Lady Lumley’s School

MARKING POLICY 2015 - 18

Accepted by the Governing Body
Teaching and Learning 23rd June 2015 / To be reviewed at least 3 yearly
Last review : June 2015
Review by: June 2018

RATIONALE

Lady Lumley’s School recognises that teachers’ marking of students’ progress and attainment are central functions in the learning process. The focus of written feedback is on helping students, parents and carers gain a clear understanding of how well students have gained knowledge, concepts and skills and that through marking the students are prompted to improve their learning.

AIMS

·  To establish a consistent approach to the way students’ work is marked.

·  To provide a framework for departments in developing detailed department marking policies, whilst allowing a degree of freedom to implement marking policies which best suit the specific needs of different subject areas.

·  To ensure that students’ work is marked in such a way that it improves learning and builds self-esteem. A dialogue should be created between teacher and student.

·  To develop a process that confirms when students are on track and lets them know what needs to be done to improve and make progress.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Marking and the implementation of this policy is the responsibility of all teachers.

The headteacher is responsible for ensuring all staff, students and parents are aware of the policy and that the policy is fully implemented.

The governing body is responsible for ensuring this policy meets the needs of Lady Lumley’s School; is regularly reviewed and monitored for its effectiveness.

MONITORING AND EVALUATING THE POLICY

The Senior Leadership Team will:

·  monitor the implementation of the Marking Policy

·  conduct work scrutinies to assess the quality, extent and effectiveness of feedback and its impact on learning

·  evaluate the implementation of the policy and provide diagnostic feedback on how formative marking across the school can be further developed

The headteacher will report annually to the governing body on the implementation of the policy.

The policy will be reviewed on a 3 yearly cycle.

LINKED POLICIES

Assessment Policy

Home Learning Policy

Teaching Policy

APPENDICES

Appendix 1 - Principles of Marking, Marking For Literacy and Numeracy and general aspects of marking

Appendix 2 - The roles of staff, parents and students

Appendix 3 - Lady Lumley’s Marking Policy (in all exercise books)


Appendix 1 - Principles of Marking

·  The main purpose of marking is formative – helping students to evaluate their work, give advice on how their work can be improved and then help students act upon the advice given.

·  Students should be made aware of the criteria being used for marking.

·  A dialogue should be created between teacher and student. When marked books are returned to students it is good to allow time for students to read the comments and targets and respond to the feedback using a purple pen.

·  Where appropriate students should be encouraged to assess their own work against the learning outcomes, possibly with help from other students, a dictionary, a reference book or whatever is appropriate.

·  Where marks/grades are given these should be recorded.

·  Marking will inform teacher planning.

Whole-school presentation expectations

When completing written work students should adhere to the following rules:

1.  Write the date clearly at the beginning of EVERY lesson on the left hand side of the page – example: Monday 3rd March 2014

2.  Write in blue or black pen. Draw in pencil.

3.  Dates and titles should be underlined with a RULER.

4.  Each lesson’s work should either be ruled off or start on a new page.

5.  All sheets should be glued in and not folded.

6.  No rough work in your book – back or front.

7.  Leave feedback space when directed.

8. Respond to your teacher’s comments in purple.

Type and frequency of marking

There are distinct types of marking that teachers can use and students and parents can expect to see. The frequency of each type that is used will vary between departments and key stages. Agreed minimums should be clear in the marking policies of each departmental area.

1  Acknowledgment marking

Checking that the work has been completed.

This should happen regularly – individual departmental marking policies should outline the regularity with which this should occur. Work should be signed and dated to show that it has been checked for completion.

2 Knowledge exercises / past papers

These should be set as appropriate by individual departments. If the marking produces a level or a grade, this should be shared with parents and students and recordedintheteacher’s mark book. It is helpful to students if development comments are also used where appropriate so that students are given advice how to improve.


3. Dialogue marking (Tick and a Target)

Dialogue comments can only raise standards if the comments are acted upon. They can help students to understand the main purposes of their learning and thereby grasp what they need to do to improve. Department policies should indicate the frequency that dialogue marking takesplace.

Dialogue markingshouldusea tick and a target and should be laid out as follows:

Tick- ü and a positive comment (or comments) which relates to the learning outcomes and progress made.

Target- T -onearea where the success criteria have not been met and a suggestion or question to encourage further thinking. Students should initial the box to acknowledge that there has been a response to the feedback.

The strengths and next steps should relate to the success criteria set for the piece of work given. The feedback should be constructive, identifying the next steps for the students to follow to meet the success criteria. The teacher will use a pink highlighter pen on the student’s work to exemplify areas of success.

4. Verbal Feedback

Where stamps (or equivalent annotation) are used to indicate “verbal feedback given”, students should record the verbal comments given beside the stamp.

5.  Peer Marking

This can be a very useful activity as long as students have been given enough guidance to carry out peer marking effectively.

Students should use the same system as staff for dialogue marking - a tick and a target.

Students should use a yellow highlighter to exemplify areas of success when peer marking.

Students need to be given practice at peer and self-marking.

An effective way to do this is to provide students with examples of work similar to that which they are expected to produce. This work would be from a previous group or created by the teacher and made anonymous. All students could assess this work and then share their assessment and the reasons behind them. Students could also practise giving feedback on this work. Further examples of such practice should leave students in a strong position to assess their own and others’ work and feedback in a sensitive and productive manner.


Marking For Literacy

Marking for literacy will improve students’ literacy.

It is appropriate to adopt a common-sense approach and to be sensitive about individual student needs.

For some students it may be necessary to adopt particular strategies to aid the correction of work, for example, encouraging the use of an ACE dictionary or offering them the first part of the word to help with the correction. As a dyslexia-friendly school we must encourage this approach.

For students to take pride in their work they must realise that spelling, grammar and punctuation are not just important in English lessons but are essential for successful communication everywhere.

Work should be marked for literacy using the following symbols:

SP / Spellings which need correction will be identified with SP. You will be expected to re-write the whole word correctly three times.
P / Punctuation error - please correct.
C / Capital letter error - please correct.
// / New paragraph needed.

Marking for Numeracy

Work should be marked for numeracy using the following symbols:

W / Working out missing - all answers must be supported by clear working out.
E / An error in calculation - the method is correct but there is a mistake in the working.

General aspects of marking

The following symbols should also be used when marking.

/ Presentation not up to expectations. You may be required to re-write this piece of work.
/ Amount of work not satisfactory in the time provided.
X or / Any other mistake.


Appendix 2 - The roles of staff and students

Teachers need to ensure that:

·  marking is regular enough and thorough enough to be aware of errors and inaccuracies

·  work is marked in green

·  written comments communicate clearly to individual students and their parents the student’s strengths and weaknesses, level of performance, suggestions for improving their knowledge, understanding and skills and set targets for future attainment

·  some comments are phrased as questions/prompts to stimulate thinking, reflection and independent learning

·  comments are personal in tone and refer to the student by name

·  comments are clearly related to the learning outcomes

·  marking reinforces the standard for which we are aiming

·  relevant praise and encouragement are given to show student work and effort is valued

·  inaccurate or inadequate responses to written or practical tasks are not accepted and are challenged

·  steps are taken to act on missing, incomplete or poorly presented work to ensure improvement. This should be in line with the departmental policy

·  peer assessment and self-assessment are planned for and students are supported in developing the skills of peer and self-assessment (student involvement in assessing pieces of work can provide students with a powerful insight into what is expected of them and consequently how they can improve within a subject)

·  students clearly understand the criteria that will be used to mark a piece of work and exemplar work is provided so that students are able to understand the standards that are expected

·  when marked work is returned, lesson time is set aside to allow students to respond to the teacher’s comments and improve their understanding

·  marking is used to judge if teaching and learning has been effective and inform planning

·  the type of marking of the task to be undertaken is part of the planning of individual lessons and sequences of lessons

·  parents have access to their children’s work

Subject Leaders will:

·  take responsibility for ensuring that all members of their department are following the school marking policy and produce a departmental appendix to the whole school policy to allow for specific departmental needs

·  conduct work scrutiny to monitor the quality of written feedback in each Key Stage once per term to monitor the impact of the department marking policy

Advanced Teaching Support will:

·  read through the comments written by teachers in order to guide SEND students on how work can be improved and ensure that students act upon comments

·  enter any information from teacher comments that parents will find useful to support students with their learning at home in the student planner

·  identify if comments made by teachers show a common area for development and if so inform the Head of Learning Support and actively work with the student to improve in that specific area (and inform parents so they can support students at home)

Parents should:

·  regularly look at written feedback from teachers in their children’s books and support their children with the correction of errors and suggested improvements to their work

Students will:

·  present their work according to school guidelines and keep standards of presentation high

·  indicate when they are completing a piece of home learning with the date.

·  approach peer assessment respectfully and sensitively

·  read the teacher comment carefully when work is returned

·  act upon the feedback they are given and ask for support with this if needed

·  write a personal target for improving work in future

·  look up words they have misspelled and correct them

·  self-assess work when requested and comment on how well they think they have met the success criteria

·  routinely use written feedback to reflect on strengths and weaknesses of their work to identify ways in which they can improve

·  be responsible for looking after their exercise books/folders

·  record assessment results in their exercise books/folders

·  keep assessed pieces of work in their exercise books/ folders

·  take marked work home and share with their parents/carers

The Senior Leadership Team will:

·  monitor the implementation of the Whole School Marking Policy

·  conduct whole school work scrutinies to assess the quality and extent of formative feedback and impact on learning

·  evaluate the implementation of the policy and provide diagnostic feedback on how formative marking across the school can be further developed


Appendix 3 - Lady Lumley’s Marking Policy (in all exercise books)

Presentation of Exercise Books and Marking Policy

Whole-school presentation expectations
1.Write the date clearly at the beginning of EVERY lesson on the left hand side of the page – example: Monday 3rd March 2014
2. Write in blue or black pen. Draw in pencil.
3. Dates and titles should be underlined with a RULER.
4. Each lesson’s work should either be ruled off or start on a new page.
5. All sheets should be glued in and not folded.
6. No rough work in your book – back or front.
7. Leave feedback space when directed.
8. Respond to your teacher’s comments in purple.
Code / Meaning
Focussed marking
ü  / Tick is used to write a positive comment(s) on how well the piece of work has met the learning outcome(s).
The teacher will use a pink highlighter pen on the student’s work to exemplify areas of success
Students use a yellow highlighter to exemplify areas of success when peer marking.
T / T=target - this is used to write comments about how you can improve your work. You must put your initials in the box when you have responded to/considered the feedback.
General aspects.
/ Presentation not up to expectations. You may be required to re-write this piece of work.
/ Amount of work not satisfactory in the time provided.
X or / Any other mistake.

Literacy Marking Guidelines