Marking Children's Work

Our approach to responding to and marking children's work is governed by the following principles.

Purposes that response/marking must fulfil

Agreed approaches to responding to and marking work

The child's role in marking

Responding to, or marking children's work is one of the ways in which we communicate with children about their work and progress and what they need to do to next to move learning forward. It is a two-way dialogue with children and through them, to their parents and other adults involved in the learning process. Back to top

Our approach to responding to and marking children's work is governed by the following principles.

It must be meaningful and understood by both parties - teacher and child.

It should relate directly to the shared learning objectives of the particular piece of work or to individual, group or class targets.

Comments should be positive, constructive and prioritised.

It should be a two-way dialogue, the teacher should ask questions for the child to respond to and vice versa.

Marking should be neat and clear following the handwriting scheme and using correct punctuation and grammar.

It should encourage children to evaluate their own work and become active participants in the process.

It should allow time for the child to absorb the response and react to it. Back to top

Purposes that response/marking must fulfil

For children the main purpose is to give feedback on how well they have done and what they need to do next in order to improve their work. It should enable children to make constructive evaluations of their own work and to set personal targets. It should motivate children to want to improve and raise self-esteem to give them the confidence to do so.
For children with SEN, outside agencies will also have an interest in their recorded work and it is important for them to be able to identify progress made against targets set and how work has been carefully planned to encourage and support achievement. Back to top

For teachers the process involved in responding to work will provide evidence of achievement for assessment purposes. It will also identify areas for development and support the setting of future learning targets

Parents will need to have a full understanding of the school's approach to marking so they can make sense for themselves the comments they read in their children's books. Parents should be able to recognise the progress made by their child and relate it to the achievement recorded and targets set by the teacher. Back to top

Agreed approaches to responding to and marking work

The approach we select should suit the context:

·The nature of the subject or piece of work.

·The teaching style-individual, group, whole class.

·The stage of completion of the work.

·The age of the child or the capacity of the child to absorb a particular approach. Back to top

We give children verbal feedback on their work whenever possible, to individuals, groups or the whole class, during, at the end or the beginning of a lesson.

Although the teacher will look at every piece of work produced a detailed response will not necessarily be made but it will be acknowledged by initialling. High achievement will be recognised by the response 'very good', 'excellent', 'well done' with the teacher explaining why this is so. These comments will not be used in an ad hoc way.

When we give written feedback we relate this directly to the learning objectives for that lesson or targets set previously. By doing so we make clear whether the objective or target has been met and what the child needs to do next to improve future work. We give written comments to children of all ages. These comments are not always aimed at the child but are useful aide memoirs for the teacher.

We allow time at the beginning of each lesson for children to absorb any comments written on their work. This is to ensure that the time teachers spend marking really has an impact on children's work.

We have agreed marks to be used in the redrafting of children's writing, which should be on display in each classroom to encourage children to apply them to their own work. Back to top

The child's role in marking

We encourage children from an early age to make critical evaluations of their own work and that of others. We encourage older children to be first markers of some pieces of work and to be confident to use the agreed marks. In order to do this we need to plan for the systematic development of critical response skills. We do this in the following ways:

·Encourage independence in all areas.
·Teacher models necessary skills.
·Children model acquired skills.
·Development of critical response skills included in curriculum planning.
·Allow time for the teaching and development of skills.
·Teacher monitors children's responses. Back to top