During our live webinar on 14th January, one thing became abundantly clear: teachers and school leaders are exhausted by checklist moderation sessions. From attendees, we heard the same frustrations repeated, the fear of external moderation, the creeping pressure of data, and the temptation to let AI take the lead just to save time.
The consensus was clear: the human element of assessment, the professional gut feeling backed by expertise and evidence, is being squeezed out.
Everyone says writing assessment is hard. It’s subjective. It’s inconsistent. It’s… broken. But as we discussed in the session, the solution isn’t artificial; it’s professional.
Writing is a profoundly human act. Its assessment must be, too. The problem isn’t subjectivity, it’s the shortcuts we’ve adopted. We’ve chased after checklists, trying to reduce the art of writing to a scientific formula, and in doing so, we’ve eroded confidence.
It’s time to rebuild that confidence through the Robust but Kind Manifesto.
A recurring theme from our webinar guests was moderation fatigue, especially when staff are asked to assess writing before they have a shared mental model of the standard. When we jump straight to assessment criteria, rubrics and tick sheets, we create defensiveness.
To fix this, we need a structure that prioritises standardisation, giving teachers the opportunity to live and breathe the standards together before they are asked to apply them to their own students’ work.
Many schools and trusts reported they don’t even have a shared definition of what counts as independent skill application, let alone agreement on the specific skills they are assessing.
Pobble’s manifesto champions a moderation culture built on two core pillars.
Evidence over emotion: Judgements are based on what’s on the page, the evidence.
The courage to challenge: Create a safe space for professional disagreement. Reaching validated judgements can involve changing your mind. When that happens in a supportive way, it should be welcomed, not feared.
Standardisation first: Calibrate our eyes using benchmark writing collections before applying criteria to writing from our own classes.
Safe to be wrong: Admitting uncertainty is a sign of expertise, not a lack of it. Our windscreen model supports teachers to openly identify the students they’re finding hardest to assess.
Critique the script, not the teacher: Separate professional worth from student attainment.
Dialogue over dictation: Build consensus through shared understanding, with evidence-led discussion that stays alert to unconscious bias.
This philosophical shift needs practical tools. Pobble Moderation supports schools and Multi-Academy Trusts to embed a robust but kind moderation culture in a consistent way.
With a Pobble Moderation subscription, you get:
The solution to “broken” writing assessment isn’t a shortcut; it’s a commitment to professional excellence.
Pobble provides the framework and support to make robust but kind moderation a reality.
Is your school or trust ready to join the revolution, moderation that teachers actually look forward to?