Marking policy checklist
Although giving feedback to pupils is important, this does not necessarily mean written marking or that it should be done in a prescribed manner. The school marking policy should be agreed and comply with the NEU policy checklist.
If your responses are mainly positive, then your school marking policy is in line with current guidance and the NEU position. However, you may still seek to make potential improvements to further reduce workload.
If your responses are mainly negative, then you should immediately seek to address the issues that are adding to your workload and negotiate improvements where you can.
- Does your school’s marking-related policies confirm that the sole purpose of marking, and feedback is to advance pupil progress and outcomes?
- Is it clear in your school’s policy that teachers should not be required to engage in detailed marking (e.g. ‘dialogic, ‘deep’, ‘triple’, or ‘quality’ marking) if this is unnecessary in their professional judgement?
- Do you have many different techniques to assess pupil learning?
- Principles of effective marking: do you have a shared agreement about what ‘manageable, meaningful and motivating’ marking looks like in your school?
- Do you have an understanding, as a staff and shared with your SLT, about how long marking takes?
- Are you satisfied that teacher are NOT required to use different coloured pens to distinguish marking for different purposes?
- Does marking and feedback-related policies and practices reflect an accurate understanding of Ofsted’s expectations?
- Does your assessment/marking policy have a workload impact assessment?
- Are feedback practices at the school having a positive effect on pupil progress?
- Does your school’s marking related expectations take in to account the specific requirements of different subjects and age groups?
- Is it clear in your policy that teachers are NOT required to evidence in writing when verbal feedback has been given to pupils?
- Is it clear that teachers can use their professional judgment to decide what pieces of work need to be marked/assessed/fed back on and in what way?
- Is it clear in the policy that outcomes of any scrutiny of teachers’ marking will not be used to make judgements about their performance or their capability?
- Are teachers able to use their professional judgement and discretion to determine appropriate approaches to the use of marking?
- Does your school’s marking-related policies confirm that any practices that are found to be unmanageable, add unnecessary workload or disproportionate will be discontinued?
