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The Forth bridge is an iconic structure that spans a distance of 2.5km across the Firth of Forth. The bridge is most famous for the colloquial phrase ‘painting the Forth bridge’. This saying comes from the erroneous belief that the bridge was so huge it would need to be continually painted to maintain its upkeep. Such a practice never existed. In 2011 a new coating designed to last 25 years was applied to the Forth bridge. The engineer Colin Hardie of Balfour Beatty Construction was quoted as saying “For the first time in the bridge's history there will be no painters required on the bridge. Job done.”
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I never really questioned the value of marking. It was something you just did. Of course, children need their books marking. What else are we supposed to do with them? Spending holidays catching up with marking that I had neglected was annoying but self-inflicted. Yes, I resented it but I knew it was my own fault for not using my time more effectively. When it came to light during an Ofsted inspection that a colleague hadn’t marked their books for six months we were all stunned. How on earth could you not mark your books? It was heresy!
Like painting the Forth bridge, written marking is a seemingly never-ending task. As you complete that pile of books on a Sunday evening you know full well that Monday will bring a fresh new pile of books waiting to be analysed and responded to (possibly in a particular colour of ink and a range of highlighters). Marking is iconic. For many it is an impressive superstructure towering over teachers’ day to day lives. It stands firm and unmoving despite changes in the educational weather.
The phrase ‘painting the Forth bridge’ passed into everyday use despite never being founded on evidence. Can we now begin to say the same for the convention of written marking?
Like painting the Forth bridge, written marking is a seemingly never-ending task. As you complete that pile of books on a Sunday evening you know full well that Monday will bring a fresh new pile of books waiting to be analysed and responded to (possibly in a particular colour of ink and a range of highlighters). Marking is iconic. For many it is an impressive superstructure towering over teachers’ day to day lives. It stands firm and unmoving despite changes in the educational weather.
The phrase ‘painting the Forth bridge’ passed into everyday use despite never being founded on evidence. Can we now begin to say the same for the convention of written marking?
Well, over the last twelve months I have become increasingly aware of schools across the country eschewing traditional marking policies in favour of ‘no written marking’ approaches. Through exploring the blogs of Clare Sealy, Joe Kirby, Daisy Christodoulou and Jo Facer. I began to doubt the impact of what I had spent many hundreds of hours of my teaching career doing, namely marking books with written comments. (I have put a list of these brilliant blogs at the bottom of this post)
When the EEF toolkit was published, as a school, we fell into the trap that many did of conflating marking with feedback. This lead to an overemphasis on written marking at the expense of other forms of feedback. Written marking became king. We tinkered with the idea of dialogic marking where teachers responded to a pupil’s work, children responded to that response and so on ad infinitum. We were bolstered by the fact that our outcomes across school were rapidly improving so it seemed a reasonable assumption that our marking policy was part of this success.
As I read more widely, I became aware that the marking we asked teachers to undertake was perhaps not having the impact we had convinced ourselves it was having. The words of Michaela Community School’s Deputy Headteacher, Joe Kirby, rang loudly in my ear “Written marking is useful for one child, once only”. What if all the hours spent marking each week could be used for something else? And what if we could actually improve the quality of feedback to pupils without the Sisyphean task of written marking?
Our concerns with our system of marking were three-fold –
1. Was the quality of feedback really as good as it could be? Were children really able to understand how the teacher wanted them to improve from a brief written comment? Were teachers compromising their feedback, truncating complex ideas into short comments with child-friendly language?
2. Were children really taking responsibility for improving their own learning? Or, were they relying on teachers to identify their errors and then simply responding to the teacher’s marking? For example, by filling in missing full stops that had been helpfully located by the conscientious teacher. As Dylan Wiliam states in Hendrick and Macpherson's What Does This Look Like In The Classroom ...
When the EEF toolkit was published, as a school, we fell into the trap that many did of conflating marking with feedback. This lead to an overemphasis on written marking at the expense of other forms of feedback. Written marking became king. We tinkered with the idea of dialogic marking where teachers responded to a pupil’s work, children responded to that response and so on ad infinitum. We were bolstered by the fact that our outcomes across school were rapidly improving so it seemed a reasonable assumption that our marking policy was part of this success.
As I read more widely, I became aware that the marking we asked teachers to undertake was perhaps not having the impact we had convinced ourselves it was having. The words of Michaela Community School’s Deputy Headteacher, Joe Kirby, rang loudly in my ear “Written marking is useful for one child, once only”. What if all the hours spent marking each week could be used for something else? And what if we could actually improve the quality of feedback to pupils without the Sisyphean task of written marking?
Our concerns with our system of marking were three-fold –
1. Was the quality of feedback really as good as it could be? Were children really able to understand how the teacher wanted them to improve from a brief written comment? Were teachers compromising their feedback, truncating complex ideas into short comments with child-friendly language?
2. Were children really taking responsibility for improving their own learning? Or, were they relying on teachers to identify their errors and then simply responding to the teacher’s marking? For example, by filling in missing full stops that had been helpfully located by the conscientious teacher. As Dylan Wiliam states in Hendrick and Macpherson's What Does This Look Like In The Classroom ...
“…too many teachers focus on the purpose of feedback as changing or improving the work, whereas the major purpose of feedback should be to improve the student.”
3. Were teachers so bogged down with the constant pressure to mark that they were unable to spend time on more valuable activities? Were teachers able to thoughtfully adapt their planning in light of feedback received or creating high quality resources that could be used again and again? (We also had an inkling that staff who were completely burnt out from an eternal marking pile might not actually make the very best teachers).
At the end of the Summer Term we started to have serious conversations about replacing the current marking policy. We knew that Ofsted were not looking for a specific type of marking but were merely checking consistency of approach and that schools were able to achieve outstanding grades in an inspection despite being advocates of ‘no written marking’ policies. The Ofsted Myths document from August 2016 clarified that…
At the end of the Summer Term we started to have serious conversations about replacing the current marking policy. We knew that Ofsted were not looking for a specific type of marking but were merely checking consistency of approach and that schools were able to achieve outstanding grades in an inspection despite being advocates of ‘no written marking’ policies. The Ofsted Myths document from August 2016 clarified that…
“Ofsted does not expect to see any specific frequency, type or volume of marking and feedback; these are for the school to decide through its assessment policy. Marking and feedback should be consistent with that policy.”
As we started back in September we took the decision to design a new feedback policy that removed the need for written comments in books and implement a more effective system of giving ‘whole class feedback’ at the start of the next lesson. We decided to trial this using the following broad approach…
After a lesson, the teacher looks through the pupils’ books for common misconceptions and errors in basic skills. They then sort the books into 3 piles – children who didn’t grasp the concept taught, those who showed good understanding and those who did particularly well. Teachers tick each piece of work to show it has been checked and ‘star’ any parts of work that are worth sharing as good examples. Whilst looking through the books, teachers make notes on the key messages to feedback to pupils at the start of the next lesson using a grid. Here is an example of what one might look like when finished (fleshed out a bit more than would be necessary in practice)...
After a lesson, the teacher looks through the pupils’ books for common misconceptions and errors in basic skills. They then sort the books into 3 piles – children who didn’t grasp the concept taught, those who showed good understanding and those who did particularly well. Teachers tick each piece of work to show it has been checked and ‘star’ any parts of work that are worth sharing as good examples. Whilst looking through the books, teachers make notes on the key messages to feedback to pupils at the start of the next lesson using a grid. Here is an example of what one might look like when finished (fleshed out a bit more than would be necessary in practice)...
So far, so good. This book checking process should take no more than 15 minutes for a set of 30 books and where possible, children will have already marked their own work in the lesson to speed up this analysis (particularly in subjects like mathematics).
After this, the teacher plans a whole class feedback session using the notes from the sheet as an aide-memoire. The start of the next lesson begins with the teacher sharing the best work (perhaps using a visualiser), identifying common errors in basic skills (e.g. spellings, number facts) and then addressing common misconceptions that have been identified. This session is flexible in how long it takes but a typical session might be ten minutes or so giving time for children to redress any misconceptions that had arisen and, where useful, check through their work and improve it based on the feedback given (bearing in mind the Dylan Wiliam quote from earlier).
We are now in the throes of the trial and it would be naïve of me to speak authoritatively on the impact this is having on children’s learning. One thing I can be fairly certain of, however, is the immediate and profound impact on teachers’ workload. For a start, our teachers have happily reported to me that they no longer need to take books home to mark. As @Claire_Hill_ states eloquently in her blogpost ‘Research: the gift of time’...
After this, the teacher plans a whole class feedback session using the notes from the sheet as an aide-memoire. The start of the next lesson begins with the teacher sharing the best work (perhaps using a visualiser), identifying common errors in basic skills (e.g. spellings, number facts) and then addressing common misconceptions that have been identified. This session is flexible in how long it takes but a typical session might be ten minutes or so giving time for children to redress any misconceptions that had arisen and, where useful, check through their work and improve it based on the feedback given (bearing in mind the Dylan Wiliam quote from earlier).
We are now in the throes of the trial and it would be naïve of me to speak authoritatively on the impact this is having on children’s learning. One thing I can be fairly certain of, however, is the immediate and profound impact on teachers’ workload. For a start, our teachers have happily reported to me that they no longer need to take books home to mark. As @Claire_Hill_ states eloquently in her blogpost ‘Research: the gift of time’...
“Teachers are a school’s most expensive resource so our time is, quite literally, too valuable to waste on practices that are inefficient. But, being efficient doesn’t take any of the love or soul out of teaching; it gives us more time, energy and knowledge to deliver really great lessons.”
Let’s be clear, we are in no way pioneers of this approach. Many schools have gone before us and have thankfully blogged about their approaches with great clarity and conviction. In a way, it is reassuring that a ‘normal’ primary school like ours is able to make such a move away from established practices to improve the quality of feedback and reduce teachers’ workload. There is perhaps hope for other schools.
Is a time coming when headteachers across the land might echo the words of Colin Hardie as he applied that final coat of durable epoxy paint to the Forth bridge?
“For the first time in history there will be no written marking required in books. Job done.”
Is a time coming when headteachers across the land might echo the words of Colin Hardie as he applied that final coat of durable epoxy paint to the Forth bridge?
“For the first time in history there will be no written marking required in books. Job done.”
| Whole Class Feedback Sheet |
*UPDATE (4th Oct 2017)*
After posting this, I had a number of people asking what the whole class feedback forms looked like in practice. I tweeted some images of our teacher markbooks - Click the image of the tweet to have a look.
After posting this, I had a number of people asking what the whole class feedback forms looked like in practice. I tweeted some images of our teacher markbooks - Click the image of the tweet to have a look.
*UPDATE (23rd Oct 2017)*
After running our trial for a few weeks we have decided to make a change to the nomenclature for our approach. Instead of 'Whole Class Feedback Sheets/Sessions' we felt it better reflected what was actually happening in class to rename these as simply Feedback Sheets/Sessions. We ensure that verbal feedback before the next lesson meets the needs of individuals, groups and the whole class. For example, some teachers during the trial would feedback to individuals on entry to the class, briefly talk to any groups and then give the whole class feedback.
*UPDATE (7th November 2017)*
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Our new teacher feedback books arrived in school today (see picture).
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Useful blogs for further reading
Feedback and English Mocks - Daisy Christodoulou
Marking is a hornet - Joe Kirby
Why my school banned marking - Clare Sealy
The new no marking policy in my school and how it works - Clare Sealy
Giving feedback the Michaela way - Jo Facer
Marking is a hornet - Joe Kirby
Why my school banned marking - Clare Sealy
The new no marking policy in my school and how it works - Clare Sealy
Giving feedback the Michaela way - Jo Facer
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