Marking and Feedback Policy September 2016
Aims
It is important that the teaching team provides constructive feedback to children, both written and
orally, focusing on success and improvement needs against learning objectives (WALTs). This
enables children to become reflective learners and helps them to close the gap between what they
can do currently and what we would like them to do.
We recognise that the teaching team consists of teachers, student teachers, teaching assistants
(TAs), HLTAs, supply teachers, nursery nurses and any other specialist teachers employed by the
academy.
Principles for Marking and Feedback
Marking and feedback should:
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Be manageable for the teaching team and accessible to the children.
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Relate to the WALT.
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Involve all of the teaching team working with the children.
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Recognises the child’s achievements.
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Give clear next steps so children know what they need to do to improve and make
progress.
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Allow specific, identified time for children to read, reflect and respond to marking where
appropriate (Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time or DIRT).
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Respond to individual learning needs taking opportunities to mark face-to-face where
appropriate during lessons or daily DIRT sessions.
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Inform future planning.
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Follows consistent practice, with consistent use of codes, throughout the academy.
General Guidelines
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Marking includes both oral and written feedback. It is important that children receive oral
feedback from a member of the teaching team regularly during lesson time or during DIRT
time. This is particularly important for the least able pupils who may find it difficult to read,
understand and act upon written feedback.
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All adults should be involved in the marking/feedback process. This is particularly the case
where an adult has worked a child or group of children during the lesson and can therefore
give informed feedback.
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All adults should follow the same codes and guidelines when marking work.
Marking and Feedback Policy September 2016
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Where work is marked by an adult other than the class teacher (e.g. TA, HLTA, supply
teacher, student teacher) they should initial the work so it is clear who has provided
feedback.
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Marking and feedback can take place during lessons with the child or a group of children by
a member of the teaching team.
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‘Green pen’ next steps comments should be used during lessons to extend children’s
learning so that they can respond to this immediately – particularly in maths where they
have got a number of sums correct and are ready for greater challenge.
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Although it is acknowledged that not every piece of work can be marked in detail, it is
expected that either during or following most lessons a child’s work will be given feedback
(oral, acknowledgement in red pen or next steps in green pen) by a member of the teaching
team. Therefore, children’s books should not generally contain more than two consecutive
pieces of work without feedback, although this could simply be acknowledgement marking
(in red).
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Work is marked to the WALT and/or the child’s own targets for improvement.
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Marking should always model good presentation, handwriting, spelling and grammar.
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Consistent colours are used to mark throughout the school, as follows:
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Red marking pens (or pink highlighters) are used to acknowledge children’s work and
highlight where they have done something well or met/exceeded the objective.
Acknowledgement marking in red should always relate back to the WALT.
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Green marking pens (or green highlighters) are used for areas for improvement/next steps.
These comments are for children to respond to so they must give the child an instruction
which makes it clear what you expect them to do. (see Appendix 1 – Next Steps Comments
for examples)
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It is agreed by teaching staff that green next steps marking is most important in terms of
helping the child to make progress and should therefore take up most of the teacher’s time.
Red marking should be kept to a minimum by ticking/double ticking the WALT where it has
been achieved (rather than rewriting it), ticking/double ticking words or particular aspects of
the child’s work that you are pleased with.
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To acknowledge children’s successes or effort in books a short, simple statement in red
pen with house points awarded accordingly by the adult should usually be sufficient.
Marking and Feedback Policy September 2016
Next Steps / Green Marking
It is acknowledged that not all pieces of work can be marked in detail with green/next steps
comments. Teachers will need to decide whether work will simply be acknowledged (using red
pen) or given more detailed attention and next steps to respond to (using green pen). However, it
is expected that generally at least one piece of work per week in both literacy and numeracy will
be marked in detail, including green next steps comments (see Appendix 1 – ‘Next Step Marking
Statements’ for examples).
Independent, extended pieces of writing and drafts should always have green/next step comments
so children now how to improve their work when redrafting. In year 6 however children are
encouraged to edit their own work independently so extended pieced of writing and drafts will
receive more general guidelines in their feedback of how they might consider improving their work.
Response to Feedback
Children should be given time to respond to green next steps comments during Dedicated
Improvement and Reflection Time (DIRT time), this is identified in all class timetables. In Year 2
and KS2 children should use purple response pens to do this so it is clear that they have
responded directly to the next step comment. Where children have responded it is important that
a member of the teaching team then checks and acknowledges their response to ensure they
have understood and responded appropriately.
Self and Peer Assessment
Children should be trained, as they move through the year groups, to self-assess and then peer
assess against the learning objective using success criteria to help them.
Where appropriate children can self-assess using green, blue and orange colour pencil next to the
learning objective to identify if they feel they have met, partially met or not met it. In Early
Years/KS1 children might use smiley faces instead of colours to self-assess.
Green, blue and orange cards should also be used by children during lessons to show if they
understand/feel confident about what they are doing. Particularly useful in numeracy lessons.
Green, blue and orange coloured card/coloured trays are also used for children to hand in their
work at end of the lesson to indicate how they feel they have done.
Marking and Feedback Policy September 2016
Feedback/peer assessment can be oral or written according to the age and ability of the child, and
appropriateness of task.
Children should be trained and encouraged to give an improvement suggestion (next step).
Children should be given time and opportunity to act upon suggestions made by their peers (DIRT)
The quality of the improvement suggestions and of the peer assessment should be overseen and
monitored by the teacher/adult working with the child.
Marking and Feedback in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
It is acknowledged that in Nursery children do not have a work book to record work so all feedback
to children will be verbal feedback. Assessment observations made by the teaching team will
provide the evidence of children’s progress and attainment against the published ‘Development
Matters’ statements.
In Reception children record some work in their work books and some written feedback will be
found in these. However, as in Nursery, assessment observations made by the teaching team will
provide the majority of evidence of children’s progress and attainment.
In the EYFS marking and feedback strategies will include:
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Verbal praise
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Written annotations, short and narrative observations (written)
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Annotation of work and photographs by members of the teaching team
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Children beginning to annotate their own work and pictures
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Oral dialogue with children about their play, work or books
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Children’s response to the feedback they are given – child’s voice.
Marking of literacy across other subjects
Feedback and marking should always focus on the learning objective for that piece of work.
However, it is important to encourage good literacy skills across all subject areas. Therefore,
some work (e.g. science or topic work) may have subject specific next steps relating to the
learning objective and also a next step focusing on a significant or repeated literacy error that the
adult has identified in their written work.
Marking and Feedback Policy September 2016
Agreed Marking codes
The following marking codes have been agreed by staff across the academy and should be used
by all adults involved in giving feedback and marking to ensure consistency across the school.
Codes in red pen:
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I - Child worked independently
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TA – with TA support
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CT – Class Teacher support
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PW – worked with a partner
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VF – Verbal feedback given in class with brief explanation (e.g. VF capital letters)
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HP – house points
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 - Met LO or identify in work things that they have done well
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 - Partially met LO
Codes in green pen:
- Spelling error (with Sp at bottom of work to give the correct spelling if appropriate)
//
Wiggly line
- New paragraph
- Under grammar errors
P in margin - Punctuation error (and circle or correct the mistake)
No more than three of each of the errors above should be identified in any one piece of work as it
will take too long for children to respond to.
Monitoring of Marking and Feedback
The importance of consistent, high quality marking and feedback in helping children to make
progress is acknowledged and as such will be monitored by the SLT as part of routine lesson
observations and through work scrutiny of all year groups by the SLT periodically throughout the
year. Appendix 2 shows the criteria used to evaluate the effectiveness of marking and feedback
(as found in the LAT Marking and Feedback Policy). Where practice of found to be in need of
improvement the class teacher will be informed and given areas to work on which will be
monitored again within a two week period.
Marking and Feedback Policy September 2016
Subject leaders and phase leaders will also monitor the effectiveness of marking and feedback in
their own phase/subject as part of their leadership role periodically throughout the year.
Where appropriate best practice and areas for development will be highlighted by the SLT at staff
meetings for all staff to consider and discuss.
Examples of best practice marking which have been developed by the teachers are kept centrally
in the both of the site staff rooms for teaching staff to refer back to as necessary.
As mentioned previously, it is acknowledged that marking and feedback should be manageable for
the teaching team in terms of time and workload and this has been fundamental in the developing
of this policy. In order to support teachers in managing this workload the teaching staff have put
together a list of possible strategies to use and this is found at Appendix 3.
Evaluation and Review of this Policy
This policy has been developed through discussions with teaching staff and identification of best
practice across the academy. The policy will be monitored through further consultation with staff
and through the planned yearly review.
Policy Reviewed :- September 2016
Next Review Date:- September 2017
J.Burgess
Marking and Feedback Policy September 2016
Appendix 1 - Next Steps Marking Statements
Literacy
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Key word/letter formation corrections e.g. write the letter e correctly 10 times or write the word
‘because’ 10 times
As per marking code, green bubble to show spelling errors
Correct your spellings and write a sentence for each one with the word spelt correctly
The word ‘spectacular’ means something amazing or extra special, try writing another sentence
with this word in (where child has used an ambitious word in the wrong context in their work)
Use dictionary to correct your spellings and write them correctly 5 times each
Describe {in two sentences} how would the character feel/ what the setting looks like.
Write a sentence with the adjective ‘……’ in.
Now write a sentence using an adverb e.g. amazingly to start a sentence.
Add a full stop, comma, question mark, speech marks etc. to this sentence (can be re-written or
one highlighted in the child’s work)
Rewrite the highlighted sentence adding a good adjective.
List five different words for ‘nice’.
Correct this sentence.
Highlight/underline the verb in this sentence.
Tick the sentence that makes sense/is correct.
Choose three verbs/adjectives/adverbs you have used in your writing and change them to
powerful verbs.
Underline in your work an example of a good adjective
Now write 5 adjectives to describe …
Copy this sentence (highlighted) out in your best handwriting, remembering to …
Geog/Hist – list five effects of flooding of rivers/ list three facts about the Fire of London
Maths
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Now try this one.
Try this one again ….
Next try ….
Try this question again remembering to …..
Now go on to section ….
Move on to question …..
Solve this problem:
Look at number … and try it again.
Look at your errors, explain in a sentence where you made a mistake.
Now try this method … (show example)
Write a number problem including these numbers.
Marking and Feedback Policy September 2016
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Write a question that could have the answer 15.
Find the mistake in this sum…..
Look at number 15 and find your mistake.
Show this time on the clock
Draw an array for this multiplication sum.
Write the multiplication sum for this array.
Show me another way of making 50p using silver coins only? etc.
Now add 3 amounts together.
Re-write this sum in the squares like this (give example)
A question to challenge e.g. problem solving.
Draw 3 different acute angles accurately using a ruler
Draw this shape again using a ruler
Marking and Feedback Policy September 2016
Appendix 2 – Criteria for evaluating marking and feedback
UNACCEPTABLE
Literacy
PRACTICE THAT NEEDS
IMPROVING
GOOD PRACTICE
There is no evidence There is evidence of some
of marking for
marking for literacy, E.G.
literacy.
corrections of spelling,
punctuation or grammatical
errors.
Marking for literacy is clearly
evident in work. There is regular
evidence of the use of the
Academy's marking for literacy
codes/or there may be regular
comments or targets relating to
Whole Academy codes are the improvement of literacy.
used sporadically or not at all. There is some evidence of
students responding to this.
EXEMPLARY PRACTICE
In addition to the criteria
“GOOD” there is lots of
evidence of students acting upon
teachers’ literacy comments e.g.
correcting SPAG mistakes
Frequency Marking is not
completed within
The Academy time
frame and is very
inconsistent/nonexistent.
Work is marked/checked
within the Academy policy
timeframe however this is
predominantly
‘acknowledgement marking’
only.
Most books are marked within the All books are marked within the
agreed timeframe according to the agreed timeframe according to
Academy policy. There is the
the Academy policy. There is a
appropriate balance of
good balance of
‘acknowledgement’ and ‘quality ‘acknowledgement’ and ‘quality
teacher’ marking.
teacher’ marking.
Quality of
feedback
and
response
There are some comments in
the students’ books which
may include praise and
suggest areas for
improvement.
Written feedback takes into
account level/grade descriptors
and is written in a clear and
constructive manner. The
feedback includes praise and
suggests subject-specific areas for
development.
In addition to the “GOOD”
criteria there is clear evidence of
regular dialogue between teacher
and student. Dialogue between
student and teacher is regular
and clear.
Regular use of peer- and selfassessment is evident in students’
work and as a result, students can
evidence that they clearly know
This may include students
where to go in their next stage of
ticking or correcting work or learning.
simple targets for
improvement.
Targets are not always useful to
students.
Regular use of peer and selfassessment is evident in
students’ work and as a result,
students can evidence that they
clearly know where to go in their
next stage of learning. Self and
Peer assessment is based on
clear success criteria. It is
KIND, SPECIFIC and
HELPFUL.
Presentation is not good and Presentation is generally very
this has not been challenged. good. There is no graffiti in/on
There may be evidence of
books. The student clearly takes
graffiti on/in books. Some pride in what they are learning.
sheets may not be tagged into
books
In addition to the “GOOD”
criteria there is evidence that
work improves, where
presentation and organisation
were previously inadequate.
There are no
comments in the
students’ books
linked to praise or
areas to improve.
Targets are not set or Targets do not always best
are unhelpful in how inform the student of how
to improve. Students they can improve.
do not respond to
teachers comments. There is little evidence that
students respond to the
teacher feedback given.
There is lots of evidence that
In addition, verbal feedback may students are given time to
be evidenced in students’ work. respond in appropriate detail to
the written or verbal feedback
There is some evidence that
given.
students are given time to respond
in appropriate detail to the written
or verbal feedback given.
Peer and There is no evidence Basic Peer and/or selfSelfof peer or selfassessment are evident in
assessment assessment.
students’ work.
Presentation Presentation is of a
poor standard and is
never challenged.
The exercise books
have graffiti on/in
them. Books are not
ordered.
Students show exceptional pride
in what they are learning.
Marking and Feedback Policy September 2016
Appendix 3 - Time management strategies for marking and feedback
Previously in discussion it was raised that teachers, particularly in KS2, are finding the time
to mark, give feedback and allow children time to respond an issue.
The strategies and ideas below were contributed by the teaching staff:
Mark in lessons – this gives children immediate feedback to respond to where
necessary and saves time at the end of the lesson. Get all adults doing this throughout
lesson as they work with children using red/green pens:–
Have red pen at the ready to do acknowledgement marking (ticking) e.g. where sums
are correct, questions answered correctly, good vocab used. Also red pen to code work
where support given/verbal feedback given etc.
Have green pen at the ready to do ‘Now try…’ comments, all members of teaching team
to do this.
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Give other adults in class the books of the children they have worked with to mark
(using same codes/colours and ensuring they put their initials)
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Get children to colour code work (according to LO/success criteria) by placing in
green, blue, orange piles so you can check certain books first.
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Never get children to close books! Leave open to the page you are wanting to mark.
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Where children have been moved on because they have met LO or completed task
successfully make sure adult writes in green pen to show this e.g. Now try this.. or
Next Steps…. Or Challenge Work …..
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Where children are in the habit of taking a challenge task once they have completed
their class work, make sure they put a sub heading identifying this e.g. Challenge Task
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Ensure there is regular DIRT (designated improvement and reflection time) time in
class for children to respond to green marking and train them to respond appropriately
in this time, not rush. If this is a regular feature of the day the children will become
used to doing this and it will give adults in the class (either TA/teacher or both) time
to go around these children checking their responses immediately to make sure they
have understood.
Marking and Feedback Policy September 2016
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Model to children how and where they should respond to marking using purple pens so
they know how to respond appropriately and neatly, this will make it easier for adult to
check.
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Ask children to identify (using a code in margin) a part of their work that proves they
have met the LO e.g. a particularly tricky sum they have got correct, a good
descriptive sentence, somewhere in their work that they have met their target.
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Short red comment and house points to praise, with codes to highlight success, no long
red comment
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Use peer marking at the end of the lesson in maths where children are ticking correct
answers as adult reads them out.
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Train children to peer mark effectively first by giving them a list of statements to
choose from that best describes their partners work and then a statement that best
describes how your partner could improve their work.
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Give children literacy marking ladders for a piece of written work with pupil and
teacher column for them to assess their work against and then teacher to assess their
work against.
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Mark with the group you are working with in the lesson e.g. by checking answers
together, dictating a sentence for them to write under their work