Feedback at Ryedale School
RATIONALE: The purpose of feedback is to ensure that students are clear on their strengths, on how to reach their potential and what they need to do to make further progress in each subject area. Research shows that effective feedback can take many different guises- our policy gives teachers guidance to support students using a variety of different feedback strategies. The EEF (Education Endowment Foundation) have found that high quality feedback can accelerate student progress- our policy ensures that students at Ryedale School are supported to make excellent progress through useful, timely and appropriate feed-up, feedback and feed-forward.
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Orange Sticker Feedback- termly feedback for students and parents. Students will receive ‘orange sticker feedback’ once per term. This feedback is marked for parents’ attention using orange stickers. Orange sticker feedback follows these principles:
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At Ryedale School, there is no expectation that any other feedback will be of a particular type or frequency.
We do expect that all teachers use regular feedback to support student progress.
Teachers are expected to provide feedback in line with departmental policies, in conjunction with the ‘best-practice’ guide.
The following is a guide about the types of feed-up, feedback and feed-forward that are most effective in supporting student progress. All departments and teachers should use a range of these approaches to support students at Ryedale School.
Feed-up
One way in which we support students is by using ‘feed-up’. This means we provide students with clear and detailed guidance on how to complete a piece of work BEFORE they complete it. Research shows that feed-up is more impactful than some forms of feedback. Teacher time planning effective feed-up for their students is potentially more beneficial than giving feedback once a piece of work is complete.
WAGOLLS: This stands for ‘What a Good One Looks Like.'
Research shows that providing students with examples of work helps them have a clearer idea of what they should write/ do/ produce. It is important that students see examples of work at and beyond their target level. Teachers at Ryedale School use WAGOLLS in a range of different ways:
In this example, the teacher has given students a WAGOLL paragraph that makes up part of a longer answer. Students then use this paragraph as guidance to complete their own paragraph or complete the question.
In this example, the teacher has written an entire answer to a question. Students will give feedback in the space provided: they can annotate this answer with what makes it a ‘good one.’ This gives them a clear idea of how to improve.
WABOLL: This stands for ‘What a Bad One Looks Like.
Teachers also provide students with bad or average versions of the work they will complete. The idea here is that students unpick the potential mistakes they could make before they make them. Classes will feedback together about what could have been better about the WABOLL. This supports progress as students know they need to do better and avoid these mistakes; they are much clearer about how to achieve success.
In this example, the teacher has written a grade 6 answer for a class that are aiming for grade 7 and 8. Their task is to unpick what they would add/ improve to make this a grade 8 answer. This gives them a clear idea about what to include in their own work, and reminds them not to miss out key components.
Checklists
Checklists give students a list of content and skills that they should use in their work. This means that students are very clear on how to approach the tasks they are completing.
Checklists also provide students with the support and guidance they need for self-reflection and self-feedback throughout the task; they can independently check their work and ensure they are on track to complete work to the best of their ability.
Mark schemes
By sharing these with students prior to/ during their completion of the work, students have a very clear idea about how to complete the work successfully. This is more effective than merely using the mark schemes to mark work after it is complete.
Feedback
Whole class feedback
When teachers assess and mark books, often there are common misconceptions and areas for development. One way in which we effectively feedback on these areas is through whole class verbal feedback.
With this method, teachers read all of the student work, but do not necessarily write anything in the books. This doesn’t mean that feedback isn’t happening or that the books haven’t been checked.
Teachers use a grid similar to this to record feedback as they read students’ work. They make notes of common and individual strengths, targets and misconceptions. They then use this feedback to plan their next lessons with the students, to give whole class verbal feedback and to speak to students individually.
Because this is a much quicker way of recording feedback, teachers can give students their feedback much more quickly- research shows that rapid feedback is more effective.
Verbal feedback
The majority of research shows that verbal feedback is the most effective form of feedback. This is because it is often more immediate than written feedback, therefore students can act on it instantly. In all subject areas, instant verbal feedback happens constantly throughout lessons.
You can support as a parent by asking your child about the verbal feedback they have received and then supporting them in addressing these targets.
Written feedback
Effective written feedback is planned, considered and timely. At Ryedale School, all departments think hard about and plan for which pieces of work are given detailed written feedback. This will vary across departments. Research shows that selecting and targeting specific pieces of work for detailed written feedback is the most effective way of giving this sort of feedback. Please see departmental feedback policies and orange sticker feedback for more specific information about how departments give feedback.
Grid/ label marking
Some teachers, for some pieces of work use a grid/label method of feeding back to the student.
This involves giving students a copy of the criteria by which they are being assessed, ticking/ highlighting the areas where they have made good progress and also the areas in which they need to improve.
Lessons are then planned so that the teacher can further explain the criteria and feedback with students.
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Feedback: what we don’t expect:
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Feed-forward
Research shows that feedback is most impactful when it is followed up with a feed forward task or target for students.
Feedforward is also important for teachers- we use mistakes and misconceptions that students make as impetus for our lesson planning and interventions for students. This type of feedforward isn’t always obviously visible in student books, as it is usually used to plan the tasks, activities, teacher support and content in lessons.
Feed-forward tasks
These are informed by teachers reading and assessing student work. It might be that rather than being given written feedback, they are provided with guidance like this:
Students have to respond to the advice given by the teacher by improving and developing their work in-line with the feed-forward advice.
Teacher planning
Where misconceptions have been common or skills have not been fully shown or developed in a piece of work, teachers plan tasks to address these issues. This may be that a topic is revisited or a skill is retaught or re-capped in a different way so that student understanding improves.
Reflection time
Sometimes, teachers will ask students to respond in writing to their written feedback. This may be an answer to an additional question, or could be an improvement to make to the work. Sometimes, the target could be something that the teacher would like the student to implement next time.
What does the research say about feedback?
- The DfE have reported on feedback and marking in schools in this document.
- David Didau works at Swindon Academy as well as being a freelance writer, speaker, trainer and author.He has researched and blogged about effective feedback. Read his blog here.
- Alex Quigley from the EEF has written extensively about feedback here and here.
- The EEF have produced a report on feedback called ‘A Marked Improvement?’ You can read about their research here.
- At Micheala Community School in Brent, they don’t mark, ever! Read more about their innovative approach here.
