Marking and Feedback Policy
Policy Aims
Blessed Edward’s Feedback Policy aims to promote consistent and high standards of feedback. This
policy sets down the general principles which subjects must use to draw up their own specific
policies to suit their curriculum needs. There must be a commonality of approach to ensure that in
all subjects, across all attainment ranges, students are given the same opportunities to maximise
their learning and achievement. This policy has been developed to eliminate unnecessary workload
related to marking and feedback.
What is feedback?
Feedback is a central part of a teacher’s role and can be integral to progress and attainment.
Research suggests that providing feedback is one of the most effective and cost-effective ways of
improving students’ learning. The studies of feedback reviewed by the EEF, found on average the
provision of high-quality feedback leads to significant progress over the course of a year.
Feedback can take different forms: peer, self, group, teacher marking, or verbal. Great teachers use
a combination of these, choosing the best form as appropriate to the learning. The best feedback,
whether it is written or verbal, will give students a clear sense of how they can improve, with
students responding and making progress as a result.
Aims of feedback
To help students make progress
To provide strategies for students to improve
To give students dedicated time to reflect upon their learning and put in effort to make
improvements
To inform our planning and structure the next phase of learning
To facilitate effective and realistic target setting for student and/or the teacher
To encourage a dialogue to develop between student and teacher
To encourage students to have a sense of pride in their presentation of work
To correct mistakes, with a focus on Literacy/Vocabulary skills
Whole class feedback sessions
Student work will be collected in for marking and feedback twice each half term. Included in this
number are the two summative assessments. Work is sometimes completed in Google Classroom; if
this is the case, it will be marked online twice each half term.
In order to provide specific feedback on the work being checked in books or in Google Classroom,
subject teachers will make notes as they read through the students work and complete their
department ‘Marking and Feedback Form’. An example of this is attached at the end of this policy.
Teachers will provide specific feedback on work to praise and share, misconceptions and errors,
spelling punctuation and grammatical errors, presentation and homework. They will make a note of
individual learning needs and concerns. Detailed verbal feedback will clearly identify the strengths
and strategies for improvement that students will then act upon. Summative assessments will
continue to be marked in detail, with a mark returned to the student.
When books and work are returned to students it is essential to allow ‘review and respond time’. (R
and R). There will be a dedicated feedback lesson once all work has been checked. Students will
listen to the feedback and make notes using a green pen in their exercise books, so that parents and
teachers can clearly see in the books that relevant and helpful feedback has been given. During the
feedback lesson, teachers will have the opportunity to see students individually to give praise or to
provide support where there have been misconceptions. Students will have the opportunity to make
corrections and complete tasks designed by the teachers to embed knowledge and skills relating to
the recently marked work. Teachers will keep records of their completed feedback sheets for all
groups.
Where appropriate students will be encouraged to assess their own work against the learning
objectives and success criteria. They will consider what their next steps for learning will be. Feedback
sessions should be purposeful and students should be working on their own in silence.
Literacy feedback
If the literacy standards of our students are going to improve we must all give appropriate and
targeted feedback. For students to take pride in their work they must realise that spelling, grammar
and punctuation are not just important in English lessons but are essential for successful
communication everywhere.
Work will be marked in red for literacy using the following codes:
Gr – Wrong word used or incorrectly phrased sentence. Student rewrites sentence.
Sp – Key word spelt incorrectly. Incorrect word underlined. Students corrects the spelling using a
dictionary if necessary.
P – Punctuation mark missing or wrong. Missing or incorrect use of capital letters. Student rewrites
sentence.
T – Teacher needs to talk to student. Student writes down what the discussion was about.
Frequency and types of feedback
At the college teaching staff are subject experts and aware of what constitutes effective
feedback in their subject. All teaching staff understand that not only is frequency of feedback
important, but that activity combined with instant feedback yields the greatest impact. Teachers
read students’ work regularly and use a variety of the following feedback strategies ensuring that
it always forms an integral part of every lesson:
Low stakes quizzing combined with questioning every lesson
Visualiser feedback to showcase, construct or deconstruct student work
Deliberate practice combined with feedback
Individual verbal feedback and discussion
Self and peer assessment of work supported by model answers, checklists and knowledge
organisers
Mini whiteboard work
Questioning
Regular informal assessments
Written feedback – what doesn’t work
Research shows that the following do not work.
Marking every piece of work
Lengthy written teacher comments
Writing the same comment in numerous books
Asking students to action their improvements as a starter exercise
Correcting mistakes for the students
Expecting students to know how to correct errors
Marking every single mistake
Assuming every student will be able to know how to engage with the marking
Providing superficial/lavish praise
Monitoring and Evaluation
Heads of Department ensure that their departmental feedback policy supports the school policy.
Some subjects that are more practical will provide feedback in a way that best suits their needs.
Each subject area has its own marking and feedback policy however there is a commonality of
approach to ensure that in all subjects, students are given the same opportunities to maximise their
learning and achievement. Details of each subjects marking and feedback can be found in the
curriculum area of the college website.
Senior Leaders will undertake quality assurance to ensure feedback is allowing students to progress
their learning. This may involve informal conversations, or more formal interviews, with students;
work scrutiny, learning walks etc. Heads of Department will check departmental feedback as part of
the quality assurance process.