Weetwood Primary School
Marking Policy
Written: April 2006
Reviewed: Oct 2009
Next Review Date: 2012
This marking policy aims to establish a reflective and interactive dialogue between
the child, teacher and other adults. It also aims to provide assessment information
about progress made by the child and identify the next steps for learning.
The school is committed to raising standards and developing the potential of all
children; the success of the policy lies in the direct link between marking, helping
children improve and the reward system in school.
Aims of Marking and Oral Feedback
The aims and purposes of marking are:
 To motivate children to want to achieve more and to recognise success by
allowing children to build a picture of their strengths and weaknesses.

To enable staff to respond to children’s recorded work of all kinds.

To provide information for the pupil and teacher on how well a piece of work
has been understood and how well the learning objective has been met.

To assess the quality of a piece of work. Factors for consideration may
include:
 Relevance to the task set/learning objective
 Accuracy
 Presentation
 Extension beyond stated requirements.

To assist the teacher with future planning. (is further explanation/more
practice required or is child/group/class ready to move on)

To provide a mechanism for target setting.

To contribute to the learning process.
Staff have agreed that all work should be marked in some way, this includes
worksheets. However, not all work requires the same level of annotation; some work
could be acknowledged by a comment or initial.
1
Style and Tone of Written Comments
Teachers will mark in pencil or a green pen/pencil.
Teachers need to use a balance of written comments and oral feedback. Comments
should be motivational and personal.
Comments need to be positive wherever possible.
Comments need to identify what has been achieved and then to target a specific area
for improvement.
Where specific types of error have been identified, ways forward should be planned
before child attempts work of a similar nature.
Marking method should suit the content (see individual subject headings)
Marking and oral feedback should reflect high expectations of all children’s effort
and ability. However, teachers will use their own discretion when marking work,
particularly of younger children and children with special needs. In these cases
comments may be more oral than written, and include smiley faces and stickers.
Teacher’s written comments should never dominate a piece of work. Where extensive
comment is required, feedback should be mainly oral. In Year 6, for example, marking
will be much more detailed as the children approach SAT tests.
Teachers can highlight good sentences/phrases etc.
Frequency
Marking should be undertaken as quickly as possible so that dialogue can take place
with the child/group and areas of difficulty can be dealt with promptly.
Although teachers will always check children’s work, there are occasions where work
will be marked by children, working with the teacher, as this can be a powerful
teaching tool.
Children will be encouraged to self evaluate their own work and the work of their
peers.
Consistency
Significant steps in learning should be noted whenever they happen, in children’s
books (comment, sticker etc) in teacher’s record books or on children’s individual
target sheets, so they can inform future planning for teaching and learning.
More detailed marking should be planned where work has been particularly identified
in a scheme of work for assessment.
Teachers may choose to carry out detailed marking of a focus group each week to
ensure quality marking and cut down on the number of books to be marked in detail
each week.
2
Written comments in exercise books will be undertaken in pencil or green pen/pencil.
Teachers must make pupils aware of the objective/criteria against which the work
will be marked.
When marking is returned to children, there will be time given for the children to
read/respond to written comments and for staff to give oral feedback.
Before the next piece of work is undertaken, it is sometimes appropriate to re-visit
the targets from the previous piece of work.
Marking for English
Creative Prose:
Detailed comments on organisation, style, grammar, interest etc. according to the
criteria set.
Some correction of punctuation/spelling, but not sufficient to inhibit the flow. It is
more desirable that pupils attempt to use more complex sentence
construction/vocabulary with errors, than using ‘safer’, less expressive language
correctly.
Two or three common errors can be corrected. Teacher’s knowledge of individual
children will temper any marking and response.
Individual discussion of work wherever possible.
More intensive correction will take place where work is selected as rough
draft/redraft/final copy.
Poetry
Initially no correction of spelling/punctuation as most work is attempted in rough
before redrafting and writing out in final form.
Individual discussion or sharing work with the class takes place after the initial
attempt.
Non-narrative writing
Comments relating to criteria set.
More attention to punctuation/spelling/grammar than in creative work, but teachers
use discretion to ensure such marking does not impede response to main purpose of
the task.
Spelling
Tests:
Words marked right
√
or wrong
x
Mis-spelt words written once by class teacher, and then written in child’s own word
book and learnt with weekly spellings if appropriate.
3
In writing:
KS1: incorrect spelling underlined, corrections at teacher’s discretion.
KS2: incorrect spelling underlined, class teacher corrects and spelling recorded in
word book.
In dictation:
Incorrect spelling underlined. Children find spelling and write it out once, using
spelling books, word lists or dictionaries.
Correction of Punctuation
See sheet: ‘Marking/Redrafting Symbols’ which will be on display in each classroom.
Missing speech marks/full stops/capital letters/question marks etc. put in by teacher
in pencil or green pen.
Handwriting
Children are asked to do an extra line of practice if they have formed letters
incorrectly. Where words have been spelt incorrectly when copying from handwriting
textbooks, children will be asked to write correct spelling.
Layout of work
1. Every piece is dated, using the date in words at the teacher’s discretion
2. Titles underlined using a ruler in KS2
3. In KS2, previous work is ruled off with pencil, after the teacher’s comments,
as next piece of work is started.
4. In KS1, a line is left between each piece of work.
5. Worksheets have child’s full name and date by the end of Year 1
6. When a text book is used, book, page and number are recorded at start of
work. Where a worksheet is used, children record title plus (w)
7. Pencil to be used at KS1, fountain pen, ink rollerball or berol handwriting pen
to be used at KS2 for most written work when handwriting reaches an
acceptable standard.
8. The use of ICT for presentation of work is to be encouraged.
9. No ink erasers or ‘Tippex’ to be used.
Marking for Mathematics
Work is marked right
√
or wrong
x together with a helpful comment and/or
discussion with the individual or whole class as appropriate.
If a child has really struggled with an exercise, the teacher ceases to mark work
wrong and write a comment at the end, asking the child to discuss the exercise.
Corrections are completed after explanation -
C indicates correction needed.
Differing criteria may occur within a given topic: e.g. work will be marked correct if
mechanical process is right, ignoring minor errors such as missing £, cm etc., when
topic first introduced, but as competence and confidence increase, then greater
demands will be made for complete accuracy.
4
When carrying out calculations parts of the calculation / mechanical process which
are correct will be marked as such and minor errors will be highlighted. When
children are solving problems praise will be given for using an appropriate method
even if the final answer is incorrect. As such children need to be given many
opportunities to show working out.
Tests will be marked right √ or wrong
x.
Layout of Work
1. All work dated with number date
2. Each piece of work records book, page, number or work card where a scheme
is used, and title & (w) where teacher’s worksheet is used.
3. All lines ruled in KS2
4.
O of digit indicates error
Marking for Science
Children will be encouraged to use an appropriate form for communicating their
findings in an Investigation, e.g., bullet points/tables etc.
Written comments and feedback on practical work.
Written comments on factual writing plus constructive criticism
Marking for RE and Foundation Subjects
Written comments, reinforced by oral feedback, including comments on how to
improve.
Work marked against criteria set (history work not marked as an English grammar
exercise). As with creative prose, one or two general spellings or punctuation
corrections shown, but key topic words always corrected.
Marking by Support Staff
The role of support staff is central to supporting and moving forward children’s
learning. When support staff work with a group of children they know from their
access to planning and discussions with the class teacher what the planned learning
and assessment opportunities are to be. With this information all staff should be
actively encouraged to
 Write the context of the work
 Date and initial who gave support
 Provide an indication of the level of commitment that the child gave to the
work.
Reviewed by Judy Brockbank and staff team October 2009
Signed:
Chair of Governing Body
Signed:
Head Teacher
Dated:
Dated:
5
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