Webinar

Marking vs Feedback: Briefing for MAT Leaders on Workload & Performance

An evidence-informed webinar with Professor Dylan Wiliam reframing feedback practice as a strategic lever for MAT leaders — reducing workload while driving trust-wide performance. In association with Microsoft & Capita.

Professor Dylan Wiliam · 14 January 2026

Marking vs Feedback: Briefing for MAT Leaders on Workload & Performance

In association with Microsoft & Capita. For educators in the United Kingdom.

How formative feedback practice can reduce workload and drive trust-wide performance, with Professor Dylan Wiliam.

About this webinar

Multi-Academy Trust leaders are grappling with tightening budgets, recruitment and retention pressures, teacher and leader workload, and the need to build trust-wide coherence in teaching and learning. Recent sector surveys confirm that workload and staff wellbeing remain among leaders’ top concerns and that operational practices like marking and feedback are a significant part of that challenge.

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) say that “written marking may play one part of an effective feedback strategy — but it is crucial to monitor impacts on staff workload.”

In this evidence-informed webinar, Professor Dylan Wiliam, one of the world’s leading authorities on formative assessment, will reframe feedback practice as a strategic lever for MAT leaders, not just a classroom task. You will learn how to reduce unnecessary workload, enhance learning outcomes, and make better use of teacher time across your trust.

In this session you will

  • Understand why traditional marking practices may not drive learning outcomes, and how more effective feedback can.
  • Explore practical strategies to reduce teacher workload while improving student progress.
  • Learn how to align feedback practices trust-wide to support retention, professional growth and trust priorities.
  • Hear real examples of feedback being used strategically in multi-school contexts.

Who this is for

This event is designed for:

  • MAT CEOs and Executive Leadership Teams
  • Directors of Education and School Improvement
  • Chief People Officers, Directors of Teaching & Learning
  • MAT Heads of School and Senior Leaders

Why this matters now

MAT leaders tell us that balancing workload, staff wellbeing and performance continues to dominate their agendas. This webinar offers actionable insight and a framework for thinking about these issues through the lens of feedback and formative assessment practice, grounded in decades of research and practice.

Speakers

Professor Dylan Wiliam — Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment, UCL, and global authority on formative assessment. Dylan Wiliam is Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at University College London and Strategic Advisor to Nurture. In a varied career, he has taught in inner-city schools, directed a large-scale testing programme, served a number of roles in university administration, including Dean of a School of Education, and pursued a research programme focused on supporting teachers to develop their use of assessment in support of learning.

David Neville — CEO & Co-Founder of Nurture. David Neville works with schools, school organisations and multi-academy trusts to embed evidence-based assessment and feedback practices at scale. With a background in education and technology, David focuses on helping leaders reduce workload, improve consistency across schools, and translate research into everyday classroom practice using Microsoft and Nurture technology. In this session he demonstrates how Microsoft and Nurture technology enable Trusts to scale evidence-based feedback.

Joining

The meeting was hosted on Microsoft Teams, and a link was shared with those who registered ahead of the event. The recording is made available for a limited time for registrants who were unable to join.

When: 14 January 2026 · GMT (UK)

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