What they say... Ofsted

“Woodberry Down is an outstanding school… The school excels in many areas of its work, but is especially successful in the quality of the academic guidance it gives pupils… There is an extremely effective written dialogue in books, between teachers and pupils, that stems from an efficient system of marking using tailor-made labels. These show pupils how well they are doing, ask them questions to move their learning forward and set new targets for them. Pupils' responses show a heightened awareness of their learning. One pupil said, 'You get good advice and get your levels up.' ”

Woodberry Down Community Primary School, Hackney (2008)

“Mandeville Primary is a good school. It is improving rapidly and starting to exhibit some outstanding features. The remarkable progress that has taken place in less than a year stems directly from working in partnership with the federation. Progress is accelerating throughout the school and starting to eliminate a legacy of underachievement from the past. This is because teachers are transforming the pupils from passive learners with low expectations of what they can achieve, as seen in some poor quality work in their old books, into active learners with higher aspirations. There are two key reasons for this. First, the dialogue established by teachers through highly effective marking emphasises their high expectations and ensures that pupils can reflect on how to improve their work. Marking is of a very high standard throughout the school and helps the pupils to understand how well they are doing and where a piece of work can be improved. Their books are full of their ‘green pen’ responses to comments and additional challenges set by teachers after each lesson.”

Mandeville Primary School, Hackney (2010)

“A discussion with Year 6 pupils highlighted their mature attitudes to learning and how much they value the school’s response to the results of a survey of their views. Many pupils had said that they did not know how well they were doing. As a result, new target-setting, marking and assessment arrangements have been introduced. The pupils feel that these developments have made a ‘huge difference’. They know their targets, have high aspirations to achieve high levels of attainment, and find their teacher’s comments and the opportunities that they are given to respond very helpful… … Most of the tasks the teachers set take account of previous learning and of gaps in the pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding. This is possible because of the considerable improvements in marking and assessment…

… Marking has improved considerably over the course of this term, and there are clear indications that this is contributing not only to an increase in the extent to which pupils respond and correct their work, but also to how much they are growing in confidence to check and improve their work themselves…”

Barnehurst Junior (Foundation) School, Bexley (2010)

“A whole school approach to ensuring pupils are clear about what they are expected to achieve and what they have to do to meet these expectations has been introduced... Marking and written feedback is more informative, confirming for pupils what they have done well and explaining next steps on how to improve. Pupils are very positive about the new approach and are increasingly responding to teacher prompts requiring them to demonstrate or extend their learning. Individual target books have also been introduced and these are in involving students in assessing their own progress more regularly in relation to meeting a particular target... Evidence of much good or better assessment practice...”

St Cuthbert and The First Martyrs' Catholic Primary School, Bradford (2009)

“There has been transformational progress in all these areas. The school now provides its pupils with a good and improving education. Many leaders and experienced teachers, including the new executive principal, head of school, deputy and an assistant head have transferred to the school and brought with them effective systems based on best practice. Increased opportunities for pupils to share, discuss and reflect on their work result in greater engagement and a faster pace to learning. Excellent marking provides very useful feedback to pupils and this has a positive impact on learning. Academic guidance procedures are strong. Coordinators of core subjects have monitored teaching and rigorously scrutinised pupils' work. The impact of this is evident in the effective marking in pupils' books. Pupils respond in green ink, developing their learning and enhancing their progress.”

London Fields Primary School, Hackney (2008)

“Support from a local school is being used well to bring about improvements, for example, in marking, and teachers are now asked to account for the progress pupils are making. There are early signs that achievement is rising as a result of the intensive programmes put in place in reading and improvements in the way teachers mark pupils' written work. There are some examples of good teaching in writing, with a newly introduced system for identifying the next steps in pupils' learning.”

St Scholasticas Primary School, Hackney (2008)

“School leaders have had some recent successes in ironing out some of the inconsistencies in the school's provision, for example in improving the quality of marking, and these show the school's capacity for continued improvement. Teachers mark pupils' books thoroughly and offer good guidance on what they need to do to improve. Some measures, such as the concerted drive to improve marking across the school, are already showing good results.”

Gloucester Primary School, Southwark (2008)

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Woodbery Down

Community Primary School

Woodberry Grove

London N4 1SY

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