Children having to constantly reflect on work

[Tirednanny]

I have been a primary teacher for some time. I am really at my wits end with a current school focus that is dominating every single lesson (primary age)
After they have finished any piece of work we are being told we have to make them reflect on how good they were they have colour codes so we have to model to the children what we want so something like I’m a red at the moment because I didn’t do blah blah to be a green I need to do blah blah. They are never allowed to be the top colour as they always have to write how they could improve. I don’t mind doing something like this on certain occasions but every lesson is wayyyy too much it’s getting me down the kids hate it and never know what to write I’m sure it could have a negative impact on their mental health as they constantly have to say what they haven’t done. Furthermore I feel it takes up far too much time and gets in the way of the actual learning. I am forced to do this by those above me but just feel it is so wrong. Anyone else have to do anything like this? Any tips to help me and the poor children cope?

We do this non stop in Secondary and it does my head in. So much time wasted.

We had to this for the pupils' reports. Of course (P2) they all said they were good at everything so a completely pointless exercise

We have to do this a minimum of three times a day 😪 i keep saying I’m not going to do it tomorrow but know I’ll be pulled up for not doing it when there’s book scrutiny in a couple of weeks

I detest this culture too and agree about its likely impact on mental health. It’s bad enough as teachers when every observation feedback has to end with ‘areas for decelopment’, so for children it must be awful.

My own dc cannot really handle this approach. Both now think they’re ‘no good’ at lots of things because they’re never good enough. They are 5 and 8.

I do identify with students how to move their learning on, but refuse to do this kind of approach.

Had a good old moan about this in a meeting today. We are not allowed to write any praise comments like 'well done' or 'neat work'. Apparently everything we write has to be something that will 'push them on'. There's always something they could improve, we were told.
It's soul-destroying I think. But I have to keep schtum or I'll lose my job

I am secondary but we do WWW/EBI and the kids have to respond although not every lesson.

They still hate doing it tbh and I'm not actually sure what they get from it.

Sometimes, it's actually really hard to think of a meaningful ebi of they have done a piece of work really well but a have to find one and I think a lot of kids realise it's a bit false.

I agree OP. I did a course a few years ago, and the amount of reflection we had to do was ridiculous. None of us knew what to write. If we knew that we hadn't done something, then we would have just done it, not write about it in our reflective journal!

Surely it's far better for the teacher to give an honest opinion of the pupil's work? So, if a child does an exceptional piece of work, does the teacher still have to tell them how they should improve it? How soul-destroying for the child.

It’s the children themselves that have to do the reflecting after each lesson even key stage 1 😓 after book scrutiny I’m giving them a rest from it even if it’s not allowed

It just leads to an overall feeling that nothing is ever good enough.

It's totally ridiculous and against ofsted guidelines. Get yourself out there and researching marking and feedback OP. Then you can approach SLT with research about their "policies".

The bummer ofsted wise is that they will expect teachers to be following school policy, no matter how ridiculous school policies are.

I taught the same ks1 class for two years. After the first year we had a new head who brought in this policy. I watched the mental health of that class decline dramatically. They went from confident children who enjoyed their work and were proud of themselves to kids who cried often and believed they were no good at writing/maths. It was this policy, among others, that made me leave teaching. I just couldn’t be the face of that policy for 30 children.

This is where the sane people are hiding!

Just wasting time before marking my books with challenge for all for yet another book scrutiny on Monday. The thing is, the books might show accelerated progress but the children are floundering and nothing is properly embedded before moving on, and I waste more time under our new exec leader printing labels and making the books look "right". My TA is the same situation. Don't even get me started on purple pens!

I hate it. This isn't why I teach.

Wetmadinthecountry I always wonder where the sane people are or wonder if I’ve completely lost the plot.
Don’t on the pends either green, pink, purple, gold and symbols for us.
Whyyyyy

To me it's pointless because they don't actually go back and check the EBI and sodding well do it.

We are marking into an echoing chamber where the improvement recommendations mean nothing and don't change their work.

That's my fundamental issue. If the pupils said "ah, miss wanted me to use more connectives in my writing, I shall do so today" and actually did this it'd be fine.

Just doesn't happen. So it's a waste of time.

Our marking policy allows us to praise specific elements of children's work, eg 'well done for linking your ideas with causal conjunctions' but we are discouraged from giving vague feedback like 'good work'. I try to give mostly positive feedback verbally and when writing. Constant negative reflection is not productive!

The crazy thing is when you have to give written feedback in reception. They can’t read it!

This was one (just one!) reason for me needing to leave classroom teaching. Nothing is ever good enough. What the chn do is never good enough. What the tchr does is never good enough. It really, really gets you down. Of course it gets the chn down too.

TA here

At our school they just tick red, green or yellow as feedback to the teacher. And that's all it is. A culture of embracing mistakes and accepting "not knowing" means children are mostly realistic in their evaluation. Children who tick red (or yellow if necessary) are picked up for Intervention by teacher during assembly or by TA, or misconceptions are addressed to the whole class in the next lesson.

We ditched detailed self-assessment and only do occasional peer assessment.

I (like you) think it's crap that children are not allowed to tick green in your school. No wonder children develop a sense of never being good enough.

I'd raise it directly with the HT but I'm bolshie. I also agree with Dermymc. Isn't there evidence that the kind of marking your school does is not proven to be effective in raising attainment?