How the policy will work

Pupils will have two books at AHS – one that contains their classwork and work that is regularly reviewed by their teacher and one that contains their formal assessment work, including iterative assessment, Purple Zone work that will be marked and reviewed, and any longer pieces of homework that will be given teacher feedback. 

The classbook (workbook)

This book will be reviewed in the following ways:

• Any homework completed in class books will be reviewed – this will take the form of teacher review, peer review, self-assessment or whole-class feedback.  No pupil will complete homework that goes unrecognised 
• Live marking during lessons (this can take any form the teacher wants) or Sample Marking
• Bell Work tasks will be self and peer assessed each lesson

Marking

We recognise the importance of checking understanding through a variety of whole-class and individual methods.  The requirement to ‘check understanding’ is set out in the AHS Principles of Effective Teaching.  Linked to this, class books will be checked for presentation, quality of work, misconceptions and key vocabulary in the following ways:

• Sample marking – this is when the teacher reviews a sample of books for a class, highlighting common errors in understanding, literacy errors, presentation issues and subject specific feedback.
• Live marking – this is when the teacher circulates the classroom during the lesson and reviews the books of individual pupils.  In KS4, Year 7 and Year 8 this should take place during the Purple Zone.  In Year 9, this can take place any time the pupils are working in silence.
• Pupils should complete Bell Work tasks that can be self or peer assessed, this can be done in the purple pens provided in each classroom. 

Feedback

Formal feedback refers to the ‘deep’ marking that takes place after an assessed task. Assessed tasks should total a minimum of approximately one hour per half term (some departments may outline more regular feedback in their department policies). This applies to all key stages. 

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:

• Offer specific and detailed feedback on work that tests the application of knowledge across a Scheme of Work (or a number of Schemes of Work)
•  Allow students to understand what is required of them in relation to the examination rubric (KS4 and KS5)
•  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 and, where possible, link achievements to effort
• Might provide targets that are applicable to future pieces of work, to ensure the development over time of a specific skill or focus
•  Highlights what students have done well, so they can see signs of progress 

Additional Guidance

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

In every subject area, feedback will include:

1. A ‘DIRT’ lesson to support pupil progress
2. A modelled example of the assessment
3. Literacy marking