1 Marking For Improvement Presented by: Mrs G Duffy, VP & Mrs B Bridges, Curriculum Leader Self Evaluation

Focus: Marking For Improvement September `12 Consultation with staff and agreed the focus: a need to change the marking of pupils’ work Agreed the year group to carry out this change: Year 8 Agreed evidence to quality assure the process: Book sampling, Trusted Colleague Observations, Pupil/Parent Voice, Data (if relevant) 2

Starting Process Collected samples of work from all Depts for the year group targeted and the QA team analysed the marking Feedback on marking in Mercy College was given at a HOD meeting as well as information on effective marking Established the way forward – marking for improvement strategy Agreed date for sampling 3

Next Step All HOD`s submitted a report to the QA team which included their baseline in marking as well as comments on their new way of marking The QA team looked at these reports and assessed 4 departments - gathering evidence of Marking For Improvement (book sampling, and trusted colleague observations) 4

5 SELF-EVALUATION School Target: Marking for Improvement Department: ________________Date: ___________________ Focus of this Self- Evaluation is to bring about whole school improvement in assessment for learning Areas for Improvement (a)Share Success Criteria (b)Use comments only in feedback to pupil: Identify two strengths and one area for improvement (c)Discuss assessment decision with pupil Evidence Teacher’s Signature:_______________Date: ________________ QAT Member’s Signature:____________________Date: ________________

6 Department: Technology & Design Base line position (please comment on how work was assessed in your department) Previously our department’s marking consisted of marking workbooks at the end of a Unit of Work and marking the few home works, that are given throughout the unit, as they are submitted. The marking consisted of a mark against the assessment criteria, which is given to each student, for each Unit of Work. Review of Action Plan Sources of Evidence To date…we have sampled 1 Yr 9 Homework and 1 Yr 10 homework from each class (2 & 3 respectively). The home works are completed in class workbooks for each Unit of Work. Evidence: Work Books and Homework Evaluative CommentI am the only teacher teaching Year 9 & 10 classes. Marking for improvement is now carried out in all of these classes. This was observed by checking the marking in all work books for all Year 9 & 10 students. The pupils are provided with excellent feedback on the homework and on the Evaluation page at the end of each Unit. All teachers in the Department now share the success criteria for all units with all pupils and comment on 2 strengths and one area for improvement. Next year all of the teachers within the department will be using the strategy for marking for improvement & sharing success criteria with pupils.

QAT Findings There was still inconsistency in the marking of pupil work both within departments and between departments Positive aspects included the number of trusted colleague observations which took place which contributed to the start of the process of the sharing of good practice. 7

8 QAT Findings Reasons for failure Tried to do too much in one year Staff got confused as to what the focus was on: marking for improvement, trusted colleague observations, effective questioning and PRSD got involved as well Other factors: transition of pupils, workload, staffing issues

Sept 2013 – Started over again Introduced the idea of “Formal Homeworks” at the first HOD meeting of the year Produced a template for all Departments to use for the formal homeworks Showed them an example from Science of what it should look like 9

Great emphasis was placed on the following: Clear specific success criteria for pupils and where possible pupils were involved in creating these The comments made on the pupils` work only relating to the success criteria Teachers recording the mark for the homework in their registers and sharing it with the pupils at some point after they had read the comments

12 Timeline Sept`13: Departmental meeting (1) Each member brought 3 samples of marking for discussion After meeting (1) – HOD wrote a brief description of what the marking was like (baseline) Oct `13: Formal homeworks were distributed Completed by pupils and marked by teachers according to the success criteria Members of each department invited colleagues in when they were returning the homework (Trusted colleague observations sheets were completed) Nov / Dec `13: Departmental Meeting (2) Each member brings 3 samples of home works The HOD writes a brief description of the marking in the department HOD hands up a folder with TCO sheets, HOD comments and evidence

Where are we now? The deadline for the folders to be handed in to the QA team is 20 th Dec The QA team will sample 3 departments and gather evidence The QA team will write their report on Marking for Improvement in Mercy College 13

The results so far… A lot of professional discussions have taken place at all levels about Marking For Improvement Feedback from pupils (carried out by SLT) indicates that the feedback is meaningful Both teachers and pupils have made suggestions for improvement Parents have made positive comments about the marking We are confident that by the end of Jan`14 we will have achieved consistency in Marking for Improvement across all departments in Mercy College