“Traditional ‘Red Pen Marking’ Destroys Teachers’ Work-Life Balance – and Has Little Impact on Student Outcomes”
High expectations, impeccable behaviour, no marking and professional respect…who wouldn’t want to work at Bedford Free School?
- by Jane Herron
“We believe, that given the right circumstances, all children are capable of extraordinary things”
The Mission Statement at Bedford Free School is emblazoned in our modest reception for pupils, parents, staff and visitors to see when they arrive.
When parents are making that difficult decision about which secondary school to send their child to, we tell them that those “right circumstances” are the education provided for students by Bedford Free School (BFS) and families working closely together for the shared goal of success for their child.
All of our teachers and students are able to quote the Mission Statement; the Motto: ‘Go the extra mile’; and our Values: ‘Respect, Honesty and High Expectations’.
We talk about being a values-driven school and frequently refer to all of these aspects in the drive to nurture, develop and further embed the school ethos.
Tough beginnings
It had taken over two years to get to that point – the school was wildly opposed by some very vocal local politicians and there were long drawn out planning permission issues – but we were backed and supported by parents and we were tenacious and determined in overcoming the hurdles thrown in our way.
We did this because we wanted to provide quality education in an area that lacked real choice for parents and has high levels of deprivation and great diversity.
For the last three years our ‘Grammar School For All’ has been full (5 year groups 7-11, 100 students in each); we are heavily oversubscribed, with consistently the best progress figures in Bedford.
Nearly six years down the line, BFS is a different school from the one we opened.
While we have always had the same ethos and goals – to give our students a well-rounded and academically robust education that will enable all of them to make great progress regardless of background – the changes have come about because we have been reflective and tried to embrace humble ambition to accept that we should be continually improving.
We are now in a position where teachers are seeking us out as a school they want to work in, and in many cases are relocating to take up posts at BFS. They know we have students who behave impeccably and they can teach for 100% of the lesson.
Our knowledge-based curriculum values their subject-specialism that they spent at least three years obtaining a degree in; we value teachers as professionals. We are working hard to be one of the best schools in the UK.
No marking
On top of the normal teaching load, they spend an extra 100 minutes a day with their tutor group leading Morning Meetings (knowledge quizzing, numeracy and weekly spellings), DEAR (drop everything and read – whole class reading classic works of literature), and Prep (independent silent homework study introduced with disadvantaged students in mind).
We value these things, but to deliver them we really have to take care of our staff. Our feedback policy embraces ‘no marking’ – we recognise that hours of traditional ‘red pen marking’ not only destroys a teacher’s work life balance but also, crucially, has little impact on student outcomes.
There is also no need for teachers to ‘evidence’ feedback; the evidence is that pupils make fewer of the same mistakes, and are getting better at the subject in question.
In our Data Driven Instruction procedures, building on the work of Paul Bambrick-Santoyo in Driven By Data, teachers meet heads of department in weekly, 15-minute meetings to discuss what pupils know, what they don’t know, and what we are doing about it.
In addition, a member of the Leadership Team walks the school every lesson, dropping in to every class to offer support – which might include fetching photocopies, water or a coffee, dealing with an upset child, and checking with the teacher, “Is everything to your satisfaction?”.
We have doubled up on some staffing, so that at least once a week a teacher can leave school early. We also have free tea, coffee and milk, and provide pastries and lunch on purposeful, fad-free training days.
And perhaps most crucially, we listen. If you work at BFS you have the opportunity to have your voice heard, because we believe that most of the issues we need to solve, have already been solved by someone – and often that person is on our staff.
We run BFS around tight structure and carefully thought out routines. I openly tell families we ‘sweat the small stuff’. Students may call this ‘strict’ and that is fine – we create an environment where all students can learn from our knowledge-based curriculum.
All visitors are blown away by the calm, purposeful atmosphere around the school, including transition times where movement from one class to another is in silence.
We repeatedly tell the students that everything they are instructed to do is done for a reason and we have a staff mantra: ‘purpose not power’.
For example we tell students, “You have to get your books and equipment out at the end of the lesson for the next lesson and carry them in your arms so that you waste no time starting your next lesson”.
We over-communicate our expectations so it becomes the norm; staff hear our vision repeatedly within the daily briefing, students hear it in morning address (a message delivered by a member of the SLT in the playground), daily student news and weekly assemblies.
A creative curriculum
We work in partnership with a local sixth form college who furnish us with a fabulous theatre space complete with their drama students who build our sets for school productions.
Art, music and drama are a feature of our provision throughout, including the ‘Music for All’ programme where every child in KS3 learns an instrument.
‘The Electives Programme’ is a feature which has stayed the same since we opened – in a bid to be inclusive we have placed our clubs on the timetable so that every child accesses them, including the most disadvantaged.
Twice a week there is a choice of about fifty clubs ranging from warhammer, dodgeball, ‘tenner tycoon’, memorising poetry and rowing, to Spanish theatre, girls’ boxing, and debating.
Come and visit us, we have open days and we love to share as long as you send us back any suggestions for improvements so we can continue to get better and better!
