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Our judgement table for effective marking

How did we develop our judgement table for effective marking?

Our JT table, based on the 2003 Ofsted judgement table for marking, grew from wide experience of helping to improve the quality of marking. Using this experience we expanded on the basic statements in the 2003 Ofsted JT to arrive at something which is, we think, very explicit. In the same way that we develop clear success criteria for children, so we should for ourselves. This table works especially well when schools follow our system with consistency and rigour, but the standards could be transferred to look at the impact of another system.

Outstanding

· Strategies exist to acknowledge/celebrate the achievement of targets
· Children are involved in setting targets for improvement
· There is a very good level of response to personalised comments from teachers
· There is some subsequent response from the teacher
· Comments from the teacher are particularly focused and diagnostic, revealing very good subject knowledge
· Children actively demonstrate understanding of targets set

Good

· All children are set relevant, accurate targets on a regular basis
· Self-assessment is a regular activity: children know what they are good at and what they need to do to improve
· Children revisit and respond to previous learning through written, post-task questions
· Children respond to personalised comments from teachers

Satisfactory

· There is sufficient work in the children’s books to allow marking to have impact (reflecting a well-planned curriculum)
· Work is marked regularly
· Children know how well they have done in relation to the objective
· Marking helps to build confidence
· The majority of marking is about recognising success
· Some relevant targets are set
· The teacher’s handwriting is easy to read
· The teacher’s spelling and use of Standard English is accurate

Inadequate

Marking is likely to be inadequate if it does little to help children to improve. The key features of inadequate marking are the opposite of satisfactory marking:
· Work is not marked regularly
· Children do not know how well they have done in relation to the objective
· Marking does not help to build confidence
· The majority of marking is not about recognising success
· No relevant targets are set/ targets are poorly chosen
· The teacher’s handwriting is not easy to read
· The teacher’s spelling and use of Standard English are inaccurate
· Work is marked incorrectly
· The advice given to children is inaccurate
· There is insufficient work in the children’s books to allow marking to have impact