MARKING AND FEEDBACK POLICY DOC: ECPS 23 MARKING AND FEEDBACK POLICY EARLS COLNE PRIMARY SCHOOL AND NURSERY PREPARED BY: M Vine APPROVED BY: Governing Body ISSUE AND REVISION RECORD Date Issue No. Details Review date May 10 01 Original May 13 Jan 13 02 Addition of FS/KS1 marking key. Expectation that child will make a note when verbal feedback given. Jan 15 Jan 15 03 Complete revision Jan 16 Sep 15 04 Added LSA/supply teacher initial updated marking key Sep 16 Jan 17 05 Amendments in line with research impact report Jan 18 Jan 18 06 Bullet point added related to marking of independent learning Jan 19
EARLS COLNE PRIMARY SCHOOL and NURSERY MARKING AND FEEDBACK POLICY Inspiring all children to create and achieve Introduction Assessment for learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there. (Assessment Reform Group, 2002) Research into assessment (Black and William, 1998) has shown that developing Assessment for Learning is one of the most powerful ways of improving teaching and raising standards. We recognise that feedback is the most powerful aspect of Assessment for Learning. That is the day to day ongoing classroom assessment based on how well children fulfil learning intentions, providing feedback and involving children in improving their learning. Fundamentally, how children s learning outcomes are received and marked, also the nature of feedback has a direct bearing on learning attitudes and future achievements. This policy gives a framework within which all staff, both teaching and learning support, will mark and give feedback on children s learning outcomes. All marking should have a clear purpose and relate usually to the planned learning intentions and objectives. Through the sharing of success criteria children will be aware of the marking/feedback focus for each piece of work. Aims and Objectives We mark children s work and offer feedback in order to: Show that we value the children s efforts; Raise pupil s self- esteem and raise aspirations through use of praise and encouragement; Inform children of what they have achieved and the extent to which they have met the lesson objective or individual target set for them; Explain how they can improve their work; Promote self-assessment; Raise standards through quality marking and feedback; Provide ongoing assessment to inform future planning. Marking and Feedback Policy January 2018 2
Principles of Marking and Feedback We believe that the following principles should underpin all marking and feedback: The process of marking and offering feedback should be a positive one, where the efforts made by the child are recognised and celebrated; Feedback to children about their learning can have different roles and purposes at different times and involve both written and verbal feedback; Feedback about children s work, either written or verbal should be regular and frequent; Written comments must be legible and in age appropriate language. They should relate specifically to the learning intentions of the lesson or success criteria and where appropriate the child s personal targets. It is important that children understand the learning objective and success criteria for a task; Feedback is developmental and time must whenever possible be allocated for children to read and respond. Marking and feedback should help children develop awareness of next steps for learning and targets they need to work towards; Self or peer assessment should be a regular feature of the learning process this should be against specific success criteria (it may be written or verbal); The purpose of marking and feedback is to monitor children s progress towards learning objectives or personal targets and is a dialogue between the teacher and child. The outcomes of marking should be used to plan next steps and to identify where further support or challenge is needed; Marking provides evidence of assessments made and used to inform teachers judgements. Implementing the Marking and Feedback Policy The feedback given to an individual child will be determined by the teacher s professional judgement and their knowledge of the individual child. Children need to know if they have failed to understand something but where this is at a significant level, it is more appropriate for the class teacher to discuss the work with the child. Highlighters should be used to identify strengths (pink) and areas for development (green), these should link directly to the success criteria and/or personal targets. Comments will identify next step targets. Children should be involved in self or peer assessment, judging against success criteria or personal targets, but the teacher should always review this marking. Marking and Feedback Policy January 2018 3
Children will be guided on how to self and peer assess effectively. It is recommended that as part of the training process children draw up class rules on marking partnerships (see Appendix 2) The Guidelines for children marking with a response partner should be followed (see Appendix 3). Marking and Feedback Guidelines Green pen should be used; A pink ( tickled pink ) highlighter is used to identify features of a child s learning that the teacher is particularly pleased with and a green ( growth ) highlighter for areas that need to be further developed; L.O should be used by the class teacher to indicate whether the learning objective has been fully or partly achieved; Children should be encouraged to assess their own learning; Feedback on learning outcomes should be given as soon as reasonably possible after completion, this may be verbal or written; Feedback given by a LSA or supply teacher to be initialled; Where verbal feedback has been given, it may be noted on the child s work by the use of a speech bubble; At Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 where most feedback to the child will be verbal, children s work should be annotated at least once a week by the class teacher as an assessment record; The teacher will use their professional judgement as to the number of spelling errors that are marked; Spelling corrections will be made on the line above where the error has been made or at the bottom of the page; At least one piece of work should be annotated in detail for the foundation subject which is the focus for that term; Teachers should model good handwriting, punctuation and grammar in their marking and feedback; When a piece of work is being used for summative assessment, or to develop children s editing skills, teacher s will not highlight or comment upon specific errors. Marking and Feedback Policy January 2018 4
Effective marking and feedback in English will be evident through some or all of these: Teachers will identify what the child has achieved and next steps; Teachers will annotate around the child s work, pointing out precisely what error has been made; A reply from the child to the teacher s comments; A speech bubble to indicate that the work has been discussed; Self or peer assessment which accurately identifies strengths and areas for development; Writing has been redrafted and corrections made. Mathematics Correct answers ; Incorrect answers either x or (where a large number of errors have been made a dot should be used); Correct naming of units of measurement should be emphasised; Speech bubble to indicate that the work has been discussed. Effective marking and feedback in maths will be evident through some or all of these: Teacher will write out a model example of how to complete the calculation correctly; Teacher will annotate around the child s work, pointing out precisely what error has been made; Speech bubble to indicate that the work has been discussed and may include a brief summary of the key points made should be added either by the teacher or where appropriate the child (e.g. partition before adding); Corrections made by the child should ideally be written out fully or where appropriate written next to the original answer. Errors should not be rubbed out or over written; Marking and Feedback Policy January 2018 5
Additional problems or calculations may be added to assess understanding or provide additional challenge. Monitoring and Evaluation We recognise that the nature of feedback and marking changes as children develop and move through the school. Within this context though, marking standards should be consistently applied across the school, including by support staff and supply staff. In order to attain this there must be consistency across year groups and marking/feedback should be developmental across age ranges. The Assessment Leader will monitor the implementation of this policy regularly by looking at samples of work from each class and through classroom observations with a focus on verbal feedback. The Assessment Leader will also talk to children about how teachers mark their work and provide feedback. Subject leaders should monitor marking and feedback in their area of responsibility. Marking and Feedback Policy January 2018 6
Appendix 1 Foundation Stage and KS1 Feedback Key LO LO achieved for child What I am looking for Success criteria included Next steps I / CI Independent activity or child initiated GGT GG LSA Guided group led by teacher Guided group led by LSA Correct answer given (especially for Numeracy) Answer to be checked with an adult Sp Spelling error (not Reception) Verbal feedback given Marking and Feedback Policy January 2018 7
Good example of the success criteria Look at this section improvement needed Marking and Feedback Policy January 2018 8
Key Stage 2 Feedback Key Sp Check spelling (word underlined)? Wrong word used // New paragraph needed w Try to find a more interesting word [ ] this section does not make sense C Check your use of capital letters. Full stop needed ^ Something has been left out Good example of the success criteria Look at this section improvement needed TP L.O L.O+ Team point Learning objective achieved Exceeded expectations L.O? Learning objective partially achieved or insufficient evidence Marking and Feedback Policy January 2018 9
L.O- Learning objective not achieved Work discussed verbally, possibly with a written comment LSA or Supply Written at the top of the page. Work completed when teacher absent by LSA or supply teacher. GGT GG LSA Guided group led by teacher Guided group led by LSA Next steps Appendix 2 Model Rules for Marking Partnerships o Respect our partner s work because they have done their best and so their work should be valued. o Try to see how they have tackled the learning objective and only try to improve things that are to do with the learning objective. o Tell our partner the good things we see in their work. o Listen to our partner s advice because we are trying to help each other do better in our work. o Look for a way to help our partner to achieve the learning objective better by giving them a closing the gap improvement to do. o Try to make our suggestions as clear as possible. o Try to make our suggestions positive. Marking and Feedback Policy January 2018 10
o Get our partner to talk about what they tried to achieve in their work. o Be fair to our partner. We will not talk about their work behind their backs because we wouldn t like them to do this to us. Marking and Feedback Policy January 2018 11
Appendix 3 Guidelines for children marking with a response partner I. Partners should usually be of similar ability II. The pupil needs time to reflect on and check his or her work before a response partner sees it. III. The response partner should begin with a positive comment about the work. IV. The roles of both bodies need to be clearly identified. V. Children need to be trained in the success and improvement process, so that they are confident with the steps involved. VI. The author should make the marks on his or her work, as a result of the paired discussion. VII. Children need to be reminded that the focus of their task is the learning intention or success criteria. VIII. If improvement suggestions are to be written down this should be on a post-it. IX. It is useful to role-play response partners with a class, perhaps showing them the wrong and right way. X. It is useful to use response partners two-thirds of the way through a lesson, so that children can make the improvements and continue writing with a better understanding of quality. Marking and Feedback Policy January 2018 12