All Saints Catholic School
MARKING POLICY
Rationale
All pupils’ work is of value and pupils must be made aware of this. Pupils need to be aware of their
personal achievements and to be provided with relevant advice and feedback on how to improve.
Broad Principles
1. Marking can be formative or summative, or both. It can be carried out by teachers, pupils (self
or peer) or external markers, as appropriate.
2. Marking is based on an interpretation of criteria (internal and external) and can serve the
following purposes:
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diagnosis of the nature of learning barriers;
identification of strengths and areas for improvement (formative assessment);
to comment on presentational skills including spelling, punctuation and grammar;
to celebrate pupils’ achievements and progress in their learning.
Guidelines
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GUIDANCE
All books should be marked formatively at
least once every six lessons. This could
include alternating between structured selfor peer-assessment in one cycle and
teacher assessment in the next cycle.
ACTION
MARK BOOKS FORMATIVELY AT LEAST
EVERY SIX LESSONS
To indicate that work in-between
formatively marked work has been checked,
a small tick with the date checked and
teacher initials should be used.
INDICATE THAT WORK HAS BEEN MERELY
CHECKED, RATHER THAN FORMATIVELY
MARKED, BY INSERTING A TICK, DATED
LIKE 2/10/14 (TO AVOID CONFUSION WITH
SCORES!), AND INITIALLED
Note that this policy makes no distinction
between classwork and homework: all work
should be checked or marked, with pupils
assisting teachers to achieve this.
ENSURE, WITHIN REASON, THAT ALL WORK
IS CHECKED OR MARKED FORMATIVELY,
MAKING USE OF PUPILS TO HELP ACHIEVE
THIS
Formative Marking should give pupils
some sense of what they can do and, when
appropriate, some sense of what they
need to do to improve, with teachers
ensuring that those improvements are
made (our Impactive Marking, involving
teacher intervention, pupil response and
teacher follow-up).
REVIEW AND REFINE YOUR MARKING BY
CONSIDERING WHAT EVIDENCE THERE IS
IN WRITTEN WORK THAT IT HELPS PUPILS
MAKE PROGRESS TOWARDS OBJECTIVES
Comments written should relate, in the
main, to the learning objectives in hand,
to add focus, for teachers and for pupils.
ENSURE THAT FOCUSED COMMENTS ARE
WRITTEN IN BOOKS (BY TEACHERS OR
PUPILS)
ACTIVELY SEEK TO DEVELOP TECHNIQUES
FOR MARKING EFFICIENTLY BY TRYING
FOR YOURSELF THOSE IDENTIFIED BY THE
MARKING TLC/OTP PRACTITIONERS
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Where appropriate, verbal feedback
should be recorded by pupils under the
heading “Verbal Feedback Given”, with
pupils essentially writing teachers’
comments for them.
ENSURE THAT PUPILS RECORD VERBAL
FEEDBACK (AS APPROPRIATE) UNDER THE
HEADING “VERBAL FEEDBACK GIVEN”,
AVOIDING ABBREVIATIONS LIKE VFG!
Integrated Response Time (IRT), allowing
pupils time to reflect and to act on
comments, should be built into lesson
plans as appropriate.
ALLOW PUPILS TIME IN LESSONS (IRT) TO
REFLECT AND TO ACT ON COMMENTS
WHEN MARKING IMPACTIVELY
Pupils (maybe a couple who “get the
idea”) should, where possible, be
activated as Teaching Assistants to
support their peers as they work to make
improvements, checking that
improvements have been made.
MAKE SURE YOU COMPLETE THE CYCLE BY
CHECKING/ACKNOWLEDGING (WITH PUPIL
HELP) THAT IMPROVEMENTS HAVE IN
FACT BEEN MADE
Pupils should be trained and supported to
self- and peer-assess, with, for example,
teachers helping them to tease out key
objectives and learning goals (pupilfriendly success criteria work well) in
tasks and asking them to identify, for
themselves or for their peers, one that
was achieved and one that requires some
work, with pupils doing that work there
and then (IRT).
TRAIN PUPILS, SHOWING THEM HOW TO
ASSESS THEMSELVES AND EACH OTHER,
HIGHLIGHTING THE IMPORTANCE OF THEM
FOCUSING ON WHAT EXACTLY IS BEING
LEARNED OR ON WHAT NEEDS TO BE
LEARNED, AND ALLOWING THEM
REGULAR, STRUCTURED OPPORTUNITIES
TO DO SO
Regular summative assessment, at the end
of units of work or themes, should be used to
provide stakeholders with broad measures
(levels for KS3, grades for KS4/5) of pupils’
attainment.
ASSESS SUMMATIVELY IN LINE WITH
DEPARTMENTAL POLICY (AT LEAST ONCE
PER TERM), RECORDING LEVELS IN KS3
AND GRADES IN KS4/5
Levels and grades should be used for
summative assessments only.
Summative assessment should take place at
least once every term, with formal end-ofyear examinations in the Summer Term.
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End-of-Year and/or Key Stage target
levels/grades should be indicated on the
front covers, or inside front covers, of
exercise books. If possible, these should be
accompanied by current grades/levels….
“My Y9 grade was……
My Y10 target is……
My GCSE target is……”
ENSURE THAT PUPILS DISPLAY CURRENT
GRADES/LEVELS AND TARGETS (AS
APPROPRIATE) AT THE FRONT OF
EXERCISE BOOKS (HAND-WRITTEN OR
STICKER) AND THAT THESE
GRADES/LEVELS ARE TRANSFERRED TO
ANY NEW EXERCISE BOOKS LATER DOWN
THE LINE
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Current grades/levels and targets should be
discussed with pupils at the start of the year (or
unit), giving them some sense of where they are
and where they are trying to go, with the
formative assessment to follow later down the
line identifying what pupils need to do,
objective-wise, to approach these targets
DISCUSS CURRENT GRADES/LEVELS AND
TARGETS WITH PUPILS, ENSURING THAT
PUPILS KNOW WHERE THEY ARE, WHERE
THEY ARE TRYING TO GO AND, THROUGH
ASSESSEMENT, HOW THEY MIGHT GET
THERE
To assist with the learning dialogue, pupils
should be regularly encouraged to reflect on
their learning, describing in writing what
they are learning, either at the point of
learning, or at the end of a body of work.
ENSURE THAT PUPILS REFLECT, IN
WRITING, ON THEIR LEARNING, AS AND
WHEN APPROPRIATE
Pupils enjoy learning about origins of words,
so etymology should be discussed at
appropriate points, not only because it is
interesting, but because it can assist with
spelling and help pupils see a bigger picture.
DISCUSS THE ORIGINS OF WORDS AS
APPROPRIATE, IN ORDER THAT PUPILS
MIGHT BETTER WORK OUT MEANINGS OF
NEW, BUT RELATED WORDS
To support the drive to improve Literacy
across the board, key-word spelling errors
(no more than three per task) and
grammatical errors should be highlighted
and addressed.
HIGHLIGHT KEY SPELLING AND
GRAMMATICAL ERRORS, DEVELOPING
INDEPENDENCE BY ENSURING THAT
PUPILS WORK TO CORRECT THEM FOR
THEMSELVES……
SP-spelling error; P-punctuation error;
C-capital letter error; NP-new paragraph
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Pupils’ achievements should be regularly
celebrated through the marking process by
the use of praise, reward points and
commendations.
Pupils should be given opportunities to show
off their excellent work/achievements to their
peers
USE REWARD POINTS TO CELEBRATE
ACHIEVEMENTS
ALLOW PUPILS OPPORTUNITIES TO
SHOW/PRESENT IMPRESSIVE WORK TO
THEIR PEERS, HIGHLIGHTING WHAT
SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE (ONE WAY: PUPILS
ENJOY USING SMARTPHONES TO TAKE
SNAPSHOTS OF WORK AND DISPLAYING
THEM AS SLIDESHOWS)
DISPLAY EXCELLENT WORK FOR PUPILS TO
LEARN FROM AND ASPIRE TO
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To encourage best practice and consistency,
monitoring of the impact of this policy will
take place termly, with review meetings
involving Marking TLC Members, Heads of
Department and Line Managers. Exercise
books will be scrutinised, generally or with a
particular focus, as appropriate.
LINE MANAGERS TO LIAISE WITH HEADS OF
DEPARTMENT AND MARKING TLC
MEMBERS, ENSURING THAT TERMLY
REVIEWS (FOCUS PROVIDED BY GE) TAKE
PLACE, IDENTIFYING STRENGTHS AND
AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT, WITH THE
LATTER TO BE REVIEWED IN THE NEXT
CYCLE
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Note that HODs need not conduct separate
scrutinies, but that additional scrutinies may take
place, for individuals or departments, should
HOD/SMT deem them necessary.
LINE MANAGERS TO SUMMARISE REVIEW
FINDINGS AND SHARE WITH GE/HEADS OF
DEPARTMENT/MARKING TLC MEMBERS
This policy should be reviewed annually.
REVIEWED NOVEMBER 2014 BY GE
Adopted date: November 2014
Date of review : November 2015
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