Feedback

The Wellington Approach to Feedback

 Historically in teaching, feedback is translated into written marking. There is no evidence or research that determines if written feedback has more impact than verbal feedback or self- and peer assessment and we embrace this at Wellington. It means pupils are more efficiently supported and likewise teachers can dedicate time to planning for what our pupils need to learn next.

There are of course times where written annotation is valuable; our teachers are instructed to determine the best approach to feedback: it may be written, it may be verbal but we strive to ensure we provide both useful feedback to develop our pupils as well as recognise their efforts.

Here’s an outline of our rationale directly from our Feedback Policy:

Miss Hitchens, Assistant Headteacher

 ‘Feedback is to improve the learner, not the work.’

Introduction

At Wellington School, we do not insist on a specific type of feedback – only that it informs teaching and supports pupil progress and outcomes. It happens in-class and post-lesson and is based on the observation of the learning process. Feedback may be written or verbal but it is imperative that it impacts on pupils’ progress over time and is ‘meaningful, motivating and manageable’ (Ofsted, 2016)

Feedback is the process of teachers determining what pupils are yet to understand and how to improve that understanding. This is rarely a smooth process and may take multiple attempts. Likewise, we can only see the knowledge ‘performed’ rather than truly know if it has been learned and remains learned – a granular approach. Accepting this should mean teachers view feedback as a guide for teaching rather than viewing feedback as a one-off action; teachers should make the continued effort to identify and address misconceptions. Effective learning is dependent on the quality of the assessing and the checking of understanding by teachers who are then entrusted in determining the most efficient means to feed back.

Adaptive and responsive teaching will enable the effective scaffolding of next steps within the lesson and beyond. Formative assessment is a means to consider the improvement in performance that a student is making. Expertly used, it will enable a teacher to judge where next to take the lesson. Formative assessment should be expedient and timely and require pupil action.

‘The only thing that matters with feedback is the reaction of the recipient. That’s it. Feedback – no matter how well designed – that the student does not act upon is a waste OF TIME.’ (Wiliam and Leahy, 2015)

It is imperative that feedback leads to pupil action: circulating and looking at pupils’ work, having discussions with them around their understanding of knowledge and processes, and checking completed work for remaining expectations is key. This will inform necessary actions by the pupils: as suggested by Sherrington (2023), ‘Formative assessment only helps if it leads to action’ and all feedback should be ‘Timely, specific and actionable’ (Wiliam, 2015).

Effective feedback – primarily formative – should support pupils’ capacity for self-regulation and encourage a belief and motivation that enables them to achieve.

Ultimately, effective feedback should result in

• Improving pupils’ knowledge, understanding and performance
• Reducing the gap between pupils’ current performance and a performance goal
• Addressing gaps in pupil understanding
• Correcting misconceptions and procedural errors
• Emphasising where pupils have been successful in their work
• Supporting the ‘learning’ of information

Research-Informed Practice

Wellington School upholds the findings of Eliminating unnecessary workload around marking (Ofsted 2016). Some of its key statements are below:

• Effective marking is an essential part of the education process. At its heart, it is an interaction between teacher and pupil: a way of acknowledging pupils’ work, checking the outcomes and making decisions about what teachers and pupils need to do next, with the primary aim of driving pupil progress. This can often be achieved without extensive written dialogue or comments.
• The quantity of feedback should not be confused with the quality. The quality of the feedback, however given, will be seen in how a pupil is able to tackle subsequent work.
• Marking is a vital element of teaching, but when it is ineffective it can be demoralising and a waste of time for teachers and pupils alike. In particular, we are concerned that it has become common practice for teachers to provide extensive written comments on every piece of work when there is very little evidence that this improves pupil outcomes in the long term.
• There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.
• In summary, we recommend that all marking should be meaningful, manageable and motivating.
• Marking should serve a single purpose – to advance pupil progress and outcomes.
• Feedback can take the form of spoken or written marking, peer marking and self-assessment. If the hours spent do not have the commensurate impact on pupil progress: stop it.
• Ofsted does not expect to see a particular frequency or quantity of work in pupils’ books or folders.

The Education Endowment Foundation summarises their findings on Feedback as follows:

1. Lay the foundation for effective feedback
2. Deliver appropriately timed feedback that focuses on moving forward with learning
3. Plan for how pupils will receive and make use of feedback
4. Carefully consider how to use purposeful and time-efficient written feedback
5. Carefully consider how to use purposeful verbal feedback
6. Design a school feedback policy that prioritises and exemplifies the principles of effective feedback

In all, the research promotes autonomy in how feedback is delivered. This does have whole-school considerations but primarily it is for departments to determine what best suits their curriculum and approach.