Marking Policy
Selsdon Primary School
September 2013
What has the greatest influence on
childrens’ learning?
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Class environment
Instructional quality
Direct instruction
Students’ prior cognitive
ability
Home factors
Instructional quantity
Challenge of Goals
Questioning
Parent involvement
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Bilingual programmes
Remediation/feedback
Students disposition to learn
Feedback
Peer tutoring
Mastery learning
Teacher in-service education
Acceleration
Homework
Professor John Hattie
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Professor of Education University of
Auckland
180,000 studies
50 million students
Results
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4.
5.
Feedback
Students’ prior cognitive ability
Instructional quality
Instructional quantity
Direct instruction
Feedback
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What they have done well
What they need to do to improve
Clarifying goals (assessment criteria)
High quality feedback is always given against explicit
criteria
Feedback on the task
Feedback on the processes they have used
Feedback on the ‘self’ such as ‘well done you are
good at this’ is not helpful
Is it worth it?
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Marking children’s work is the core part of working
life for any teacher. It can seem endless and feel a
constant pressure.
Research into written feedback by teachers strongly
suggests that there is a lot wrong with traditional
approaches. Comments are time consuming and
usually only focus on surface features such as
presentation or perceived effort which has little
impact on the learning.
Does marking make any difference?
Is it worth it?
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Yes!
One of the most crucial forms of assessment
We can judge our own effectiveness as teachers
We can make strategic decisions about the next
steps
Individual dialogue with every child
Marking should not be seen as a chore
Personalised learning – development of EYFS
practice
Ofsted Judgements - Teaching
Outstanding
Consistently high quality marking and constructive feedback from
teachers ensure that pupils make rapid gains.
Good
Teachers assess pupils’ learning and progress regularly and
accurately at all key stages, including in the Early Years
Foundation Stage. They ensure that pupils know how well they
have done and what they need to do to improve.
If this is not in place then teaching is inadequate.
How We Learn
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10% of what we READ
20% of what we HEAR
30% of what we SEE
50% of what we SEE and HEAR
70% of what is DISCUSSED with OTHERS
80% of what is EXPERIENCED PERSONALLY
95% of what we TEACH TO SOMEONE ELSE
William Glasser
Self and Peer Assessment
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This takes time to develop and needs to be
taught.
Initially children focus on the superficial.
Needs to be modelled by the adult
Particularly valuable for SEN children
Self and Peer Assessment
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Train children over time to assess their own
work and the work of others, and develop an
appropriate language
Give children opportunities in mathematics
lessons to discuss and reflect on problemsolving and calculation strategies, comparing
and evaluating approaches
Frequently and consistently encourage
children's self-reflection on their learning
Guide children to identify their next steps.
Self and Peer Assessment
Time needs to be built in to the lesson for structured
reflection, for example using comments such as the
following.
'Find
one example you are really proud of and circle it. Tell the
person next to you why you are pleased with it.'
'Decide with your talk partner which of the success criteria you
have been most successful with and which one needs help or could
be taken even further.'
(After whole-class sharing for a minute or two) 'You have three
minutes to identify two places where you think you have done this
well and read them to your partner.'
'You have five minutes to find one place where you could improve.
Write your improvement at the bottom of your work.'
'Look back at the problems you have solved today. Where were
you successful? What approach did you take?'
Marking Policy 2013
Focused Quality Marking
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At the start of every lesson teachers share learning
intention (LI) and with the children establish the
WMAG (What Makes A Good) or WIN (What I Need).
These should break down the skills needed in order to
achieve the Learning Intention (or the ingredients for
the recipe).
Not every piece of work will be marked in detail. In
order to manage regular in-depth marking of the whole
class teachers should carry out detailed marking of one
subject per week (writing, maths, science/topic).
Marking Policy 2013
How do we mark?
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All work by the children should be in pencil,
blue or black pen.
Marking and writing by the adult should be in
red pen
Children’s responses to any marking should
be in green pen
Marking Policy 2013
Indicating what has been achieved and
the next step
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The teacher writes a maximum of 3 WWW’s
(What Went Well) and 1 EBI (Even Better If).
The EBI could be related to either the LI or
the child’s individual target. Whichever is
most relevant. These should be written in
red pen.
Marking Policy 2013
Making the improvement
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The child should respond to the EBI in their next
piece of guided work in their book (timetabled into
next weeks planning). This should either be written in
green pen or the relevant element circled or
underlined in green pen to show that the child has
addressed the EBI set on the previous piece of work
Marking Policy 2013
Quick Marking
All work should be dated and signed by the
adult. This indicates that the adult has
acknowledged the child’s effort and noted
what has been achieved. Children usually date
their own work but the teacher may need to
date work for younger children.
Marking Policy 2013
Where the adult scans/skims pieces of work, acknowledgement
should be given by use of the following codes:
N
= Nearly there (hasn’t achieved Learning Intention)
A
= Learning Intention Achieved
E = Child has Extended themselves beyond the Learning
Intention
In addition the teacher should indicate if the work was independent
by use of
I
The role of the TA
Foundation Stage
 Regular observations in FSP
Key Stage 1
 Sticky labels and observations on recorded work
Key Stage 2
 Sticky labels and observations on recorded work
Making an observation
Observations should always be objective and be
based on what the child did and said. Observations
should:
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Be factual
Be specific
Be brief
Link to the focus of the activity i.e. the Learning
Intention (and the child’s individual target)
Format for the observation
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Date each observation
Describe the context or the activity
Describe what he child actually did and said,
use quotes to document the child’s language
State the outcome (related to the Learning
Intention and the child’s target)
Monitoring
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This will be monitored throughout the year.
Teachers and Teaching Assistants
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HMI and Ofsted evidence
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