Anagh Coar Primary School
Assessment for Learning/Marking Policy
UNCRC: Article 29: develop every child’s talents & abilities to the full.
Assessment for Learning, also known as formative assessment, is about using assessment in the classroom to raise pupils achievement, self esteem and confidence. Assessment for Learning lies at the heart of this process in our school and is incorporated into planning, teaching and learning strategies and the review process throughout the school from Reception to Year 6.
“Based on research Assessment for Learning has been shown to be a very effective method of formative assessment. It increases pupil participation and overall performance.”
(Black and William 1998).
The aims of Assessment for Learning at Anagh Coar School:
To build a positive open relationship between pupil and teacher where pupils are not afraid to take risks for learning and teachers provide positive feedback.
Pupils and teachers to identify success criteria and plan for future progress. Achievable targets to be agreed by teacher and pupils.
To involve pupils in the learning intention for every lesson or activity. [WALT & WILF/LO & Success Criteria].
To give pupils the opportunity for self evaluation and peer evaluation on a regular basis
To promote pupil’s active listening and questioning skills on their learning journey.
To celebrate success-recognition of every pupil’s achievement in our school.
The aims of Assessment for Learning will be achieved through the following practices:
Effective Planning - using a thematic approach to planning teachers to ensure that learning experiences are varied; meaningful and stimulating (refer to big picture). Self review by both teachers and students will be built into the planning.
Sharing Learning Intentions - use of “We are learning to” at the beginning of every lesson. Focus the learning intention on transferable skills
Shared Success Criteria - a verbally agreed success criteria that will help identify the steps needed to complete a task. The use of modelling and shared activities to make explicit the success criteria
Effective Questioning - using more open ended questions, giving more thinking time, using pair share to help pupils feel more confident to put forward new ideas, think out loud, explain their reasons and explore their understanding.
Feedback - this is essential for effective learning and teaching. Strategies such as 2 stars and a wish, comment only marking or providing prompts for improvement can help plan the next steps in learning.
Self Assessment - allowing pupils time to reflect on what they have learned and how they have learned it during plenary sessions, to make explicit the links between what they have learned and the success criteria. This will be done through strategies such as traffic lights, thumbs up or other useful thinking prompts.
Marking Pupils Learning
Our response to children’s work should be positive and constructive. Quality marking and feedback are key to accelerated learning. Marking can take different forms, it may be written, oral or demonstrative (through display/stickers/certificates).
To ensure a consistent approach throughout the school staff should follow these procedures:
Stamps are to be used to indicate whether learning is independent or staff supported.
Where possible, work will be marked with the child present.
Pupils should indicate how they feel about their learning using the traffic light trays, stamps or traffic light coloured dots in their books.
Children are encouraged to respond (verbally or in writing) to marking - Two Stars and a Wish can be used as a strategy for pupils to respond and set targets for themselves or each other.
As soon as possible work should be marked on the day, or evening, that it is completed and then returned to the child so they have feedback as soon as possible.
Children must be made aware of the level of expectation through success criteria and target setting.
Children may, when appropriate, mark their own or others’ work.
Children should place one line through a word or letter which is incorrect.
Work should be marked in a colour, not red, which is different from the child’s so that it is easy to distinguish. Green for positive comments/pink or purple for improvement points.
Initials of a staff member indicates that work may have been self/peer marked but seen by teacher.
Spellings will be underlined if it is high frequency vocabulary or vocabulary related to the task.
Short mistakes may be highlighted by a dot or a ‘c’ - for correction. A new space to place the correction may also be given.
Longer mistakes in sustained writing will be placed within brackets with a cross above.
Children’s mistakes should be used as learning points.
Presentation:
Children respond to the level of teacher expectation, we must therefore expect well presented and carefully considered work in all areas of the curriculum.
Not all work will be copied out to a neat final draft.
Each child should have examples of draft and final copies of learning in their books or folders.
Monitoring
Monitoring to take place at staff meetings or Key Stage meetings. Teachers will be asked to provide feedback on how Assessment for Learning techniques and strategies are being implemented and used to plan for future progress. Feedback will be gathered and collated by co-ordinators and the Headteacher.
Last Reviewed/Agreed: September 2019 Next Review: September 2022