We recognise feedback as being a crucial stage in a child’s learning journey and actively encourage a ‘corrections culture’, providing students with detailed feedback, worked examples and models to ensure that they are able to identify where their work needs to develop and make changes and amendmetns that will aid their progress and understanding.

AHS Marking and Feedback

The impact of marking and feedback – whether written or verbal – on pupil progress is well-documented. Recent findings has identified the follow key ideas[1]:

• Awarding grades for every piece of work may reduce the impact of marking, particularly if pupils become preoccupied with grades at the expense of a consideration of teachers’ formative comments
• The use of targets to make marking as specific and actionable as possible is likely to increase pupil progress
• Pupils are unlikely to benefit from marking unless some time is set aside to enable pupils to consider and respond to marking
• Some forms of marking, including acknowledgement marking, are unlikely to enhance pupil progress

These principles form the basis of the Archbishop Holgate’s School whole-school marking and feedback policy.

As a guiding principle, a teacher should only write in a pupil’s book if it is going to impact on progress.

How the policy will work

Students will have two books – a work book reviewed by staff as appropriate and an assessment book where all formally assessed work and longer, written pieces of homework are completed, with detailed feedback offered on each piece of work.

The student work book (or class book) can be reviewed in a number of ways – whilst students are completing silent work is particularly effective – and should check for the following:

• Good standards of presentation
• Appropriate levels of effort given to tasks
• Checking for and addressing any misconceptions students may have
• Reviewing use of key vocabulary

Marking

Marking is categorised as the checking of students’ class work and homework to ensure that quality and presentations meet expected standards.

Class work marking should:

• Recognise the completion of homework
• Read through student work books and offer whole class feedback as a result
• Check for misconceptions that need to be addressed in future lessons

There is no need to include:

• Written targets / targets, unless as a result of live marking
• Ticks
• ‘Verbal feedback’ stamps

Feedback

Formal feedback takes place after students complete an assessed task, which should total a minimum of approximately one hour per half term (some departments may outline more regular feedback in their department policies).

The work assessed might be one task or made up of a number of tasks, totalling an hour’s work.  This ‘deep mark’ will take place once a half term for all subjects.  Longer pieces of written homework will also be completed in assessment books, with teacher feedback on the work offered.

The purpose is to:

• Focus on the development of skills
• Allow students to understand what is required of them in relation to the examination rubric
• Evidence student progress across units of work
• Allow students to make progress within each piece of assessed work
• Help students track the development of subject-specific skills and substantive concepts
• Allow students to take ownership of their improvements through the use of Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time (DIRT)
• To create a dialogue, that is easily tracked throughout their assessment book, so that students are able to highlight any issues they would like to address

Good feedback:

• Raises questions for students to respond to
• Gives students clear targets to help them improve
• Highlights what students have done well, so they can see signs of progress

Additional guidance on homework:

• Any longer piece of written homework should be completed in the assessment book and more detailed feedback given
• If you see students twice a week (or more) you should offer feedback on two pieces of homework per half term – the rest can be peer assessed, skim read, traffic light marked, self- assessed etc.
• If you see students once a week you should mark homework once per half term

Frequency of feedback: At KS3 and KS4, students will complete assessed tasks totalling at least one hour’s work per half term

The process for feedback will work as follows:

• Detailed teacher feedback with clear targets for improvement linked to assessment skills or content
• The following lessons will then build in time for students to respond to feedback, making changes to improve their understanding of the assessment objectives or the topic area. The opportunity for student response to feedback must follow all assessment lessons
• Once students have made their improvements, staff review and offer further comment or regrading if appropriate