The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) highlights the strategy of providing feedback as one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to improve learning outcomes. As long as the marking focuses on promoting progress and avoids increasing teacher workload, it can have a major positive effect on how quickly students accelerate in their learning over time.

At Bushey Meads we try to engage students as much as we can in the marking and feedback process and get them to take ownership of their own marking and identification of areas for improvement. Teachers support them to complete good quality self and peer assessment and then use their Purple Pens of Progress to re-draft and up level key pieces of work.

Highlighting clear success criteria and cross referencing exam question analysis can also really help to drive up standards of achievement. As a school we also put a lot of emphasis on verbal feedback, as studies have shown that verbal feedback can have an even higher overall impact on learning than written marking, whilst simultaneously reducing teacher workload.

As a key member of the BMS Teaching and Learning Team, Advanced Lead Teacher Mr Godfrey praised the BMS staff on Monday morning in his Monday Magic Moment for the collective momentum and consistency they had created in working together to build that embedded culture of providing good quality feedback for students across the school.

He highlighted a number of exemplary faculties for their work and reminded all staff that the primary purpose of feedback is to improve the student, not just the work. The faculties that do the best specifically make sure time is planned into lessons for pupils to actively read, consider, and respond to it.

It was a very positive start to the week and I would like to thank all staff for supporting all students so effectively in this key area of school life.