St Peter’s Effective Feedback and Marking

Policy

Date Issued: September 2015 Date to be reviewed: September 2016

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………. ….…..…3

AIMS………………… ………………………………………………………….………..…3

PRINCIPLES ………………………………………………………………………………………….……..3

ORAL AND WRITTEN FEEDBACK …………………………………………………… 4

MANAGEMENT OF MARKING AND FEEDBACK …………………………………. 4

BASIC LITERACY SKILLS………………………………………………..…………... 4

SELF MARKING ………………………………………………………………………………………..……. 4

SELF ASSESSMENT ……………………………………………………………….…. 4

REPONSE TIME…………………………………………………………….……………4

MARKING AND FEEDBACK GIVEN BY MEMBERS OF THE TECHING TEAM OTHER THAN THE CLASS TEACHER…………………………………………..…. 5

WRIITNG COMMENTS……………………….……………….………………………..5

IMPLEMENTATION …………………………………………………………………….5

OUTCOME OF THE FEEDBACK AND MARKING POLICY………………..……. 5

MONITORING OF FEEDBACK AND MARKING POLICY…………………….… 6

APPENDIX 1 SUMMARY OF STRATEGIES………………………………………... 6

APPENDIX 2 CODES/SYMBOLS FOR MARKING…………………………….…..7-8

St Peter’s RC Primary

Effective Feedback and Marking Policy

INTRODUCTION

A Feedback Policy sets the context for how teachers respond to pupils’ learning. This policy forms part of a whole school policy for teaching and learning. It relates to the ethos of the school and has direct links with curriculum planning and assessment.

How pupils’ work is received and marked, and the nature of feedback given to them, will have a direct bearing on learning attitudes and future achievements

We believe that feedback and marking should provide constructive feedback to every pupil, focussing on success and improvement needs against learning intentions; enabling pupils to become reflective learners and helping them to close the gap between current and desired performance.

“The most powerful single moderator that enhances achievements is feedback”. John Hattie, 1999

AIMS

  • To recognise, encourage and reward pupils’ effort and achievement and celebrate success.
  • To involve pupils’ in the learning process.
  • To provide a dialogue between teacher and pupil this enables appropriate feedback about strengths and weaknesses of the pupil’s work.
  • To indicate how a piece of work could be improved against the success criteria.
  • To set future targets by identifying the next steps in learning.
  • To improve a pupils’ ability to review their own work.
  • To inform curriculum planning.
  • To ensure a consistent approach to feedback by all staff.

PRINCIPLES

Effective feedback should:

  • Be manageable for the teaching team and accessible to the pupils.
  • Relate to the learning objective and/or success criteria.
  • Be positive and constructive.
  • Involve the teaching team working with the pupils.
  • Provide opportunities for the learners’ to improve their work.
  • Impact on future teaching and learning.
  • Differentiate according to the learning needs of individual pupils.
  • Be developmental across the age range.
  • Allow specific time for pupils to read, reflect and respond to marking where appropriate.
  • Use consistent marking codes across the whole school.
  • Have a criteria which is displayed in each classroom and pupils’ should understand the meaning of the marks/marking they receive.
  • Ensure that pupils are trained in marking, self-evaluation and peer assessment and be given opportunities to mark their own and others work, to make improvement suggestions and to act upon the suggestions made.
  • Ensure that pupils with SEN including dyslexia and dyspraxia develop self-esteem from oral and written cues.

ORAL AND WRITTEN FEEDBACK

Feedback can be oral or written, according to the ability and age of the pupil. It needs planned time for pupils to respond or make an improvement, but is most powerful when included in the fabric of the lesson. Feedback time must be planned for and included on weekly timetable.

MANAGEMENT OF MARKING AND FEEDBACK

It is important that marking is manageable for teachers and has an impact on pupils’ learning. Not all pieces of work can be “quality marked”. Teachers need to decide whether work will simply be acknowledged or given detailed attention, however a minimum of three pieces of written work across the curriculum should be quality marked using the ‘two stars and a wish’ and two pieces of Maths work each week should include a ‘next step’.

When Quality Marking:

  • read the entire piece of work.
  • highlight in pink (KS1 & LKS2) where the pupil has met the learning objective/success criteria. ‘Perfect Pink’
  • highlight in green (KS1 & KS2) an aspect of the work which could be improved ‘Green for Growth’
  • Mark using a red pen
  • provide a focused comment to improve or extend pupil’s learning.
  • Any editing of children’s work in response to marking, use a blue pen.
  • Responding to marking (questions/rewriting etc.) pupils to use normal writing pencils/pens.
  • Always remind children of ground rules on presentation and setting out and display these.
  • Children must record the learning intention, underline it and record the date in full. A line must be left before written work is recorded. Marking is only of value if comments are read and responded to.
  • All marking will be positive, informative and constructive
  • Time should be given to pupils to correct, redraft, edit, add and respond. Corrections and

responses should be completed below the last piece of work.

BASIC LITERACY SKILLS

Spelling, punctuation and grammar should not be asked for in every piece of narrative writing, because pupils cannot effectively focus on too many things in one space of time. When work is finished, ask pupils to check for things they know are wrong in their work when they read it through. They should not be told to correct all spellings, but select approximately 3-5 incorrect words

SELF MARKING

For closed activities pupils should self-mark wherever possible. This can also be used to teach particular points at the same time. For example, give 5 questions instead of 10. At the end of the activity spend 10 minutes marking with the pupils, whilst discussing strategies used/not used. Self-marking will be marked in green pen.

RESPONSE TIME

Written feedback should be accessible to pupils, in order for them to respond and improve upon their work. Time should be given for pupils to read the feedback, and then make focused improvement based on the teacher’s comments. Feedback to marking to take place every Monday morning between 8:50am - 9:10am.

The teacher can also male additional time available for this to happen. This could be 5-10 minutes at the beginning of the next lesson or morning work.

MARKING AND FEEDBACK GIVEN BY MEMBERS OF THE TECHING TEAM OTHER THAN THE CLASS TEACHER

Where a member of the teaching team other than the class teacher has been involved in the pupil’s learning, the work should be initialled and commented on where appropriate.

WRIITNG COMMENTS

  • Editing codes should be done in the margin.
  • Specific short comments should be made in the margin.
  • Longer comments should be at the end of the pupil’s work.
  • All parties should be written using the Cursive Script
  • Comments should be written in red.

IMPLEMENTATION

Pupils should be clear about the way in which their work will be marked. Using the visualiser /enlarged copy of pupil’s work, teachers will model the feedback process with the whole class watching the marking and feedback in action.

OUTCOME OF THE FEEDBACK AND MARKING POLICY

  • All work is marked regularly (either commented on or acknowledged or self-marked).
  • There are positive useful comments/suggestions to improve learning.
  • Pupils are regularly involved with marking.
  • Comments by teachers and other school adults show good use of well-presented handwriting.
  • Presentation follows the set guidelines.
  • Pupils care about the presentation of their work and try to improve it.
  • Black ink pen is when the pupils’ handwriting is of a sufficient level.
  • Progress toward targets is evaluated.
  • Pupils are making progress from one term to another through improvements in:

-Handwriting/presentation

-Spelling

-Grammar and punctuation

-Content

  • There is consistency between year groups.
  • There is progression between year groups.

MONITORING OF FEEDBACK AND MARKING POLICY

Pupils’ workbooks will be monitored by the Senior Leadership Team and subject leaders, with written and verbal feedback given to individual members of staff. Where appropriate, subject leaders will highlight good practice and areas for development, in a summary document, for all staff to consider and discuss. Subject leaders will monitor subject specific marking as part of their monitoring role.

APPENDIX 1

SUMMARY OF STRATEGIES

STRATEGY / PURPOSE / CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Share the learning objective / To inform the pupils of the purpose and focus of their learning. /
  • Written on class board
  • Displayed in classroom
  • Verbally shared at beginning of lesson

Make content of the learning objective clear / To enable pupils to make sense and understand what they are learning. /
  • Always convert to “child speak”
  • Key vocabulary defined
  • Learning objective broken down to make it clear and focussed

Create success criteria / Pupils are able to follow the success criteria so they can achieve the learning objective.
Pupils know the criteria that the teachers use to evaluate their work. /
  • Ask pupils “What will you need to do?”
  • Agree success criteria with pupils
  • Break down the activity into chronological steps
  • Visually display on class boards for the pupils to refer to throughout the lesson

“Closing the gap” / To provide opportunities for learners to improve on their work. /
  • Identify how work could be improved
  • Indicate with a circle where some improvement can be made
  • Write a comment which should be a prompt to help the pupil make an improvement to their work

Reminder prompt / To remind pupils of what needs to be improved. (This strategy is most suitable for more able pupils, as the majority need more support). /
  • Written comments e.g. “say more about how this person looks”

Scaffolding prompt / To provide structured support which is very specific about what area the pupil needs to improve. /
  • Written comment in the form of a question, directive or unfinished sentence e.g.
“Can you describe how this person is
‘a good friend?”
“Describe something that happened which showed you they were a good friend.”
“He showed me he was a good friend when ……………. (finish
this sentence).”
Example prompt / To provide a prompt which gives the pupil a choice of actual words or phrases (most suitable for below average pupils) / Written or verbal suggestions from which the pupil can choose, or write their own e.g.
“He is a good friend because he never says unkind things about me”
or
“My friend is a friend because he is always nice to me.”

MARKING

WHAT DO THE MARKS ON OUR WORK MEAN?

Mark / Meaning
Highlight in Pink
or underline in red pen
‘Perfect Pink’ / Well done, learning objective achieved here
Highlight in Green
‘Green for Growth’ / How can we make this part of your work better?
______(underline spelling or grammatical error in red pen or green highlighter ) / Spelling or Grammatical error
I wentthe shops
/ \ / There is a word or words missing
…house.//The next day I… / You need to start a new paragraph or new line
/ Verbal Feedback given to pupil.
/ Next step in learning
/ Stars: Identify two areas where the pupils have meet the learning objective/success criteria.
Wish: An area the pupils can improve on related directly to the learning objective/success criteria

St Peter’s Primary School Policy Review

This policy will be reviewed in full by the Governing Body on a ______basis.

The policy was last reviewed and agreed by the Governing Body on: October 2015 It is due for review on: October 2016

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