Marking and Presentation Policy Date Approved by School: 30 th June - PDF document

Marking and Presentation Policy Date Approved by School: 30 th June 2015 Review Date: Summer 2018 Signed (Head Teacher): Date: Chair of Local Governing Body: Date:

Learning Together St Paul’s Values • Christian Service • Respect • Curiosity • Communication • Encouragement • Creativity • Adaptability St Paul’s is a school where • We experience a firm grounding in the Christian Faith • We understand ourselves and seek to understand others • We value creativity, innovation and the joy of learning • We aim for excellence

Purpose and Aims- St. Paul’s CE Primary School recognises that marking and feedback are an integral part of assessment for learning and need to focus on helping pupils learn how to improve and develop their work. It is therefore important that all staff, pupils and parents have a common understanding of how work is marked and feedback given. High standards of presentation are expected in all work throughout the school and are therefore addressed in this policy to ensure consistency and progression across the school. Feedback and Marking- All feedback is recorded in green pen whatever the subject. All feedback should indicate whether the pupil has met the learning objective using the following codes: LO - Learning objective met (circled in green). Comments of praise or other forms of recognition may also be used along with star points for children to collect on their classroom star charts. We acknowledge that children with additional needs may require a different approach to the marking of their work, e.g. a child with visual impairment may find comments written in darker colours clearer and easier to read that green. We would adapt our marking response to the additional needs of individual children. Quality marking for mathematics in key stage 1 and 2 Quality marking in maths, is a dialogue between the learner and the teacher that supports their learning and moves them forward. Teachers mark work in the children’s numeracy book using maths marking codes with verbal or written feedback when appropriate. Quality marking, giving detailed written feedback, will happen once a week. Intelligent marking in Year 1 will be established progressively as the children increasingly record in their numeracy book. • All work will be marked to the learning objective. • The language of marking will have a mathematical focus. • The class teacher will decide whether work will simply be acknowledged or given detailed attention through quality marking. • If the work is correct, the next step will be given when quality marking. The next step should be realistic to move learning forward. • If the work is incorrect, any misconceptions that the child may have will be addressed and supportive comments given to progress learning. • All other work will be acknowledged: marked or commented on as appropriate. • Occasionally, it may be appropriate for children to mark their own work and this will be evident by the relevant marking code.

In mathematics, calculations should not be marked with a cross; pupil need to understand the importance of working out and therefore steps of the calculation should be marked or annotated. Incorrect workings or answers should be indicated with a dot. Quality Marking of Writing - SECRET CODE The secret code is a personalised target setting and mark scheme for the marking of writing based on identifying each child’s ‘next step.’ There are six secret codes that correspond to National Curriculum level descriptors. The codes focus on the technical aspects of writing. Children have their relevant secret code fixed in the front of their book and a tracking sheet fixed in the back to show progress. Children are reminded of their next target, via a code printed in a magnifying glass image, at the start of each piece of writing. After the piece of work children are marked against it. A yellow highlighter is used to indicate where an improvement is needed and a green highlighter is used to indicate when the child has met their target. Time is given during the next lesson for the children to make improvements. As children build their skills they gain stickers as a celebration and sign of their progress. Progress can be continually shared with parents, as well as target achieving being supported, as all of the codes are in the back and front of the children’s literacy books.

Marking Against the Learning Objective Using Success and Improvement The purpose of this method of feedback is to inform the pupil of how well they have fulfilled the success criteria and understood the learning objective and to give them a focus in order to improve their work. This can be done in English, IPC and R.E and can start simply by sharing the success criteria with the class before beginning a task and revisiting it together when the task is finished. Later the success criteria will be written and may be stuck in the child’s book for them to refer to as they complete their task. In Junior classes the success criteria will often be levelled allowing all children to see the steps to success. Improvements can be made using this four-step model: • Showing Success- Tick off elements of the success criteria as met • Indicate Improvement- Indicate where improvement should be made with a comment • Giving Improvement Suggestion- Write down or ask for an improvement suggestion to help the pupil to know how to make the specific improvement. There are four types of improvement prompt: 1. A reminder prompt- More suitable for the more able pupil this simply reminds the pupil of what can be improved e.g. Say more about how you feel about this person. 2. A scaffold prompt- More suitable for pupils who need more than a simple reminder; this prompt provides some support e.g. a question, a directive.

3. An example prompt- A suitable prompt for all but especially average or below average pupils, this prompt gives the pupil a choice of actual words or phrases. 4. An oral prompt- This is suitable for emergent writers. It is written to the pupils and the pupil is told what is written and makes an oral improvement, which is scribed by an adult. Although the pupil may not be able to read the comment it will still have an impact and is likely to be remembered. • Making the Improvement- It is important that classroom time is given to making this improvement and needs to be immediate. Time for this should be built into the next lesson. Pupil Response to Feedback On a regular basis, marking must give feedback and provide opportunities for pupils to respond to this. This response should be immediate (the following lesson) and there should be a short, allocated time at the start of the lesson when this takes place. This feedback should be written in green and marked with a post-it so that it is easily identifiable to pupils that it is something that needs to be improved. Marking to Improve Basic Skills Marking of presentation, punctuation, grammar and spelling must be ongoing and needs to follow the same approach as the response to feedback model in that pupils are given time to follow up suggestions for improvement. Marking Spelling Incorrect spelling is identified with a green line under the spelling. The school is adopting a traditional approach to emphasising incorrect spellings by asking the pupil to re-write any incorrect common spellings three times at the end of the work. These will be written once by the teacher in green pen at the end of the work with the pupil copying the spelling three times. Pupil Voice Pupil’s contribution to reviewing their work is critical. It identifies clear ownership of their learning, upholds our commitment to the Convention of the Rights of a Child (every child has the right to be involved in decisions that affect them) and is a clear indicator that the adults value the child’s involvement. Pupil’s voice is collected in a number of ways: • Through photographs • Discussion of work • Reflections/comments on post it notes • Editing of work • Reviewing teacher’s comments and answering questions/extending prior learning