MARKING POLICY Policy and Procedures Belvoir High School and Melton Vale post 16 Centre Date 16 October 2014 Signed by Chair of Trust (Mr B Lovegrove) Supporting Belvoir High School and Melton Vale post 16 Centre part of Belvoir and Melton Academy Trust
Person in Centre responsible for the Policy Principal June 2014 Reviewed by Governing Committees Autumn 2014 Next Review Summer 2016 The Belvoir High School Governing Council and Melton Vale Governing Council of The Belvoir and Melton Academy Trust (BMAT) adopted this policy on 16 th October 2014. It will be reviewed bi-annually. Contents Whole Academy Marking Policy... 2 Rationale... 2 Aims... 2 Key principles of marking... 2 Protocols for Marking... 3 Monitoring and Evaluation... 3 APPENDIX 1 - Protocols for Marking... 4 PINS PIN Your Progress... 4 Lighter Scrutiny... 4 Verbal feedback... 5 Literacy across the curriculum... 5 APPENDIX 2 Think Pink... 6... 6 Page 1
Whole Academy Marking Policy Rationale Belvoir and Melton Academy Trust recognises that teachers marking of students progress and attainment are central functions in the learning process. The focus of written feedback is on helping students, parents and carers gain a clear understanding of how well students have gained knowledge, concepts and skills and that through marking the students are prompted in how to improve their learning. Marking and the implementation of this policy is the responsibility of all teachers. Aims To establish a consistent approach to the way students work is marked; To ensure marking informs teacher planning; To ensure that students work is marked in such a way that it improves learning and builds self-esteem; To develop a process that confirms when students are on track and lets them know what needs to be done to improve and make progress; To share and discuss the National Curriculum level, GCSE or A-level grade criteria achieved. To provide a framework for departments to develop a detailed department marking policy which will embed the key protocols of this policy but will also allow personalisation of assessment which best suit the specific needs of different subject areas. Key principles of marking Students work should be regularly reviewed. Assessment of day-to-day progress depends heavily upon the marking and correction of written work and other forms of student response. In order to ensure that marking is as effective as possible teachers should use detailed marking of key pieces of work supported by a lighter scrutiny of other work (although all work must be reviewed by the class teacher). This detailed marking Page 2
should take place at least every half term and should include a national curriculum level, GCSE or A-level grade. The main purpose of marking is formative. Effective marking is where there is continuity in comments from one piece of work to the next. Written feedback from the class teacher should identify student strengths/weaknesses and next steps in how their work can be improved A numerical mark should only be used where applicable to a clear mark scheme. Where possible an approximate NC level, GCSE or A-level grade should be used Whenever a task is set, the success criteria for when it is assessed should be made explicit. Students should be encouraged to review their own performance against these criteria as well as to reflect on the teacher assessment. A piece of work should act as the focus for dialogue with the students, whether in verbal or written form. Marking and feedback are effective ways of establishing suitably high expectations of each student. Protocols for Marking The protocol and procedure BMAT has adopted to support the key principals of marking are outlined in Appendix 1. This document should be included in all Department handbooks as the basis of marking with additional supplements which support the specific assessment criteria for that subject area. Monitoring and Evaluation SLT/HODs will conduct regular book audits during learning walks to ensure marking is consistent and practice relates to this policy. Identified good practice will support CPD training and annual review. HODs will also conduct a termly work scrutiny where curricular assessments are moderated to ensure robustness of teacher assessment in each key stage. Page 3
APPENDIX 1 - Protocols for Marking PINS PIN Your Progress At least every half term teachers will provide students with detailed written feedback which informs students about: Positives; Improvements (what they need to improve on); Next Steps (how to carry out these improvements). National Curriculum Level/ GCSE grade criteria met (When appropriate) Each Department will have a sticker or stamp which will explicitly record Positives, Improvements and Next Steps (PINS). Each department will need to personalise their sticker/stamp to take account of the different assessment foci (National Curriculum level or GCSE criteria) for their subject. Next steps provided to students should be clearly stated and describe an action the student needs to do which can be clearly measured in subsequent marking Students will only make progress if the next steps for improvement are followed up by the class teacher. The next steps provided should influence subsequent lesson planning and monitoring. It is essential that once students have had the opportunity to demonstrate improvement this is reviewed by the class teacher. Ofsted state effective marking is where there is continuity in comments from one piece of work to the next. It is essential that students clearly understand what PINS mean. It is also important that when subject areas record an assessment level/grade that students know how this relates to their target level/grade. Lighter Scrutiny All students work must be reviewed in order to provide a formative day to day assessment of progress made. This lighter scrutiny must take place at least every 4 lessons. Lighter scrutiny will complement deep marking outlined through PINS. Page 4
Examples of where the teacher could use a lighter scrutiny approach are; acknowledging where students have peer or self-assessed effectively; acknowledging tasks which are suited to teacher-led marking (answers dictated by the teacher and marked by the student); acknowledging improvements made from next step comments; acknowledging verbal feedback students have recorded in their books; identifying and commenting on corrections that support literacy across the curriculum; Lighter scrutiny will acknowledge work done by ticks or initialling work with a brief comment if appropriate. Verbal feedback The importance of individual and whole class oral feedback is recognised but students themselves should record what feedback they have been given. This can be achieved quickly and simply by training students to write in their books (pupils to do this in green pen) Literacy across the curriculum It is every teacher s responsibility to support Literacy across the curriculum. Marking provides the opportunity to identify mistakes and support students making corrections. Weak Literacy should be underlined and the following codes should be placed in the margin to identify corrections that the students themselves and not the teacher should make. The codes are as follows; SP - Spelling mistakes should be circled and SP written in the margin P! - Punctuation errors should be circled and P! written in the margin // - Paragraphing errors should be highlighted using a double slash // SV! Specialist vocabulary used incorrectly should be circled and SV! written in the margin Page 5
CAP Capital letter inaccuracies should be circled and CAP written in the margin The above are the basic codes which should be used across all subject areas. Should departments wish to add to them, department marking policies need to reflect this. APPENDIX 2 Page 6