Think Pink!

‘Think Pink’ is an initiative that we have developed here at Pensilva Primary School, as part of our marking and feedback policy. It is intended to encourage independent learning and challenge the children to be aware of what they need to do in an activity to be a successful learner. It complements our whole school development of ‘Growth Mindsets’ and the use of metacognitive strategies.

We believe it is vital that all Pensilva children:

• are clear about the learning goals and how to achieve them when they undertake activities
• have regular opportunities to reflect on their performance, note positive achievements and identify next steps
• are given time to respond to comments and advice from others, for next steps, given within marking and verbal feedback, as appropriate
• are encouraged to evaluate their own work and others’ work.

When children are provided with written feedback by the adults working with them. The adults indicate what they have achieved by making annotations in green pen.

Areas that can be made even better in a child’s work are annotated in pink pen.

Children are provided with time to ‘Think Pink!’. When they ‘Think Pink!’ they review the written feedback they have been given -congratulating themselves on the ‘greens’ and being excited about their ‘pinks’ as they understand that these are their new learning opportunities which will help them to grow as learners. Children complete activities in ‘Think Pink!’ time using a purple pen.

Some example ‘Think Pink’ activities include:

•  correcting spellings
• when writing, underlining previously mis-spelt words with their purple pen and a ruler to show that they are now being spelt correctly
• adding in missing or incorrectly used punctuation
• underlining the correct use of the punctuation e.g. brackets used for parenthesis or writing a comment at the bottom of their work acknowledging that they have been focused on that punctuation e.g. I have remembered to use full stops to end all of my sentences in my writing
• changing the words used in a sentence to make meaning clearer
• solving maths calculations using a different strategy to spot mistakes and errors
• focusing on handwriting targets and presentation rules
• using an iPad to find alternative more ambitious vocabulary.

Additionally, before an adult addresses a child’s work, children are responsible for reading their work and identifying/editing in line with their personal targets or the learning focus/foci for the lesson. Each class has a ‘THINK PINK!’  display which includes a list of target areas that children should be checking, e.g. capital letters and full stops to demarcate sentence boundaries. Children are given the opportunity to check independently, with a peer or with a class adult. The prompt list is updated as new content is taught within the English curriculum.

Classes have THINK PINK SENTENCE STARTERS displayed to aid the children with these comments/reflections. These are age appropriate: KS2 write sentences. KS1/EYFS draw symbols to show their focus e.g.