FEEDBACK AND MARKING POLICY AIMS At Royles Brook Primary School we aim to: Provide consistency and continuity in marking throughout the school so that children have a clear understanding of teacher expectations Use the marking system as a tool for formative ongoing assessment Improve standards by encouraging children to give of their best and improve their work Develop children s self-esteem through praise and valuing their achievements Create a dialogue which will aid progression Principles of good marking Good marking or annotation of children s work should: Be positive, motivating and constructive Be at the child s level of comprehension Not penalise children s attempts to expand their vocabulary Be written in handwriting that is legible and a model for the child Be frequent and regular and reviewed by the teacher Provide information for the teacher on the success of the teaching Relate to the Learning Objective of the lesson set but also relate to basic skills in English Link to handwriting and spelling Positively affect the child s progress by giving clear steps for further development Contain comments from the teacher which are particularly focused Relate to literacy targets where appropriate Ensure children can actively demonstrate understanding of targets set Be consistent across all subjects All teachers will adhere to the above principles and: Ensure that all work provided must be marked within the week that it is done Give regular written and oral feedback which provide next steps of development Provide time in lessons to review work from previous lessons Adjust planning in the light of marking Make learning objectives explicit Involve children in the process from an early stage Ensure children are clear about the teacher s expectations Use children s work as exemplars Royles Brook Primary School is committed to providing relevant and timely feedback to pupils, both orally and in writing. Marking intends to: serve the purposes of valuing pupils learning helping to diagnose areas for development or next steps Sept 2015 Page 1
evaluating how well the task has been understood. Research shows that feedback is one of the most important factors in pupil learning Types of Marking Verbal Feedback It is important for all children to have verbal feedback from the adult working with them. This may be to correct a child s understanding or to extend the child s learning. The teacher should indicate where verbal feedback has been given if related to written work. (VF) Summative feedback/marking This usually consists of symbols and is associated with closed tasks or exercises where the answer is either right or wrong. This can also be marked by the children, as a class or in groups. For example, weekly spellings can be marked by the children or their peers but must be checked by the teacher. As with any marking, only a reasonable number of the most relevant mistakes should be corrected. For example: Sounds which have been missed out (e.g. wet / went) Tricky words misspelt after they have been taught (e.g. migh / my) Sounds represented incorrectly (e.g. seb / sed) Good efforts should be acknowledged. The correct spelling should be written in the margin Formative feedback/marking Some key pieces of work which form the basis of learning will have more in-depth marking than other work. For example, in Literacy at the end of a unit, there should be a planning sheet and a corresponding marking ladder (this should be differentiated according to ability of the children). When the marking ladder is completed by child and teacher, the child should make a comment about how he/she could make improvements next time and the teacher should mark using an effective feedback for learning comment in order to: Step 1: show success Step 2: indicate improvement Step 3: give improvement suggestion Step 4: make the improvement Sept 2015 Page 2
Comments examples: Show success (STEP 1) Please ensure that your comments reflect the principle of building children s confidence. Praise should be given as important recognition of work done, such as: all round excellence, a particular aspect e.g. presentation, a pupil s personal target which has been achieved or their persistence and organisation. Children may be given stickers, stamps or team points for their good work. Wow! That was a great paragraph. I really enjoyed reading your first sentence. (Explain why) Well done for remembering your finger spaces. You named these shapes really well. Wow! You are able to add up decimal numbers using the column method. Indicate improvement (STEP 2) Next time try to change the way you start sentences (Give an example, scaffold according to ability) Can you remember to start it with a capital letter?a Now try and keep your letters on the line. Could you have told me how many lines of symmetry they had? Did you put all of the numbers in the correct columns? Give improvement suggestion (STEP 3) Slowly, the children crept up the stairs. (scaffold according to ability) The elephant ate all the apples The elephant devoured the apples. Give the child a shape or a calculation to challenge and check. Make improvement (STEP 4) editing Ensure appropriate time is given to enable children to do this and ensure this is marked by the teacher. Assessing Pupil Progress Formative assessment takes place in Writing, Reading and Numeracy. In Literacy, each half term every child should write an unaided piece of writing which is based on the half term s current topic or literacy work. The skills needed for the piece are gradually built up and on some occasions differentiated planning sheets are provided so that the children can plan their work. Teachers are expected to grade at least 2 pieces of writing per child per term using the school s assessment criteria. They should highlight evidence to indicate the assessment focus and level to inform next step targets. Sept 2015 Page 3
Examples of other styles of marking Self marking / self assessment Some children may sometimes be encouraged to mark their own work under their teacher s supervision. Children may also self-evaluate their learning by identifying their own successes and looking for an improvement point. The plenary may then focus on this process as a way of analysing what the children can or cannot do. At the end of any written activity, children should be encouraged to draw a red, amber or green dot to indicate how they feel about their work. This will then inform the teacher of what has been understood, partially understood or not understood. In KS1 pupils will be encouraged to show their evaluation by drawing smiley faces instead of traffic lights. Paired marking Children may sometimes mark work in pairs. Paired marking could include positive comments and a development point. Children need to be trained to do this through modelling with the whole class and watching the paired marking in action. Marking keys and editing Coloured pen should be used for all marking and editing. In addition, the following keys may help to speed up the process of effective marking: KS1 MARK SYMBOL Underline (wriggly) and SP X C O ^ // New paragraph VF Incorrect spelling or grammar (eg. tense) Incorrect answer (limited use) Indicates a correction Missing punctuation A word or letters are missed out Verbal Feedback Sept 2015 Page 4
GG S PA Guided Group Supported Practical Activity KS2 MARK SYMBOL Underline (wriggly) X C O ^ // New paragraph? Meaning unclear VF GG S PA Incorrect spelling or grammar (eg. tense) Incorrect answer (limited use then dot) Indicates a correction Missing punctuation A word Verbal feedback Guided Group Supported Practical activity Sept 2015 Page 5