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The three things senior leaders should consider for a feedback policy

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Clare El-yorby

There are few school leaders who underestimate the importance of providing meaningful feedback. Many work hard to develop a policy which will support their teachers to use feedback effectively to improve pupil outcomes. Historically, marking policies have focussed upon the methods used to deliver feedback and how frequently this occurs. More recently, there has been a shift towards developing feedback policies, which focus upon the principles of effective feedback.

The EEF guidance report, Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning, outlines six recommendations that should be considered when designing, writing and implementing a feedback policy:

  1. Lay the foundations for effective feedback.

  2. Deliver appropriately timed feedback that focuses on moving learning forward.

  3. Plan for how pupils will receive and use 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.

(EEF, 2021)

These recommendations aim to refocus leaders upon the principles of effective feedback, rather than the methods used to provide feedback.

When designing a school feedback policy, there are three things that all senior leaders should consider:

Over-specification

There are many things that could be specified within a feedback policy: the method of feedback; how frequently feedback is provided; what the feedback should look like in terms of symbols or specific colours to use. Whilst it may be tempting to set expectations for these, it is important to consider the purpose for doing so – are these specifications to improve pupil outcomes or are they to make it easier to monitor teachers? When providing effective feedback, the value of teachers’ professional judgements cannot be underestimated.

Individual teachers are best placed to gauge what the best approach will be for each individual pupil (Houlgate, 2022). Teachers will know whether a pupil responds best to written or verbal feedback. They will consider each pupil’s motivation and self-confidence. They will assess whether whole-class, small group or individual feedback is most appropriate. They will plan when the best point is to provide the feedback based on the task or activity and how they want the pupil to act on the feedback. An ‘over-specified’ feedback policy takes away the autonomy of the teacher to make these professional judgements. Instead, outlining the principles of effective feedback within the policy and providing high-quality CPD to teachers can empower them to provide feedback which is appropriate for their pupils and helps to close the gap between where pupils are and where the teacher wants them to be.

Workload

When designing any policy, school leaders will carefully consider the cost of implementation. Providing meaningful feedback is by no means ‘free’. Large amounts of time are spent providing pupils with feedback, perhaps not always effectively (EEF, 2021). It is important that a feedback policy is designed to support teachers to provide effective feedback which will have an impact on pupil outcomes in the most time-efficient way.

One way to ensure that a feedback policy supports teachers in achieving this is to include worked examples of effective feedback strategies. There are many examples of potentially effective practices in recommendations 1 to 3 of the EEF guidance report, Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning (EEF, 2021). Leaders may also choose to explore how technology can be used to reduce teacher workload in providing feedback without being detrimental to pupil outcomes.

When marking, teachers inevitably draw useful conclusions about what pupils can do now and what they may be able to do in the future. Marking should inform future planning and enable teachers to decide what needs to be taught again or better. (ASCL, 2018). It can be useful to encourage teachers to consider the following questions when providing feedback: “Will this help pupils learn? How will I know? What do I need to do next to help get pupils to where I want them to be?” A feedback policy which supports teachers to provide feedback more efficiently enables them to have greater capacity to consider the vital ‘what next?’ element of feedback.

School leaders may find it useful to discuss feedback practices with their teaching team prior to designing the policy. It can be useful to gain teachers’ perspectives on which feedback methods have been effective and how they know this, as well as which methods increase their workload without improving pupil outcomes. Leaders may also wish to engage with union representatives to discuss how the feedback policy will impact teacher workload. Many unions offer guidance on this, including the National Education Union, who have created a checklist to support discussions around the impact of providing feedback on teacher workload.

Expectations

When implementing a new feedback policy, it is important to manage the expectations of all stakeholders. Making the shift from a marking policy, which may have been very specific in what feedback will look like, to a feedback policy encouraging teachers to use their professional judgement, requires a change of mindset that can be unsettling for some. There are three main groups that leaders will want to consider when designing and implementing the policy: pupils, parents and teachers.

Pupils value the feedback that they are given by teachers. For many, it is their motivation for completing work to a high standard, so it is important that any changes in practice are communicated clearly. Pupils will need to understand why a new approach is being taken and how it will aid their learning. Leaders may want to communicate this through assemblies or may support teachers to communicate this to their individual classes.

Often, parents put high value on the feedback their children are given. Many parents are accustomed to seeing this feedback provided as written marking in books, and this can be reassuring, as parents are not present in the classroom to witness feedback that is given verbally. Where feedback policies move away from large quantities of written feedback, parents can develop the misconception that no feedback is being provided at all. Leaders should carefully consider how a new feedback policy is communicated with parents, so that they understand the rationale behind any changes made and the impact that these will have on their children’s learning.

It would be easy to assume that all teachers will be onboard with a new feedback policy which aims to reduce their workload, but this may not always be the case. Some teachers have been using written marking as their main method of feedback for the majority of their teaching career; others may hold the misconception that more written marking is evidence of how hard they are working and means that they will be seen as a better teacher. Changing these beliefs can take considerable time and teachers will need reassurance that Senior Leadership Teams fully support the policy. Leaders will also need to be clear that the policy aims to reduce workload, not eliminate it (Houlgate, 2022). Although less time will be spent providing written feedback where it is not necessary to do so, more time will be spent considering what feedback will be given, how it will be delivered and when.

With 96% of primary and 91% of secondary teachers stating that they ‘mostly’ follow their school feedback policy and believe that their colleagues do too (Elliott et al., 2020), it is clear that this policy, if designed and implemented effectively, has the potential to have a substantial impact on pupil outcomes.

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