Harvills Hawthorn Primary School

Harvills Hawthorn Primary School

Feedback Policy

September 2016

Feedback Policy

This policy forms part of a whole-school policy for teaching and learning. It relates to the ethos at Harvills Hawthorn and has direct links with curriculum planning and assessment.

Feedback should enhance learning through:

1.  Providing feedback on what they have done so far.

2.  Drawing children’s attention to what they need to do to improve.

How children’s work is received and marked, and the nature of feedback given to them, will have a direct bearing on learning attitudes and future achievements.

The policy must be:

·  Consistently applied by all staff

·  Clear in its purpose

·  Manageable

·  Productive in its outcomes

·  Developmental across the age range

·  Informed by pupils’ individual learning needs and previous assessments.

Purpose: Reasons for providing feedback

·  To recognise, encourage and reward children’s effort and achievement, and celebrate success.

·  To provide a dialogue between teacher and children, including clear and appropriate feedback about strengths and weaknesses in their work.

·  To improve a child’s confidence in reviewing their own work and setting future targets, by indicating the ‘next steps’ in learning.

·  To indicate how a piece of work could be corrected or improved against assessment criteria.

·  To help children develop an awareness of the standards they need to reach in order to achieve particular levels of the National Curriculum.

·  To identify pupils who need additional support / more challenging work and to identify the nature of the support / challenges needed.

·  To provide evidence of assessments made and help moderate the interpretation of learning intentions and level achieved.

·  To involve parents more directly in reviewing their child’s progress and to help in reporting to parents.

·  To aid curriculum planning.

Marking should be positive, clear and appropriate in its purpose - it needs to offer positive benefits to staff and children and the outcomes need to be fed back into planning.

Principles

If children are to develop as independent learners, with an awareness of their own strengths as well as areas for development, it is essential that:

·  They are made aware of the learning intentions of task / lessons and of the criteria against which their work will be marked / assessed. ‘This is what you are going to do and this is how I will be marking it’

·  The learning needs of individual children are understood and work is matched and marked appropriately.

·  Work is marked in such a way that achievement is acknowledged and teaching points are highlighted.

·  Where appropriate, feedback is linked directly to learning targets.

Wherever possible, feedback takes place with the children e.g. when staff are working with a target group. It offers guidance as to the extent to which learning intentions have been met and suggests the next steps children might take in their learning.

The nature of feedback

·  Comments should refer to the learning intention of the task.

·  Comments may form the basis of a discussion between teacher and child. E.g. reviewing targets set.

·  Comments may be written or verbal, formal or informal.

·  Comments may be given on an individual or group basis.

Note: Research has shown that immediate feedback is the most effective and is therefore more likely to be verbal than written.

Verbal feedback….

…. Is most powerful, and has maximum impact, when pointing out successes and improvement needs against the learning intentions. Written reflections can pull down the quality of articulation of the learning. The quality of the thinking can be higher if it is verbal.

….is usually interactive and developmental. It may give reassurance or a quick check on progress. The effect of teacher comments will be seen in a child’s response in moving on to the next learning step.

…. May be in the form of a learning review e.g. during a mini-plenary, plenary etc.

Written feedback….

….should be legible and clear in meaning.

….developmental, i.e. children will find out how they are getting on and what the next learning step will be. (It is a wasted effort if children are not informed by it and can not progress as a result of it.)

Key Features of Celebrating Achievement

·  Encourage the ethos of our school and reinforce our motto ‘I believe I can fly’.

·  Self-esteem is the most significant factor in being a successful learner.

·  All achievements are linked, as each builds further confidence in future goals.

·  Links between achievements should be made explicit to children.

·  Children should see learning as a continuum, which given time, anyone can master.

·  Reward achievements with praise, stickers, house points, Head Teachers Award and certificates in our Celebration Assembly.

·  Be aware that some children prefer their work to be celebrated / praised privately rather than publicly.

Classroom Practice

·  Teachers should plan Aal activities using the Aal Continuum of Self Assessment to provide a range of feedback opportunities (see Assessment Policy).

·  Close The Gap feedback must be provided at least once a week in both mathematics and literacy. Where ‘closing the gap’ feedback is provided, it is essential that children are given time to read the comments and respond to them.

·  Teachers should always mark that aspect of a pupil’s work which relates to the planned learning intention. (spelling corrections should be limited to words the child should know.)

·  Sensitivity should always be shown towards children’s work and their feelings about it. Comments should be positive wherever possible. Developmental comments should be followed by a suggestion or reminder for improvement in preparation for the next piece of work.

·  Use of a child’s name in written comments personalises it.

·  Sharing work with the whole class or with a focus group is helpful and compliments individual dialogue.

·  Self-assessment against shared learning intentions / success criteria can help empower a child to realise his or her own learning needs and to have control over future targets.

·  Assessment Tracker is a structured approach to periodically assessing pupil’s progress in reading, writing, maths, science and computing. These assessments can be used effectively with children to feedback where they are in their learning and identify the next steps.

Types of Feedback

Type of feedback / Rationale / Response
Individual verbal feedback – can be indicated using a V to represent verbal. / Can be provided by an adult immediately to move learning forward within the lesson. Immediate feedback to acknowledge successes.
Whole class verbal feedback / Can happen at any point throughout a lesson, going through work set, in response to teacher observations, discussing, reviewing learning, addressing misconceptions e.g. mini plenaries
Group verbal feedback / When working with a focus group, continuous feedback is central to the process of moving learning on.
Closed exercises – (exercises or calculations requiring ticks or crosses) marked by children whilst teacher goes through selected questions. / It is a waste of teacher time to mark these away from children, as they have no way of knowing later why or how they made mistakes. It is more productive to give children time to go through them together while children mark and self-correct their work, thus enhancing learning.
Quality marking by the teacher e.g. ‘Close the gap’
‘2 stars and a wish’ / Quality (in depth) marking should take place once a week in English and Maths. Focus on pointing out successes and suggestions for improvement using ‘closing the gap’ comments or ‘2 Stars and a Wish’ strategy. “Next steps” should be short, concise and no more than two per piece of work. Success criteria or individual targets may also be referred to.
In writing, pink and green highlighters should be used to identify specific parts of the question/text being referred to. Pink signifies the ‘stars’; green signifies the one wish. / Children should be given the time to respond to quality, in depth, marking. Time can be given either during the introduction to lessons or in plenary time. This must be as recent and relevant as possible.
Quality marking by children – either alone or in pairs (self or peer) / Children can gradually be trained to identify their own successes and improvement needs. See Aal Continuum of Self Assessment.
This feedback should also be verified by the teacher. / Children may make written comments on their learning as evidence.
Marking every error / Only appropriate when the piece is to be displayed. (Years 2-6) Children learn very little through this process, as it is carried out mechanically.
Use of Assessment Tracker / Teachers can use Assessment Tracker on a daily/weekly basis with children to discuss their progress and identify the next steps in learning.

Colour Codes

Teaching staff Red

Support staff, supply teachers, students Green

Feedback Codes

I / Work completed independently
G / Work completed as a group
P / Work completed in pairs
V / Verbal feedback provided
S1 / Some support provided
S2 / Lots of support provided
TM / Target met
TAM / Target almost met
SP / Some progress made

Close The Gap Marking Sentence Starters:

·  Can you think of…

·  Next time you could include…

·  Can you explain more…

·  What if…

·  What would happen if you…?

·  Can you extend the sequence…

·  Is there a better…

·  Have you used …? If not, look again for…

·  Remember you need to refer to …

·  Could you explain your … eg working out method?

·  Convince me that…

·  Please show your strategy for…

·  What would you do if…

·  If you did this …, what would happen/change?

·  How else could you…

·  Can you…

·  Try this one…

·  Explain…

·  Elaborate on…

·  What do you think…

·  Convince me that…

·  Find a synonym for…

·  Rearrange your sentence to …

·  Find an alternative for…

·  Tell your partner…

·  Refer to … (on working wall)

·  Is there a way to …

·  Can you identify …

·  Next time…

·  Reconsider…

·  Prove…

·  Give reasons for…

·  Justify…

·  Do you think…

·  Show me…

·  Imagine how/ if…

·  How could you improve…

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