Marking and Feedback Policy September 2016

Aims

It is important that the teaching team provides constructive feedback to children, both written and orally, focusing on success and improvement needs against learning objectives (WALTs). This enables children to become reflective learners and helps them to close the gap between what they can do currently and what we would like them to do.

We recognise that the teaching team consists of teachers, student teachers, teaching assistants (TAs), HLTAs, supply teachers, nursery nurses and any other specialist teachers employed by the academy.

Principles for Marking and Feedback

Marking and feedback should:

  • Be manageable for the teaching team and accessible to the children.
  • Relate to the WALT.
  • Involve all of the teaching team working with the children.
  • Recognises the child’s achievements.
  • Give clear next steps so children know what they need to do to improve and make progress.
  • Allow specific, identified time for children to read, reflect and respond to marking where appropriate (Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time or DIRT).
  • Respond to individual learning needs taking opportunities to mark face-to-face where appropriate during lessons or daily DIRT sessions.
  • Inform future planning.
  • Follows consistent practice, with consistent use of codes, throughout the academy.

General Guidelines

  • Marking includes both oral and written feedback. It is important that children receive oral feedback from a member of the teaching team regularly during lesson time or during DIRT time. This is particularly important for the least able pupils who may find it difficult to read, understand and act upon written feedback.
  • All adults should be involved in the marking/feedback process. This is particularly the case where an adult has worked a child or group of children during the lesson and can therefore give informed feedback.
  • All adults should follow the same codes and guidelines when marking work.
  • Where work is marked by an adult other than the class teacher (e.g. TA, HLTA, supply teacher, student teacher) they should initial the work so it is clear who has provided feedback.
  • Marking and feedback cantake place during lessons with the child or a group of children by a member of the teaching team.
  • ‘Green pen’ next steps comments should be used during lessons to extend children’s learning so that they can respond to this immediately – particularly in maths where they have got a number of sums correct and are ready for greater challenge.
  • Although it is acknowledged that not every piece of work can be marked in detail, it is expected that either during or following most lessons a child’s work will be given feedback (oral, acknowledgement in red pen or next steps in green pen) by a member of the teaching team. Therefore, children’s books should not generally contain more than two consecutive pieces of work without feedback, although this could simply be acknowledgement marking (in red).
  • Work is marked to the WALT and/or the child’s own targets for improvement.
  • Marking should always model good presentation, handwriting, spelling and grammar.
  • Consistent colours are used to mark throughout the school, as follows:

-Red marking pens (or pink highlighters) are used to acknowledge children’s work and highlight where they have done something well or met/exceeded the objective. Acknowledgement marking in red should always relate back to the WALT.

-Green marking pens(or green highlighters) areused for areas for improvement/next steps. These comments are for children to respond to so they must give the child an instruction which makes it clear what you expect them to do. (see Appendix 1 – Next Steps Comments for examples)

-It is agreed by teaching staff that green next steps marking is most important in terms of helping the child to make progress and should therefore take up most of the teacher’s time. Red marking should be kept to a minimum by ticking/double ticking theWALT where it has been achieved (rather than rewriting it), ticking/double ticking words or particular aspects of the child’s work that you are pleased with.

-To acknowledge children’s successes or effort in books a short, simple statement in red pen with house points awarded accordingly by the adult should usually be sufficient.

Next Steps / Green Marking

It is acknowledged that not all pieces of work can be marked in detail with green/next steps comments. Teachers will need to decide whether work will simply be acknowledged (using red pen) or given more detailed attention and next steps to respond to (using green pen). However, it is expected that generally at least one piece of work per week in both literacy and numeracy will be marked in detail, including green next steps comments(see Appendix 1 – ‘Next Step Marking Statements’ for examples).

Independent, extended pieces of writing and drafts should always have green/next step comments so children now how to improve their work when redrafting. In year 6 however children are encouraged to edit their own work independently so extended pieced of writing and drafts will receive more general guidelines in their feedback of how they might consider improving their work.

Response to Feedback

Children should be given time to respond to green next steps comments during Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time (DIRT time), this is identified in all class timetables. In Year 2 and KS2 children should use purple response pens to do this so it is clear that they have responded directly to the next step comment. Where children have responded it is important that a member of the teaching team then checks and acknowledges their response to ensure they have understood and responded appropriately.

Self and Peer Assessment

Children should be trained, as they move through the year groups, to self-assess and then peer assess against the learning objective using success criteria to help them.

Where appropriate children can self-assess using green, blue and orange colour pencil next to the learning objective to identify if they feel they have met, partially met or not met it. In Early Years/KS1 children might use smiley faces instead of colours to self-assess.

Green, blue and orange cards should also be used by children during lessons to show if they understand/feel confident about what they are doing. Particularly useful in numeracy lessons.

Green, blue and orange coloured card/coloured trays are also used for children to hand in their work at end of the lesson to indicate how they feel they have done.

Feedback/peer assessment can be oral or written according to the age and ability of the child, and appropriateness of task.

Children should be trained and encouraged to give an improvement suggestion (next step).

Children should be given time and opportunity to act upon suggestions made by their peers (DIRT)

The quality of the improvement suggestions and of the peer assessment should be overseen and monitored by the teacher/adult working with the child.

Marking and Feedback in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

It is acknowledged that in Nursery children do not have a work book to record work so all feedback to children will be verbal feedback. Assessment observations made by the teaching team will provide the evidence of children’s progress and attainment against the published ‘Development Matters’ statements.

In Reception children record some work in their work books and some written feedback will be found in these. However, as in Nursery, assessment observations made by the teaching team will provide the majority of evidence of children’s progress and attainment.

In the EYFS marking and feedback strategies will include:

-Verbal praise

-Written annotations, short and narrative observations (written)

-Annotation of work and photographs by members of the teaching team

-Children beginning to annotate their own work and pictures

-Oral dialogue with children about their play, work or books

-Children’s response to the feedback they are given – child’s voice.

Marking of literacy across other subjects

Feedback and marking should always focus on the learning objective for that piece of work. However, it is important to encourage good literacy skills across all subject areas. Therefore, some work (e.g. science or topic work) may have subject specific next steps relating to the learning objective and also a next step focusing on a significant or repeated literacy error that the adult has identified in their written work.

Agreed Marking codes

The following marking codes have been agreed by staff across the academy and should be used by all adults involved in giving feedback and marking to ensure consistency across the school.

Codes in red pen:

  • I - Child worked independently
  • TA – with TA support
  • CT – Class Teacher support
  • PW – worked with a partner
  • VF – Verbal feedback given in class with brief explanation (e.g. VF capital letters)
  • HP – house points
  •  - Met LO or identify in work things that they have done well
  •  - Partially met LO

Codes in green pen:

- Spelling error(with Sp at bottom of work to give the correct spelling if appropriate)

//- New paragraph

Wiggly line - Under grammar errors

P in margin- Punctuation error (and circle or correct the mistake)

No more than three of each of the errors above should be identified in any one piece of work as it will take too long for children to respond to.

Monitoring of Marking and Feedback

The importance of consistent, high quality marking and feedback in helping children to make progress is acknowledged and as such will be monitored by the SLT as part of routine lesson observations and through work scrutiny of all year groups by the SLT periodically throughout the year. Appendix 2shows the criteria used to evaluate the effectiveness of marking and feedback (as found in the LAT Marking and Feedback Policy). Where practice of found to be in need of improvement the class teacher will be informed and given areas to work on which will be monitored again within a two week period.

Subject leaders and phase leaders will also monitor the effectiveness of marking and feedback in their own phase/subject as part of their leadership role periodically throughout the year.

Where appropriate best practice and areas for development will be highlighted by the SLT at staff meetings for all staff to consider and discuss.

Examples of best practice marking which have been developed by the teachersare kept centrally in the both of the site staff rooms for teaching staff to refer back to as necessary.

As mentioned previously, it is acknowledged that marking and feedback should be manageable for the teaching team in terms of time and workload and this has been fundamental in the developing of this policy. In order to support teachers in managing this workload the teaching staff have put together a list of possible strategies to use and this is found at Appendix 3.

Evaluation and Review of this Policy

This policy has been developed through discussions with teaching staff and identification of best practice across the academy. The policy will be monitored through further consultation with staff and through the planned yearly review.

Policy Reviewed :- September 2016

Next Review Date:-September 2017

J.Burgess

Appendix 1 - Next Steps Marking Statements

Literacy

  • Key word/letter formation corrections e.g. write the letter e correctly 10 times or write the word ‘because’ 10 times
  • As per marking code, green bubble to show spelling errors
  • Correct your spellings and write a sentence for each one with the word spelt correctly
  • The word ‘spectacular’ means something amazing or extra special, try writing another sentence with this word in (where child has used an ambitious word in the wrong context in their work)
  • Use dictionary to correct your spellings and write them correctly 5 times each
  • Describe {in two sentences} how would the character feel/ what the setting looks like.
  • Write a sentence with the adjective ‘……’ in.
  • Now write a sentence using an adverb e.g. amazingly to start a sentence.
  • Add a full stop, comma, question mark, speech marks etc. to this sentence (can be re-written or one highlighted in the child’s work)
  • Rewrite the highlighted sentence adding a good adjective.
  • List five different words for ‘nice’.
  • Correct this sentence.
  • Highlight/underline the verb in this sentence.
  • Tick the sentence that makes sense/is correct.
  • Choose three verbs/adjectives/adverbs you have used in your writing and change them to powerful verbs.
  • Underline in your work an example of a good adjective
  • Now write 5 adjectives to describe …
  • Copy this sentence (highlighted) out in your best handwriting, remembering to …
  • Geog/Hist – list five effects of flooding of rivers/ list three facts about the Fire of London

Maths

  • Now try this one.
  • Try this one again ….
  • Next try ….
  • Try this question again remembering to …..
  • Now go on to section ….
  • Move on to question …..
  • Solve this problem:
  • Look at number … and try it again.
  • Look at your errors, explain in a sentence where you made a mistake.
  • Now try this method … (show example)
  • Write a number problem including these numbers.
  • Write a question that could have the answer 15.
  • Find the mistake in this sum…..
  • Look at number 15 and find your mistake.
  • Show this time on the clock
  • Draw an array for this multiplication sum.
  • Write the multiplication sum for this array.
  • Show me another way of making 50p using silver coins only? etc.
  • Now add 3 amounts together.
  • Re-write this sum in the squares like this (give example)
  • A question to challenge e.g. problem solving.
  • Draw 3 different acute angles accurately using a ruler
  • Draw this shape again using a ruler

Appendix 2 – Criteria for evaluating marking and feedback

UNACCEPTABLE / PRACTICE THAT NEEDS IMPROVING / GOOD PRACTICE / EXEMPLARY PRACTICE
Literacy / There is no evidence of marking for literacy. / There is evidence of some marking for literacy, E.G. corrections of spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors.
Whole Academy codes are used sporadically or not at all. / Marking for literacy is clearly evident in work. There is regular evidence of the use of the Academy's marking for literacy codes/or there may be regular comments or targets relating to the improvement of literacy. There is some evidence of students responding to this. / In addition to the criteria “GOOD” there is lots of evidence of students acting upon teachers’ literacy comments e.g. correcting SPAG mistakes
Frequency / Marking is not completed within The Academy time frame and is very inconsistent/non- existent. / Work is marked/checked within the Academy policy timeframe however this is predominantly ‘acknowledgement marking’ only. / Most books are marked within the agreed timeframe according to the Academy policy. There is the appropriate balance of ‘acknowledgement’ and ‘quality teacher’ marking. / All books are marked within the agreed timeframe according to the Academy policy. There is a good balance of ‘acknowledgement’ and ‘quality teacher’ marking.
Quality of feedback and response / There are no comments in the students’ books linked to praise or areas to improve.
Targets are not set or are unhelpful in how to improve. Students do not respond to teachers comments. / There are some comments in the students’ books which may include praise and suggest areas for improvement.
Targets do not always best inform the student of how they can improve.
There is little evidence that students respond to the teacher feedback given. / Written feedback takes into account level/grade descriptors and is written in a clear and constructive manner. The feedback includes praise and suggests subject-specific areas for development.
In addition, verbal feedback may be evidenced in students’ work.
There is some evidence that students are given time to respond in appropriate detail to the written or verbal feedback given. / In addition to the “GOOD” criteria there is clear evidence of regular dialogue between teacher and student. Dialogue between student and teacher is regular and clear.
There is lots of evidence that students are given time to respond in appropriate detail to the written or verbal feedback given.
Peer and Self-assessment / There is no evidence of peer or self-assessment. / Basic Peer and/or self- assessment are evident in students’ work.
This may include students ticking or correcting work or simple targets for improvement. / Regular use of peer- and self-assessment is evident in students’ work and as a result, students can evidence that they clearly know where to go in their next stage of learning.
Targets are not always useful to students. / Regular use of peer and self-assessment is evident in students’ work and as a result, students can evidence that they clearly know where to go in their next stage of learning. Self and Peer assessment is based on clear success criteria. It is KIND, SPECIFIC and HELPFUL.
Presentation / Presentation is of a poor standard and is never challenged. The exercise books have graffiti on/in them. Books are not ordered. / Presentation is not good and this has not been challenged. There may be evidence of graffiti on/in books. Some sheets may not be tagged into books / Presentation is generally very good. There is no graffiti in/on books. The student clearly takes pride in what they are learning. / In addition to the “GOOD” criteria there is evidence that work improves, where presentation and organisation were previously inadequate.
Students show exceptional pride in what they are learning.

Appendix 3 - Time management strategies for marking and feedback

Previously in discussion it was raised that teachers, particularly in KS2, are finding the time to mark, give feedback and allow children time to respond an issue.

The strategies and ideas below were contributed by the teaching staff:-