There’s an educational guru from New Zealand called Professor Hattie. He must be one of the most influential educationists in the world and his research is respected across the political spectrum. One of his key findings is the huge value of giving learners constructive feedback so that they are clear about what they’ve done well, what they need to improve and how to reach their target. Hattie has found that this kind of response from teachers is much more powerful in enhancing learning than many of the other strategies schools use – it has more impact than  homework, for example. Hattie’s findings have confirmed that there needs to be a regular individual dialogue between teachers and students, orally and in writing. This approach, often called Assessment for Learning or AFL, can produce great benefits  in terms of improving teacher/pupil relationships and motivating learners to be more reflective and autonomous.

Anyway, the point I want to make is that the value of AFL is not restricted to children and young people. Everyone thrives on positive feedback in all jobs and all walks of life. And if, like me,  you’ve been around the block a few times  and have worked for a number of bosses, I bet that that the  best of them were really good at giving you feedback which made you feel valued and inspired to improve even further.

This kind of response is particularly valuable when you’re working hard. If you know about schools, you’ll know that the summer term is hectic and tiring. There’s no  sense of winding down for the summer holiday as we’re busy reviewing the year, planning for September, organising activities and , in Marden’s case, starting the new timetable. All of this has been made easier somehow by the huge amount of positive feedback we’ve had over the past few weeks. This has come from a variety of visitors – teachers from other schools, local authority inspectors and,most important of all, parents.

These visits have given us the chance to showcase our great students, our much improved environment and our House Style of teaching.  And we’ve been praised to the skies for all of them.!

So many thanks to everyone who has taken the trouble to show appreciation for what we’re doing at Marden.

It means a great deal.