ST THOMAS A BECKET FEDERATION OF CATHOLIC INFANT AND JUNIOR SCHOOLS
Marking Policy
Ø If children live with encouragement they learn confidence
Ø If children live with praise they learn to appreciate.
Mission Statement
We at St. Thomas a Becket Catholic Infant and Junior Schools affirm the Catholic ethos by fostering and developing the faith communities of our schools, parishes and home.
We celebrate the economic, cultural and ethnic diversity of our wide catchment area and aim to support all families within it.
We respect each person as an individual, celebrating their talents and enabling them to develop at a pace at which they can achieve their full potential.
We promote caring and supportive relationships through our pastoral commitment to all members of our Catholic community and beyond.
At St. Thomas a Becket Catholic Infant and Junior Schools we believe that the purpose of marking children’s work is to:
q Mark children’s work in a positive manner which reflects the ethos of the school.
q give a manageable and useful ongoing diagnostic record of achievement
q provide day-to-day tracking of learning intentions (along with notes made on the weekly plans) to inform our future planning
q provide feedback which is owned by the children and impacts on future learning
q Have a consistent approach to marking and responding to pupils work throughout the school.
We believe that effective marking can:
q provide clear feedback to children about strengths and areas to develop in their work
q recognise, encourage, and reward children’s effort and progress
q focus teachers on those areas of learning where groups and individuals need specific help
q provide a record of children’s progress
q help parents understand strengths and areas to develop in children’s work
Marking should be part of formative assessment and should provide children with feedback which will move children on in their learning. Comments therefore need to:
q relate to planned learning intentions
q be legible and clear in meaning
q recognise children’s achievements
q be developmental - indicate the next steps in children’s learning
EYFS Marking
Adult led activities:
Quality Marking
Each weekly piece of writing should be quality marked showing the areas of success and also highlighting next steps through the use of two stars and a wish.
The weekly maths activity, when practical, will be assessed through the use of a tracker sheet which highlights the age range evidenced by that work (e.g. 30-50 months or 40-60 months) and provides comments that have been shared verbally with the children highlighting areas of success and next steps. Where there is recorded work this will be marked and, when needed, corrected with the children. The age range evidenced will be identified through colour coded dots and areas of success and next steps will be identified through the use of two stars and a wish.
Step One – Showing Success:
The age range evidenced in that piece of work will be marked using a colour coded dot near the written marking.
22-36 months – yellow
30-50 months – blue
40 – 60 months – red
ELG – green
Two stars and a wish will be used to highlight success and areas for improvement. Areas of success will be highlighted in pink and positive pink comments will be written using a pink pen. When marking writing, if appropriate, the coded stampers will be used next to the pink stars to show success. This will ensure continuity into key stage 1.
Step two – Indicating improvement:
Next steps will be highlighted in green and a green for growth comment will be written using green pen. When marking writing, if appropriate, the coded stampers will be used next to the green wish to show success. This will ensure continuity throughout the key stages.
Step three – Making the improvement:
Green for growth comments will be written at the top of the next page to remind children during that piece of work what their next step is to improve their work. This will be verbally shared with them by the adult at the start of their activity to remind them.
Self Assessment:
As the year progresses children will begin to be encouraged to self-evaluate, supported by the adults. This will be achieved by verbally discussing the success criteria with the children and encouraging them to traffic light each step as to whether they feel confident doing it (green), whether they are beginning to understand (orange) or whether they do not understand (red). This will support the transition between the EYFS and KS1.
Child initiated activities:
Work will be dated and where appropriate (an adult has observed the child, worked with the child or discussed the work with the child) an observation sheet will be filled in with information on what the work is, any comments about the work, and any processes the child went through. The areas of learning and characteristics for effective learning should be highlighted using the correct colours for the age range evidenced (e.g. when a piece of work shows evidence of working within 30 – 50 months for maths highlight the M area of learning blue and if it shows evidence for 40-60 months for physical development highlight the PD area red.)
Where an observation sheet is not appropriate the work is to be dated and have the areas of learning that are evidenced written on and highlighted using the appropriate colour for the age range evidenced.
The 2 simple 2 build a profile app will be used to gather photographic evidence for the different areas of learning and the characteristics for effective learning. Observations of children’s child initiated activities will be gathered throughout the course of the day and time will be set aside for observing children in their chosen activities.
Monitoring and Review:
The head teacher is responsible for the implementation of this policy. Subject leaders and the EYFS leader, when monitoring work, will inspect work samples to ensure the policy is implemented.
Practical strategies and guidance for teachers:
q WALT is at the beginning of each piece of work
q comments may be in the form of a leading question (to take child forward) or reflective question (to recall learning)
q comments may also relate to effort or presentation and layout of work or remind child of a previous discussion with teacher
q during writing in KS2, children will be encouraged to use editing skills, either on their own, with a friend (editing partner) or with the teacher (see classroom posters). Highlighters will be used – pink = think and yellow = Yes
q in order to encourage some types of writing teachers may only highlight a limited number of spellings for correction (Maximum of 3), these are corrected by the child in the margin 3 times and placed in their spelling log
q work that is displayed or mounted for presentation is to be correct, as far as possible
q the children will correct some work with the teacher during the course of the lesson
q in Maths, teachers should not correct an answer, but indicate a line for the correct answer to be written. The children should correct their answer.
q in English and Learning Journeys, developmental comments will be given weekly. This is in the form of a “2 stars and a wish.” The wish must be a target that can be achieved in the next piece of work. The wish should be based on writing and be visible in the next piece of work.
q Where possible the aim is to move the children’s learning forward so that the wish becomes a star in the next piece of work.
q Children will be encouraged to evaluate their own work.
q allow time for children to read comments, reflect on them and respond using a green pen (from Year 2). In Year 1 children should be given regular opportunities for children to discuss their work and make improvements.
q When children have responded to the marking (either written or verbally) this must be acknowledged by the teacher with a tick or a sticker.
q With oral feedback, in the course of a lesson, teachers’ comments to children should focus on the learning intention using success criteria as a vehicle. This should always be indicated with a V and a short comment if necessary.
q Children are encouraged to self assess their work using the smiley face system
Marking scheme and conventions
q in addition to the School Marking Scheme, teachers may, from time to time, use codes to make specific teaching points
q red pen to be used for all marking by teachers
q Encouragement for work that successfully meets the WALT will be given as follows:
(tick) or word of praise
highlight
objective achieved stamp
sticker
q ST will indicate work completed with a supply teacher
Marking Reminders:
Code / MeaningTwo stars and a wish / Two positive comments and one next step.
Pink comments / Areas of success
Green comments / Next steps
CI / child initiated
I
SI
S
FS
C
V / Independent
Semi Independent
Supported
Fully supported
Copied from adult
Verbal feedback given
Yellow dot
Blue dot
Red dot
Green dot / Showing evidence for:
22-36 months
30 – 50 months
40 – 60 months
ELG
PSED
CL
PD
L
M
UW
EAD / Area of learning
Personal social and emotional development.
Communication and language.
Physical development
Literacy
Maths
Understanding the world
Expressive Arts and Design.
Traffic lights
Green
Orange
Red / Secure with this learning intention.
Beginning to understand this learning intention.
Not yet able to do this learning intention.
In Reception classes, a comment in pink, (tickled pink) is used to indicate positive reinforcement. Green pen is used to show “green for growth”, which is an area for development.
If a child has used a full stop at the end of a sentence and a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, this is given a double tick.
Monitoring and moderation
Monitoring of this policy takes place according to our agreed monitoring timeline by SLT and Subject Leaders. They report back to the teachers and the headteacher. Moderation meetings provide an opportunity to discuss and share examples of developmental comments on children’s work.
KS2 MARKING KEY
peice Incorrect spelling
p Punctuation
│ start a new Sentence
││ start a new Paragraph
and C Change the word for a more interesting Conjunction/Connective
nice Change the word for a more interesting one
T = Target or W = Wish * = Star (elements that were a real strength)
The following may be awarded at the end of a piece of work for effort
+ = Improvement
O = Satisfactory
- = Disappointing
Revised: January 2015
Next Review: January 2016
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