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Weston Heights Infant School
Marking/Recording and Assessment Policy
MARKING POLICY
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Opportunities for learning are increased through pupils having a clear understanding of the objectives and expectations of a task and receiving appropriate and meaningful feedback in response to a task.
PURPOSE
There are many positive reasons why we mark children’s work.
to set targets that enable the pupil to improve his/her learning;
to celebrate success;
to correct errors or support the child who has not understood;
to give guidance on how a child might improve;
to ensure that pupils and parents are aware that a pupil’s work is carefully monitored and assessed in order to plan future programmes of work;
to identify aspects of work which may need repeating or clarifying, reinforcing or enriching.
Principles
- Marking of children’s work can have different roles and purposes at different times and can involve both written and verbal feedback.
- Whenever appropriate / possible, teachers should provide individual verbal feedback to children.
- The marking of children’s work by the teacher, either written or verbal, should be regular and frequent.
- Teacher’s marking should be linked to learning targets and next steps.
- Teachers should look for opportunities to provide positive public feedback / praise to children concerning their work.
POLICY INTO PRACTICE
MARKING CHILDREN’S WORK
Whenever possible and where appropriate the pupil and teacher will discuss their work, set future targets, celebrate success and clarify the pupil’s understanding. A target may be written by the Teacher, indicated by the symbol T. Next steps may also be written by the Teacher, indicated by the symbol NS.
Comments made on pupils’ work should be written using the school script.
MARKING & CORRECTING ANSWERS
Correct answers are to be marked with a tick ✔
Incorrect answers are to be marked with a crossX
(Incorrect attempts at reading words in word books to be marked with a dot)
SUPPORT & INDEPENDENCE
The symbols SandImay be used to indicate whether a child has been supported by an adult or has worked independently. A brief description of the support required, should be noted on the piece of work. Work completed during a guided session should be indicated by GR GW GM (Guided Reading, Guided Writing, Guided Maths)
ACHIEVEMENT
The objective on each piece of work will be highlighted to show the child’s progress and understanding of the work set.
GREEN - A green highlighter will be used to show that a child has achieved the objective.
ORANGE - An orange highlighter will be used to show that a child is working towards the objective.
PINK– A pink highlighter will be used to show that the child has not achieved the objective.
WRITING - SPELLING
On written work produced by a pupil in an exercise book UP TO 3 KEYWORDS may be selected by the class teacher to be corrected.
The teacher will underline the word and write it out for the child in green pen at the bottom of the page.
MATHEMATICS
The child may be given the opportunity to correct their work if first attempts are incorrect. As appropriate the teacher will indicate that an answer is incorrect by marking the work with a cross X, the teacher will then draw a box for the child to make an attempt at a new answer. Reversed numerals should be underlined and corrected by the child and/or the adult.
General misconceptions are to be addressed at an appropriate time during the lesson or at a later lesson
FIX IT TIME
Fix it time takes place at the beginning of a lesson or during the lesson. Children are expected to make corrections to areas identified with a green pen or to complete extension activities denoted by an Extension sub-heading. A tick will be given to show that the work has been fixed.
TRANSITION FROM Y2 – Y3
During the Summer Term Transition days Year 2 pupils will become familiar with the marking procedures at Weston Coyney Junior School, thus enabling pupils to confidently adapt to the expectations of KS2.
SPECIAL AWARDS
Special awards will be given to the pupil at the discretion of the teacher; these might be for effort, attainment or both. This may be in the form of stickers, stars, smiley faces, stamps, written comment etc.
REFLECTION AND PUPIL ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING
Each week the teacher will plan for time to discuss progress with the pupil and set negotiated targets for the coming week. In the Foundation Stage, this will be an ongoing dialogue.
Pupils in Year 1 and Year 2 will have increasing opportunities to self-assess their achievements in some tasks. A pupil will put a red, orange or green dot at the top of their work to indicate their self-assessment.
KEY
GreenI was able to do this well
YellowI found some parts of this task difficult
RedI found this task difficult
RECORDING POLICY
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
The recording of progress and attainment is a vital element of any assessment practice. The school will place particular emphasis on the importance of accurate records in informing the planning of future work and enabling teachers to make judgements about pupils, particularly at the end of each Key Stage.
The attainment achievement and progress made must be recorded using the level of descriptions for all National Curriculum subjects and in FS the Stoke on Trent Child Development Tool age bands. At the end of Foundation Stage 2 children are measuredagainst the 17 Early Learning Goals in terms of expected, exceeding and emerging.
PURPOSE
The planning of work appropriate to the learner
Helping teachers and pupils to be aware of progress
Helping the next teacher when pupils transfer class
To contribute to the recording of achievement
To inform the process of reporting to parents
To record attainment in relation to levels of attainment for National Curriculum Subjects and Foundation Stage
MONITORING & EVALUATION
The Senior Leadership Team and Core Subject Leaders will gather samples of work from each class on a half-termly basis to monitor the implementation of this policy.
The desired outcomes for this policy are improvement in children’s learning and greater clarity amongst children and parents concerning children’s achievement and progress.
The performance indicators will be:
- an improvement in children’s progress and attainment
- teacher, child and parent testimony concerning the usefulness of the marking
- consistency in teachers’ marking across the key stages and between years
- an awareness on the part of the pupils of what is expected of them
ASSESSMENT POLICY
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Assessment entails making decisions about what has been learned. Assessment should be an integral part of effective curriculum planning, teaching, learning, monitoring and evaluation.
Each assessment task should be suitable for the purpose for which it is to be used.
Assessment must be used to inform the pupils, teachers and parents about the pupils’ progress through the Key Stages, effectiveness of teaching strategies and about the needs of the individual pupils.
Assessment should enable positive achievement to be demonstrated, recognised and celebrated. Feedback to the pupil should have meaning for the learner.
Assessment should inform planning and promote pupils progress within school and between schools.
Assessment processes and standards should be consistent between all teachers.
PURPOSE OF ASSESSMENT
We assess pupils for many reasons, the outcomes of which can be used:
To inform planning to meet the learning needs of all pupils
To group pupils according to their level of ability
To gather information about achievement
To evaluate curriculum provision
To meet statutory assessment requirements
To construct meaningful reports on pupils achievements in school including Foundation Stage and National Curriculum assessments.
To identify and celebrate achievement
To inform parents, pupils and other agencies
To enable informed judgements about school attainment trends
GLOSSARY OF TERMS/ADMINISTRATION PROCEDURES
BASELINE ASSESSMENT
On entry to the two year old provision / Nursery provision an assessment of the individual abilities of the children is carried out. The children are assessed during the first half of the Autumn Term and again every half-term. This enables the school to monitor individual children’s progress and ‘added value’.
The Foundation Stage Profile for end of Foundation Stage will be collated during the Foundation Stage.
The Reception baseline will be carried out during the first half of the Autumn Term in the Reception class and a focus of this will be the Characteristics of Effective Learning.
READING RECORD
A Record of reading books read by the child, dated and relevant comment completed on every occasion the child and teacher read together.
SPELLING RECORD
An individual record of spelling abilities completed on every occasion the child is assessed by the teacher or teacher support (usually weekly/fortnightly).
PHONIC RECORD
An individual record of phonic abilities to be completed each term
SATS
National Standard Assessment Tasks to be administered with Year Two children during the Summer term.
ROLE OF THE SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM
It is the responsibility of the Senior Leadership Team to ensure that assessments are submitted on a half-termly basis and that progress is monitored and discussed with individual class teachers.
Feburary2016To be reviewed every three years