At Peel Clothworkers’ Primary School we maintain high expectations of all children in relation to their learning and progress, maximising their outcomes and achievement. Regular and pertinent marking enables children to identify what they have done well and what their next steps are.
Aims and Objectives:
Effective marking and feedback should:
•recognise, encourage and reward children’s efforts and achievements.
•provide clear and appropriate feedback highlighting strengths in their work - to be marked in purple.
•provide clear and appropriate feedback highlighting areas for development - to be marked in green.
•make pertinent links to the learning objective and any relevant targets.
•be used to inform future planning and target setting.
•make links to previous work where value is added.
•be age appropriate.
•be manageable for teachers.
Practice:
In order for marking to have an impact on the learning of all children, time should be set aside for pupils to respond to marking comments and any ‘close the gap’ comments or ‘now try this’ questions.
At the end of each session pupils should also be given the opportunity to reflect on their own learning and success and mark an assessment themselves in the form of a smiley, straight or sad face. Often it can be useful to encourage the children to provide additional comments (particularly in KS2) to accompany the face to give a clear outline of their understanding.
Written Feedback:
Purple (Positive) Comments - these comments should clearly identify what the child has done well, a success/skill that they have learnt or achieved E.g. a few days after marking a child may remember ‘I can write using subordinate connectives as I had some underlined in purple in my work.’ They are less likely to remember the LO’s from the week and whether they were met or not.
‘LO met’ is acceptable feedback for written work, although there should be some evidence of where that has been met throughout the piece of work, either underlined/circled/highlighted in purple. However ‘LO met’ should not be used too regularly as the main form of comment.
The type and depth of marking should be varied. This will support AfL and provide an ever increasing bank of evidence for teacher assessment.
A purple comment may also remark on how the child worked in terms of their attitude or effort towards their learning.
Green (Growth) Comments - these need to show the next steps in a child’s learning or consolidate learning that has passed and can relate to any targets. The comment should be child friendly but does not always have to be long and may often be a question. Work that requires the child to take another look can be underlined/circled/highlighted in green, providing a clear visual stimulus, prompting the child on what needs to be checked.
Any ESO working with a group should also mark the work completed in this way (you may need to provide time for them to do this) as they have a clear idea on how much support was given and the level of input/effort was dedicated from each child.
Responding - it is vital that children are given time to read and respond to marking in order for it to have maximum impact. This can be done at various times to suit your class E.g. at the start of the day as a ‘Morning Task’ or for a short period at the beginning of the next lesson. Where possible this should be carried out independently by the pupils and will allow you some time to work with anyone who made repeated errors etc.
Verbal Feedback:
Discussion with a child about a completed piece of work (particularly when carried out during the lesson) is the most effective form of feedback and is highly valued. It is important to make a note of any verbal feedback carried out on the work by noting VF (in purple).
Peer Marking:
There are a number of occasions where children will evaluate a partner’s piece of work. When this is carried out the children should also use the purple and green system using coloured pencils.
Self Marking:
As with peer marking, when children are marking their own work the purple and green system should be used to ensure the understanding is consistent and embedded.
Monitoring:
This is an agreed, whole school policy. As such all teachers and support staff are expected to apply it consistently within the aims of its rationale.
The application and impact of the Marking and Feedback Policy may be reviewed within lesson observations and as part of explicit book scrutinies conducted by the school’s Senior Leadership Team. Outcomes will then be shared to develop and enhance best practice across the school.