Marking &
Feedback
Policy
Written by: Alison Forster/Gary Wright
Chair of Governors: Alison Logan
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RATIONALE
At Usworth Colliery Primary School we will provide consistency in quality of marking and feedback
throughout the school. Marking and feedback are used as an integral part of daily teaching to support
pupils’ learning.
There are three main purposes to marking and feedback for pupils:
1. To understand what has been done well
2. To understand how to improve
3. To make visible signs of improvement as a result of feedback
Marking and Feedback also
 aids assessment and matches quality of work against standards and expectations
 shows the pupils and parents/carers that work is valued.
 recognises, encourages and rewards pupils’ achievement, and celebrates their success
 provides an ongoing dialogue between teacher and pupil, which tracks progress and gives
clear, constructive and appropriate information about strengths and areas for development
 enables pupils to have the necessary confidence and skills to be able to review their own work
against learning intentions and success criteria
 enables pupils to correct or improve a piece of work against success criteria
 supports pupils in identifying their next steps in learning
METHODOLOGY
Marking against the Learning Objective
Teachers regularly feedback on how well pupils have achieved the learning objective by indicating
with two ticks against the title (learning objective) when an objective has been successfully met and
one tick where it is partially met. Where the learning objectives have not been met the teacher makes
a comment or prompt, to inform and support the pupils to make improvements. However, for this
system to be successful learning objectives must be specific and achievable.
Success Criteria
Children need to know how to succeed and in the majority of lessons, teachers provide the children
with steps, in order to do this (success criteria). Each teacher may approach this differently but the
success criteria must be appropriate to the task, consider basic skills and where possible be
differentiated to individual needs within the class (see ‘Assessment for Learning’ below).
Celebrating Achievement
Each piece of work must celebrate what the child has done successfully. This is matched to the
success criteria, learning objective or child’s personal targets. This is at the discretion of the
teacher, usually in the form of ticks, double ticks or highlighting. It is encouraged, as best practice,
on large pieces of writing, that staff highlight achievements according to VCOP (Vocabulary,
Connectives, Openers & Punctuation).
Points to improve
To ensure all pupils understand how to improve, different types of prompts should be used. We use a
mixture of challenge, reminder, process and example prompts, as appropriate. This may be done
through comments, questions, discussions or diagrams that help pupils to understand. Points to
improve are indicated in books with a *.
Examples of guidance prompts
Challenge: Now can you tell me more about the atmosphere in the forest?
Reminder: What should you have included in the setting of your story? Can you think about this
and add a little more?
Steps:
First go and check you have included a sentence about the setting
Then see if you can add a little more detail about what you can see
Example:
Put this sentence into your story here* to improve the description of the setting.
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The different prompts are effective when used at different times during a teaching sequence and to
support differing abilities of learner.
The challenge prompt: this extends learning through a simple question and is often used for more
able pupils or at a point towards the end of a teaching sequence when some knowledge has already
been established.
The reminder prompt: this is used if a child has forgotten to do something, but not if they do not
know how to do it, it is a support to remind pupils to use a skill they have previously learned.
The steps or instruction prompt: this helps the child through a process to achieve an objective, but
to be effective, should be kept to a maximum of 3 steps.
The example prompt is used when the child does not understand as it gives lots of detail and
support. This is more often used with the less able pupils or at the early stages of a teaching
sequence when new knowledge is being learned.
Where these prompts are given, the teachers provide time in the next lesson to act upon the advice
given and improve the previous piece of work. When the child has completed the improvement, they
put a circle around the * to indicate they have read and acted upon the advice.
At least one piece of writing each week will be marked in depth. This may not be from a literacy
lesson.
Marking for Basic Skills
Teachers consistently mark basic skills within all pieces of work. If a pupil makes a basic skill,
spelling or punctuation error that is inappropriate for their age or ability level, the teacher signposts
the error but the pupil is expected to find and correct the mistake themselves. The teacher does not
correct these, as the child is capable of doing so. This develops pupils’ independence and ability to
self-mark and edit. Quality of presentation is also a focus for marking and feedback and pupils are
expected to make improvements in this area subject to teacher prompts. The presentation of all
marking by the teacher must be of a high standard and model good practice, using the taught
handwriting style.
Without visible signs of progress emerging from marking and feedback, there is no evidence of
effectiveness. Therefore teachers and assistants must therefore ensure time is allocated to act upon
the guidance so that pupils have the opportunity to improve their knowledge, skills and understanding
on a regular basis.
Early Years
The majority of the feedback in Early Years is via verbal feedback, however, this is noted in learning
logs or on the Orbit software along with the next step, in order to track progress. We have an
expectation that evidence is clearly logged to show that the child is provided with activities/support in
order to reach their next step and their relative success. This procedure is ongoing throughout the
academic year, forming a picture of their development.
Consistency
The three purposes of marking and feedback should be evident in all classes and in all subjects
across the whole school, however approaches may differ. Sometimes it is appropriate to give
feedback verbally and sometimes it is more effective to give written feedback. Each time any style of
feedback is used the three purposes of marking should be developed.
Marking and feedback are most effective when done during or immediately after a task. However this
is not always possible, therefore teachers mark ‘process work’ as soon as possible after it is
completed and mark only the ‘product work’ at a later date.
Verbal Feedback
Verbal feedback is the most effective marking tool when used correctly as it supports the pupils
learning at the point that the learning is taking place. When giving verbal feedback during a written
task, ‘key word marking’ is used. This is where the teacher, after speaking with the pupil, notes on the
piece of work, in key words, the main point of the discussion, thus indicating the feedback that has
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been given. This is to help the teacher and pupil remember what was discussed so that work can be
checked later for visible signs of improvement.
Targets
Every child has their current targets in the front of their literacy, numeracy, science/topic books. This
target card also has their current level of attainment, the level they are aiming for and the level they
are expected to achieve at the end of the year. These targets are used by the child when working, in
order to ensure that they know what is expected of them. They are also used by the teacher while
marking. The teacher stars the key target that the child is working on, ticks when they have seen
evidence in their work of achieving that target and when they are sure that the child is meeting the
target consistently they put the date next to the target. This builds up evidence of achievement
throughout the year. Each time the child moves levels, then a new target card is place on top of the
previous one. The children need to know their targets in order to achieve them.
Assessment for Learning
It is highly important that the children are part of their assessment. Regularly, the children will be
asked to assess their piece of work against the success criteria. This can be in the form of selfassessment or peer assessment. This doesn't replace the teacher’s marking, but enhances the
process for the child and the teacher.
MONITORING AND EVALUATION
Frequent work scrutiny and discussions with pupils are routinely undertaken by senior leaders (in line
with the annual school monitoring timetable). The focus of all scrutiny is to ensure the three purposes
of marking and feedback are of consistently high quality throughout the school and that marking
leads to improved standards. Scrutiny always recognises the positives, but also gives points to
improve (which froms the focus for the next scrutiny). Feedback is given to individual staff and
general feedback to all staff, in order to share good practice.
Other relevant policies/guidance: ·
Previously agreed:
Agreed Date:
Monitoring & Evaluation Policy
All individual subject policies
June 2013
February 2014
Review Date:
Signed………………………………………………………….
Head Teacher
Date………………………………
Signed………………………………………………………….
Chair of Governors
Date……………………………….
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