Randwick C of E Primary School

‘Aim High Like the Skylark’

School Policy Document

Marking & Feedback

Spring 2016

Randwick C of E Primary School Marking Policy

School Aims Statement Our aim is to provide a happy, caring and stimulating learning environment underpinned by Christian principles, in which we encourage and value individuals’ contributions and respect for others. We believe the environment created will enable the children in our care to learn and achieve their best, socially and academically. Purposeful and relevant activities take place which will help foster each child's spiritual, intellectual, social, moral and physical development. All children are valued for the contribution they can make at the life of the school and are encouraged to develop attitudes to life based on Christian principles. (To be read in conjunction with our policy on Assessment.)

1 Introduction

Assessing pupils’ learning and progress is a vital part of teachers’ professional work. Crucially, it should celebrate pupils’ learning, recognise their achievements against the shared learning intentions, and identify and describe what pupils need to learn next, or what they need to do to improve their work. Assessment is far more effective in supporting learning if it is shared with the pupil. This sharing is the main purpose of marking work and giving feedback to pupils alongside informing the school assessment process and pupil progress.

2 Aims and objectives

2.1 We mark children's work and offer feedback in order to:

show that we value the children's work, and encourage them to value it too;

boost the pupils' self-esteem, and raise aspirations, through use of praise and encouragement; the main objective of marking and feedback is not to find fault, but to help children learn; if children's work is well matched to their abilities, then errors that need to be corrected will not be so numerous as to affect their self-esteem;

give the children a clear general picture of how far they have come in their learning, and what they need to learn next;

offer the children specific information on the extent to which they have met the lesson objective, and/or the individual targets set for them, and show them how they can improve their work in the future;

promote self-assessment, whereby the children recognise their learning challenges, and are encouraged to accept guidance from others;

share expectations;

gauge the children's understanding, and identify any misconceptions;

provide a basis both for summative and for formative assessment (see Assessment Policy);

provide the ongoing assessment that should inform our future lesson-planning.

3. Principles of marking and feedback

3.1 We believe that the following principles should underpin all marking and feedback:

the process of marking and offering feedback should be a positive one, with pride of place given to recognition of the efforts made by the child;

marking and feedback is the dialogue that takes place between teacher and child, ideally while the task is still being completed;

marking should always relate to the lesson objective and, where appropriate, the child's own personal learning targets;

the child must be able to read and respond to the comments made, and be given time to do so; therefore teachers’ handwriting must be legible and model an age appropriate style to the child; where the child is not able to read and respond in the usual way, other arrangements for communication must be made;

comments should be appropriate to the age and ability of the child, and may vary across year groups and key stages;

teachers should aim to promote children's self-assessment by linking marking and feedback into a wider process of engaging the child in his or her own learning. This includes sharing the learning intentions and the success criteria for the task right from the outset;

whenever possible, marking and feedback should involve the child directly; the younger the child, the more important it is that the feedback is oral and immediate;

marking should be constructive and formative;

marking and feedback may also be provided by a teaching assistant, or through peer review;

feedback will help a child to identify their key priorities for improvement and the progress they are making towards personal targets;

teachers will note common errors that are made by a significant number of children and use them to inform future planning;

marking will always be carried out promptly, and will normally be completed before the next lesson in that subject (although this may not always be possible for longer pieces of work).

4 Implementing the marking policy

4.1 Written comments are are recorded in two colours: pink for positives (‘tickled pink’!) and green for areas for work on (‘green for growth’). Highlighters are used with older children in the same way. In theme books a pink tick shows that the child has achieved the objective (the I CAN statement) and a green dot that there are still working on it. Next steps are given where appropriate in green next to this symbol: (so it is obvious to the children where to look to know what to do next). In maths books a dot is used to show a child that their answer is incorrect.

4.2 Differentiated success criteria for learning in maths and English are recorded in the books of children in y1 – y6 (see below). In y1 these success criteria are also shown pictorially as well as in writing. The success criteria are child friendly and break down the I CAN statement (the learning intention) for the session to that children know what to do to be successful. At the end of the session, children tick the success criteria to show whether they think have met each criteria. The teacher then ticks or highlights the criteria when marking the work. There is also an opportunity for peers to assess learning against the success criteria.

4.3 Children are encouraged to self-assess and to respond to the teacher’s written comments. When children respond to marking they do so in a different colour.

I can…

Success Criteria Pupil Partner Teacher

4.4 When appropriate, children will review and mark their own or another child's work, but this should be with the learning intention and success criteria for the work clearly in mind, and involve peer discussion.

5 Monitoring and review

5.1 We are aware of the need to monitor and update the school's Marking and Feedback Policy on a regular basis, so that we can take account of improvements made in our practice. We will therefore review this policy as part of the school cycle of review.

This policy is monitored by the school governing body and will be reviewed as part of this established cycle of school review or following changes to statutory legislation. Policy Leader: Head teacher Updated: Spring 2016 Approved & signed by governors: Review Date: September 2017

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Appendix 1: Marking Codes y1

Stamp/ Mark For level of support

(I) Independent

(TA) TA Assisted

Code for corrections

Sp Spelling error

CL or O Capital Letter

or In maths – have another go

Finger space needed

^ Something missing

Self-Assessment/ Marking

I fully understand

I need more practice

I do not understand yet

Feedback

VF Verbal feedback given

Teacher has seen work and it meets the I CAN

statement

* Team Point

Next steps

Marking Codes y2 – 6 (to go in children’s books) Stamp/ Mark For level of support

(I) Independent

(TA) TA Assisted

Code For corrections

Sp Spelling error

// A new paragraph needed

CL or O Capital Letter

0 Punctuation missing/ error

[ ] Needs editing- A word, phase or numerical

symbol is missing

? Does not make sense

then In Maths identifies an error to be corrected

& then followed by a

Finger space needed

h Word missing/insert

Self-Assessment/ Marking (in pencil) I fully understand I need more practice I do not understand yet

Feedback

VF Verbal feedback given Teacher has seen work & it fulfils the

activity objective

* Team Point

Next steps

Marking style

Comments should be written in school handwriting that matches the children’s

expectations

Target/ achievement stamps may be used, along with reward stickers & Team Points.