Marking and Feedback Policy

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1 Egerton Community Primary School Marking and Feedback Policy Chair of Governors Head Teacher Policy written by Heather Aspbury Sam Mitchell School Staff Date approved by governors 29 th June 2016 Date of next review June 2018 Committee Responsible Curriculum and Effectiveness

2 Introduction At Egerton Community Primary School we believe that all children have the right to be given high quality marking and feedback, from adults, about their learning. We know that when careful attention is given to the feedback children receive, it has a greater impact on pupil progress and allows individuals to move on quickly from their starting points. We understand that every child has the right to be given feedback that builds on successes and sets challenging targets allowing them to reflect on their learning. We also believe in the professionalism of our teachers and teaching assistants and their ability to provide a range of marking and feedback appropriate to a task, lesson and individual child, we therefore aim to provide an approach which provides flexibility while being broadly consistent across our school. Policy Aims Marking and Feedback is a key part of the learning process and therefore this policy should be read in conjunction with the school s policy on Teaching and Learning (March 2014).Through successful implementation of this policy, alongside our philosophy on Teaching and Learning, we aim to: Provide focused and positive feedback to children about their learning on a regular basis. Ensure that achievements are celebrated and challenging yet clear next steps are set out for children. Give every child the opportunity to make rapid and sustained progress through providing high quality marking and feedback that children respond to regularly. Give children continuous opportunities to be reflective learners. Ensure consistency in quality of marking and feedback while ensuring flexibility for individual staff to use their professionalism. Instil in children confidence and a positive attitude towards improving learning. Principles of Marking and Feedback At Egerton CP School we value the skills of our talented teaching staff and teaching assistants and we acknowledge that individual styles of marking and feedback should be promoted and celebrated. However, to ensure consistency across our school, we understand that any marking and feedback given to children should be underpinned by the following principles. Marking and Feedback should: Be seen as a positive experience for children and be delivered in a clear way which children can respond to. Celebrate children s achievements and set expectations for improvement. Relate to learning objectives and success criteria, which must be shared with children. Involve all adults working with children. Be manageable for children and adults. Set high standards and model expectations. Relate to individual targets, Inform future planning and individual target setting.

3 Provide opportunities for children to assess and evaluate their own learning and that of their peers. Highlight opportunities for children to apply their skills across the curriculum. Be manageable for staff and children. Be valued by children and a time specified for learners to respond to next steps given to them. Marking and Feedback Strategies Strategies for Teachers Verbal Feedback Verbal feedback is potentially the form of feedback that will have the biggest impact on pupil progress and is a highly valued learning tool at our school. We aim to give children regular opportunities to engage in verbal feedback from the teacher / TA, to the teacher / TA as well as from and to peers. In all cases, verbal feedback will focus on the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria and will include reference to children s own personal targets; it will always be constructive and provide next steps. Verbal feedback can take place individually, in a group or as a whole class and in some situations it may be appropriate to make a record of the feedback given. Quick Marking - This type of marking will take place within the class and would be used to check the classes understanding. During this discussion (activity), any misconceptions would be addressed (discussed and addressed) therefore impacting on pupil progress. A speech bubble would be used to indicate that this whole class (or group) discussion has occurred. Formative Feedback This type of marking is more detailed and is linked to the learning objective and success criteria. It is likely that this style of marking and feedback would be used in a piece of work where a skill is being practiced. It may involve a marking code throughout the body of the work to highlight secretarial mistakes and will highlight spelling mistakes. The teacher comments would highlight areas of excellence within the work and specify constructive next steps for improvements both linked to the learning intention and success criteria. These may be presented in the form of a star and a wish or as an individual teacher wishes to record the information. The following flow chart also explains how next steps may be presented to children through this form of marking and feedback.

4 Closed Task Marking This is associated with tasks such as class spellings and tables tests which require a tick or a dot / arrow. More often than not children will self-mark these activities or work will be marked as a class or in groups. Focused and Detailed Marking and Feedback This type of marking and feedback will present children with in depth information about how they have applied skills in an independent task. It takes place less regularly than other forms of feedback but should be presented to children in Writing and Maths no less than once a month. It is appropriate for this type of marking to include topic based work where the subject matter has allowed children to apply their literacy or mathematic skills. Strategies for focused and detailed marking include: - Highlight in pink: areas where a child has correctly applied skills related to their own target or the learning intention and success criteria. - Highlight in green: areas where a child can make improvements related to their own target or the learning intention and success criteria. - A comment that will help a child move from what they have achieved to what they could have achieved. Such comments may include: 1. A reminder prompt: This reminds children of what could be improved e.g. What else could you say here? 2. A scaffold prompt: This provides some support e.g. What was the dog s tail doing?, describe the expression on the dogs face. 3. An example prompt: This prompt models how a skill should be applied accurately e.g. look at your use of inverted commas again and make sure your speech is inside inverted commas like this no! said mum it s far too late to play on the park. Strategies for Children Children at Egerton CP School are regularly encouraged to assess themselves and their peers. As part of our focus on providing good or better lessons for all children in school, teachers clearly present success criteria to children in order for them to achieve learning intentions. At the end of many lessons, children will be asked to evaluate their own performance based on whether they have met success criteria. This type of self and peer assessment may be presented in the following ways: Highlighting Children may highlight their own or a peers work using the tickled pink and green for growth method in relation to the success criteria and learning intention. In some year groups this may also be accompanied by a comment for improvement. Children may refer to marking ladders while doing this. Discussion An anonymous piece of work may be discussion as a pair, group or class (using Kagan strategies if appropriate) and feedback given on successful aspects and areas for improvement. Peer and Self Marking children look at their own or a peers work and provide two stars and a wish/ positive comments and an area for improvement. Traffic light children highlight their performance against a colour coded traffic light to say how they feel they have performed against success criteria. This may be accompanied by a comment.

5 Fix it time It is essential that high quality marking and feedback is accompanied by the opportunity for children to reflect on their learning. At Egerton CP School, we see this reflection time as the key driver in ensuring children make progress. We have a dedicated Fix it Time every morning from 8:50am 9am where children are provided time to read feedback and respond to it. In addition to this, teachers adjust their planning to take account of information they receive about children s learning through the marking process and additional time is planned into lessons for children to respond to marking and feedback, discuss previous learning as a whole class or to use self and peer assessment strategies. Agreed Marking Symbols At Egerton we believe that our children respond to the individual characteristics of teachers at different stages in their school life and therefore, while we have a variety of symbols for staff to use, we appreciate that these may vary across the school dependant on children s age and staff preferences. Below is a guide to marking symbols that may be used across our school. We put a high emphasis on marking strategies as outlined in this policy and we ensure consistency in the strategies that are used. Talk to me I like this Work has been discussed on this date C = Connective O = Opener V = Vocabulary P = Punctuation CIMS = Check it makes sense CS = Comma splice CL = Capital Letter FS or = Full Stop (age dependent), = Comma missing? = question mark missing Sp (written in the margin) = spelling mistake, incorrect word underlined and sp x 3 at the bottom of the page // = new paragraph

6 ? What do you mean by this? Can you explain your thinking? Finger space needed Re-read your work / check it again (Foundation Stage and Year One) This policy should be reviewed every two years.