fact that they have formally recorded SEND difficulties or EAL difficulties that make it difficult to assess them in English, It may also apply to children newly arrived in the year group for whom previous attainment information is not yet known.

Circle Codes

All pieces of work must have a code to indicate the level of support. This is the following set of letters and can be added by the child or an adult:

V Teacher discussion with pupil. It is helpful for this to show discussion focus

Tor This is what you need to do to improve / Next steps

SPupil has had support on a directed/adult led task

PLPartner learning

GLGroup learning

If a child is working independently, then there will be no need to allocate a code as it will be by exception of the other codes.

Year R Specific codes within learning journals are as follows:

CI Child Initiated

AI Adult Initiated

AD Adult Directed

REMEMBERS – This is the Year R equivalent of reminding children of core expectations (AS STANDARD) as they demonstrate the skills identified on the Year R leaves – eg writing letters and numbers correctly etc. It is also used to share success criteria with the children in Year R.

Across the school, Pupils are reminded of theirAS STANDARD expectations when they have proven that they can use these core skills. AS STANDARD expectations are in addition to target steps and reiterate for each phase/department what they are working to overall. They are used to reinforce areas for improvement and praise in pupils’ books. Some teachers have created visual symbols to reinforce target step criteria to avoid writing long prose. These are attached as an appendix at the end of the document under Appendix One.

For Year R children, it is expected that most of the feedback with be of a verbal nature. Where individual pupils show that they are ready for these codes, a few can be carefully selected as appropriate. However the core priority for Year R is to respond to verbal questioning and feedback and be given opportunity to frequently reflect on their learning and thinking.

The codes below are to be used for all books across the whole school consistently. They are the core consistencies and non-negotiable. They are what will be used to review the impact of marking and feedback over time in children’s books.

x / (This should be used in English or maths, particularly if an answer is factually or mathematically wrong,
eg. 2 + 3 = 6 .
? / I’m not sure what you mean/how you worked this out...
(This can be used in English or maths. Underline with a wavy line or bracket the section which doesn’t make sense and write ? in the margin or nearby )This means that the child has to explain something (to make them read and think about their writing, e.g. same word, no capital letter for proper noun etc)
Sp
/ Spelling mistake
(Underline the word which is spelt incorrectly with a straight line and write spin the margin or nearby. Please also correct spellings in maths books, particularly mathematical vocabulary. Pick up on core words that need to be corrected and ask the children to re-write them x 3 as part of the response to writing.
// / New paragraph
(Use to show that a new paragraph is needed; sometimes you will need to add a quick explanation of why a new paragraph is needed, eg. New scene, time has moved on, new character speaking etc.)
^ / Omission or addition mark
(This should be used if something is missing or needed to be added to , most likely in cases where a ^ is missing.)
/ Capital Letters and full stops - circle if they are missing for those children who are insecure. But then expect them to look for others that may be as part of their edit and review response task.
P [ / Presentation
(This can be used with by square bracketing any section you want to draw attention to, where presentation needs improving. Don’t forget to say how presentation should be improved and if you want sections to be repeated or copied out again. Also don’t forget to comment where presentation is good or excellent!)

/ A circled word means incorrect use of a word eg “was” for “were”. This supports reading for sense, tense changes or challenging word choices. This should prompt them to check where they have continued to make a similar error in their writing.

All work should be marked using a green pen which contrasts clearly with the colour of the work. If adults scribe for a child, this should also be in a green pen.

There should be regular evidence that the following practice has taken place as part of a commitment to make marking and feedback a dialogic process between staff and children.

• Every child should be responding to feedback and be given Response Tasksin both English and Maths
• Every child should have their book marked during the lesson in both English and Maths as well as after the lesson as appropriate
• Every child should have regular opportunity to either peer or self assess in English and Maths

There should be clear impact on marking in order to lead to a best outcome. There should not be any learning taking place that, over a series of days, would be unmarked as this would disadvantage the children from having the opportunity to respond to teacher guidance. All pieces of work must be acknowledged by staff initials in the absence of any other evidence that it has been looked at. This also applies to supply/cover staff so it is clear who gave the feedback.

Equal opportunities:

All assessment, recording and reporting will be carried out appropriately with every pupil, regardless of gender, race or ability.

Other relevant School Policies:Teaching and Learning, Assessment for Learning

Governor Group responsible: Faith in Learning

Date of Policy: October 2017 Next Review October 2018

Review date: Annually

Appendix One – Codes and Procedures

In Key Stage One, These are displayed in classrooms and link to the end of year expectations as part of the National Curriculum. Theycan be found in the following area of the server:

Teachers Only – Infant department – Assessment – Targets

In the Junior department, target steps are displayed in the classroom alongside AS standard expectations. AS Standard codes are displayed as a summative emphasis on maintaining standards over time.

Target steps for maths and writing are also displayed in the front of books for Key Stage One and Two and are used as an ongoing record of progress through the year against the defined end of year expectations. Teachers are expected to regularly record outcomes using the Target Step codes outlined above which relate to the SIMS tracker.

All target steps are saved under the assessment folder in the server.

Additional codes can be used on a discretionary basis but should be displayed and fully understood by the teachers and children. They should also not be used instead of the non-negotiable codes detailed in the main guidance of this document and should be kept to a minimum to avoid overload.

All codes should continue to adhere to the core principle of enabling children to make progress.

Current codes which may supplement the core codes in use are as follows:

/ As Standard
/ ‘Talk it’ – ‘Write it’ – ‘Read it’
/ Superstars
/ Target Next Time (specific target linked to next piece of learning)
/ Keyword
/ capital letter
/ full stop
/ Fred fingers (sounds in word)

Think Marks

Children and adults may also use the codes below on a discretionary basis to avoid writing longer prose as part of their feedback to pupils. These will be most useful in reading and writing related tasks to illustrate the impact on the reader and give an accessible way of demonstrating their thinking to the pupil. In the Infants, they will only be exposed to the question markand love heart symbol.

Think marks can be a useful vehicle for further explaining and justifying eg “This was funny because…. “, “I could visualise this well because of the words…..” as part of scaffolding for praise and improvement to pupils.