Feedback

Feedback to Students: Monitoring and Marking

Feedback should be positive, clear, and appropriate.

Its purpose is to:

• recognise, encourage, and reward students' efforts and achievement, and celebrate success

• develop students' awareness of the standards they need to reach to achieve particular levels of the National Curriculum

• focus students on achieving learning intentions and setting future goals by indicating ‘next steps’

• identify students who need additional support, consolidation, or extension activities

• provide evidence of assessments made in terms of learning intentions and levels achieved.

Research has shown that immediate feedback is the most effective, and is therefore more likely to be oral than written. It should take place with the student whenever possible, and be:

• linked to learning intentions and agreed criteria of which students should be aware

• developmental, i.e. achievement is acknowledged and the next learning step highlighted

• legible and clear in meaning, if written

• meaningful to the student and, where possible, students should be given time to reflect upon and act on feedback

• positive, where possible, with consideration given to the student's feelings

• appropriate to the learning needs of the individual student.

Methods of marking include:

• oral feedback in the form of a quick check on progress, or a conference

• written comments

• sharing work with the whole class or with a focus group

• paired marking according to agreed rules and guidelines

• self-evaluation using learning intentions and agreed criteria, which empowers the student to engage with their own learning and to have control over their future goals.

Reviewed March 2022