Marking, Feedback and Presentation Policy Rationale Good formative assessment ranges from the probing question put to a pupil as they think something through; quick recap questions at the opening of a lesson; scrutiny of the natural work of pupils; right through to formal tests. It helps pupils to measure their knowledge and understanding against learning objectives and wider outcomes and to identify where they need to target their efforts to improve. In-school formative assessment should be an integral part of teaching and learning. It allows teachers to understand pupil performance on a continuing basis. It enables teachers to identify when pupils are struggling, when they have consolidated learning and when they are ready to progress. In this way, it supports teachers to provide appropriate support or extension as necessary. It also enables teachers to evaluate their own teaching of particular topics or concepts and to plan future lessons accordingly. The Commission Report on Assessment- September 2015 Belvoirdale s marking, feedback and presentation policy recognises the vital role marking and feedback plays on impacting teaching and learning as highlighted in the Commission Report on Assessment 2015. Teachers give more focus to providing pupils with feedback which clarifies those aspects of the curriculum where their knowledge and understanding is secure and those areas where there are gaps. Applying a range of formative assessment methods, including marking and feedback allows teachers to tailor their assessments to the underpinning knowledge and skills being taught, for example by supporting teaching with effective question and answer techniques. Aims of the policy To provide coherent picture of good and outstanding practice in marking To provide positive reinforcement of the teaching and learning process To ensure that effective learning results from manageable feedback and marking To give teachers, teaching assistants and peers the skills for effective feedback and marking To set out our expectations for high quality but manageable feedback and marking. Why do we mark? To enable a regular dialogue between teacher and child To give a clear picture of what the child had done against the Learning Objective To give recognition and praise for achievement To provide suggestions for the next learning steps To identify common and individual needs to inform planning To empower children in self-assessment
At Belvoirdale we expect children to: Regularly read and respond to the comments made by adults in their books. Take pride and care in the presentation of their books reflecting the high standard that is expected. Take time to correct and finish off work where appropriate. Cross out mistakes with a neat, straight line. Use quality-writing equipment appropriate to Year group. Children should write in pencil until the class teacher considers that their writing is of a sufficiently mature standard (correctly joined-up writing, of regular and appropriate size and with clear ascenders and descenders) to use pen. Children should be encouraged to use a good quality handwriting pen. Use pencil for drawings or diagrams. Pupils should be expected to record the Learning Objective, Success Criteria and the date at the beginning of each piece of recorded learning. Younger and less able children will be supported to establish these routines. Success Criteria stickers may be used to aid this. Children are to respond to marking using a purple pen. For marking to be worthwhile it is essential that children can both understand and respond to it in a meaningful way. How do we ensure that children will respond to marking? For marking to have an impact on attainment the comments made by the class teacher need to lead the children to further develop their understanding of what has been learned and the areas of improvement. In some cases the marking will further explore a pupil s understanding of what they have completed. As part of the daily classroom routine it is essential that at the start of each session children are encouraged to read the teacher comment form the lesson before and if appropriate respond. Therefore marking needs to include questions that encourage a response. These should be related to the success criteria of the lesson and as far as possible personalised to the pupil. Examples of appropriate comments to elicit these outcomes are given in Appendix 1. How do we mark? To be effective, the marking of children s work must be both regular and frequent. It is sometimes appropriate to mark during a lesson and sometimes at the end of a task. When possible marking is carried out with the child present, although it is recognised that this is difficult to accommodate. In order for marking to have the maximum impact it should mainly focus on areas for improvement or to further explore understanding related to the success criteria. Attainment in relation to the learning objective should also be commented on but this will be in the form of a simple sentence, mark or stamp e.g. Objective met. Pupil outcomes from every subject including handwriting need to be marked, though the manner in which this is done will vary from task to task. (See below) Homework should be marked in line with the expectation of this policy. It is essential that homework is marked regularly to inform parents of pupil progress. The adult response to children s work may be oral or written feedback, which will be influenced by the age and level of the pupil involved. In the case of oral feedback the teacher must initial and/or tick the piece of work indicating clearly that oral feedback has been given e. g VF. We recognise that oral intervention/feedback may be more appropriate in EYFS and lower Key Stage 1 as this also
gives the child the opportunity to input their own thoughts and ideas, but is also of equal value in Key stage 2. Teachers should mark all work in red pen. Stamps, stars and stickers may be used to provide further specific encouragement and positive reinforcement. Teachers should indicate appropriate incorrect spellings for children to correct in all writing. Teachers should use their professional judgement when highlighting spelling errors. The word should be indicated with Sp and underlined. It is the child s responsibility to find the correct spelling and copy it out in the margin 3 times. Where work has been marked by someone other than the class teacher, this should be noted by stamp or written e.g. cover teacher. In EYFS adults should date and annotate descriptions relating to age development bands linked with prime and specific areas of learning to enable a comprehensive profile of pupil work to be compiled. Comments related to the presentation of work have little impact on pupil achievement and need to be accompanied by a learning related comment. It is expected that children are given regular opportunities to look back over at the comments made on a number of pieces of work to remind themselves of the progress or areas for development commented on. How do we monitor marking and feedback? Following a monitoring timetable marking and feedback will be examined regularly across a range of subjects and pupil groups by the Head teacher and members of the Senior Leadership team. Regular pupil conversations held by subject leaders will ascertain whether the marking and feedback is having an impact of children s learning across a range of subjects. Timetabled staff meetings will enable teachers and Phase Leaders to monitor marking and feedback across year groups and to reflect on their practice.
School Systems for Effective Feedback and Marking Aim Day to Day Marking In depth (At least one piece of literacy, To give a clear picture of what the child has done against the Learning Objective To give recognition and praise for achievement To provide suggestions for improvements To enable a regular dialogue between the child and teacher To identify common needs to inform planning Use stamps/stickers for learning objective (met or partly met) Positive comments Use of sticker or stamp to reward effort and achievement. Use of a question Use of orange/pink highlighter Ensure pupils have time to check their own work Ensure pupils have time to respond to comments and questions Impact on next lesson, use verbal feedback to revisit an idea, punctuation or spelling one piece of numeracy a week) Use green highlighter pens for examples where the Learning Objective/success criteria is met. You may respond to what the child s self-assessment says. Encouragement in the What you did well? against the success criteria. Use orange/pink highlighter pens for areas to develop, with an explanation, example or question. Ensure pupils have time to make diagnostic assessments of their work. Ensure pupils have time to respond to comments, questions and orange/pink highlighting. Impact on speeding or slowing down of the teaching sequence Verbal feedback: Is at the heart of what teachers do the whole time. Whether it is to refocus or stretch pupils. All lessons contain a substantial amount of teacher/support staff talks that is both, planned and responsive to the needs of the pupil(s).
Checklist Does your feedback and marking support and encourage learning? English: Every piece of work should be marked against the L.O Day to day marking should have a stamp or brief comment/statement One piece of literacy work a week is focused and quality marked Within this piece of work, personal targets/areas for development/improvement will be mentioned Spelling tests to be self/peer marked. Test scores to be recorded by the class teacher or LSA. Maths: Every piece of work should be marked against the L.O Mental maths tests should be self/peer marked. Test scores to be recorded by the class teacher or LSA. Day to day marking have a stamp or brief comment/statement Spelling and presentation will be commented upon if subject specific. All other written work: Every piece of work should be marked against the L.O/Success criteria Day to day marking should have a stamp or brief comment/statement Non-written work: Verbal feedback will be given during and at the end of the session.
Strategies for making marking manageable Marking can be very time consuming but it is an essential part of personalising and accelerating pupil attainment and progress. Effective teachers use many strategies to ensure that marking is completed regularly and with maximum impact. Some or all of the following strategies are used to make this workload manageable. Plan which pieces of work will be marked in depth (it is not expected that all pieces of work are marked in depth). Some pieces of work can be marked with the whole class. Peer marking which has been modelled and taught to the children Use of Objective met comment/stamp Balance active teaching time with time when pupils can work with increased independence, facilitating marking time. Use the marking code/highlighter pens to support quick marking of writing and allow time for written comments underneath. Refine time management skills and use time effectively As an effective and time efficient way to significantly extend children s learning in extended writing the following might be appropriate: Highlight up to 3 aspects of a piece of writing that shows achievement in relation to the stated Learning Objective/Success Criteria. The use of a highlighter pen is time efficient and effective. Individual words or sentences can be highlighted to indicate achievement in relation to the Learning Objective. Encourage children to indicate when they feel that they have met a Learning Objective/Success Criteria by indicating (SC) in the margin or on the same line. This supports children to remain focused on the Learning Objective/Success Criteria throughout the duration of the activity and is an important form of self-assessment. Suggest a specific improvement.
Appendix 1 Comments to extend learning: How did you know that? Why do you think..? If you were this character what would you have done? Would you like to live in this setting? Why? What could you do to be sure your results would always be the same? What was your objective for this writing? Highlight your most effective words/sentence. Have you used imaginative vocabulary? Write the words here. Can you make up your own example of a calculation? What would you like to find about next? Can you solve these? Pupil self-evaluation prompts: I have learned to I have got better at..because My..is improving because. My work is good because. I found this hard because Differentiated ways to encourage children to revisit and improve their writing: Reminder prompt: How do you think the dog felt here? Scaffold prompt: Do you think he was annoyed? How do you think he would have shown this? He was so annoyed. Example prompt: Choose one of these or your own: H couldn t believe his eyes He ran round in circles looking for the rabbit, feeling very confused. Remember: e.g. grammatical rule/homophones etc. What would happen if.? Can you spot a pattern?
Appendix Two Stamp Adult s Marking Key Symbol Meaning Comments Learning Objective Achieved Learning Objective Partly Achieved Where the child has partly achieved the objective then an extension question may be added or an example modelled to address the misconception/error. Sp Spelling error Teacher to indicate spelling error with Sp and underline the word. No more than 3 spelling errors to be identified in a lesson. Children to correct and practise the spelling x3 in the margin. VF Verbal feedback KS2 children to initial/comment against this. TA Teaching assistant support GW ^ Guided work Omission // Paragraph Pink Highlighter Pen (Used within a child s work) Orange Highlighter Pen (Only used to indicate the child s success against the success criteria-not used within work) Green Highlighter Pen (Used within a child s work) Within work, highlight areas/points that need to be worked on: Next Steps - Working towards the L.O or S.C - Nearly Got it Within work, highlight examples of work meeting the learning objective or success criteria Use as appropriate in relation to work or pupil Use as appropriate in relation to work or pupil Use as appropriate in relation to work or pupil I.P Improvement point A developmental/improvement point for children to work on. 2 stars and a wish Peer or Self-Assessment tool: Identify 2 positive points and 1 improvement point. A developmental/improvement point for children to work on as well as celebrating success.
Our English Marking Codes: Meaning P Code Your teacher will put a circle around any incorrect or missing punctuation. You need to identify and incorrect or missing punctuation on that line.? This part of your writing doesn t make sense or can t be read. Look CAREFULLY and see why they are puzzled. ^ T // Sp VF IND GW Pink Highlighter Orange Highlighter A word has been left out. Can you spot what it is? Somewhere in this sentence a tense word is incorrect e.g Yesterday the old man hobble home. ( should be hobbled = past tense) This symbol shows you where to start a new paragraph. New paragraphs for...change of time / place / event / point There is spelling mistake somewhere on that line. Your teacher may underline the mistake or write the correct spelling next to the word. You need to write out the correct spelling and put the word in your word book My teacher and I have talked about my work and they have helped me to improve it. I have completed this work by myself. Someone has helped me with my work. I have not achieved the learning objective. There is a place I can improve my work. My Next Steps. I have achieved some of the learning objective Green Highlighter I have achieved all of the learning objective What I have done well in my work 2 Stars and a Wish I have done two things very well and one thing which I need to do better