Mail Merge for Assessment

Purpose:1. Provide good quality, personalised feedback2. Have a clear record that can be produced/printed for parents’ evenings3. Save time!

Set up the excel spreadsheet:

1. Create an excel spreadsheet. It must have clear column headings. Here’s an example:

2. The idea is that you write very little onto student test papers. I usually add ticks so that I can count totals quickly, but nothing else.

3. Column C needs to be filled out manually.4. Column D can be filled out using a formula. Type the following formula into the first cell:

=C2/25*100. If the assessment is not out of 25, then just change the number 25 to reflect your particular test.

5. Copy this formula into all other cells in the column. You can do this by hovering over the bottom right of the cell until you see a cross and then double-clicking the mouse. This will fill down as far as the last name on your list.

6. Column E can also be filled out for you by using a formula. This formula is a bit more complex, so you may wish to skip this step and work this bit out manually. If you want to use the formula, then you need to:

a. Add a new tab to your spreadsheet by pressing this little cross next to sheet 1:

b. It will pop up with a name ‘sheet 2’. Double-click on sheet 2 and call the new sheet ‘Grades’ instead.

c. Type out your grade boundaries into the new sheet using the exact format below:

d. Add this formula to the original sheet of your spreadsheet (in my example from step 1, this would be typed into cell E2): =VLOOKUP(D2,Grades!$A$2:$B$10,2,TRUE) If your spreadsheet has a different number of columns to mine then you may have to change the E2 bit of the formula.

e. Copy this formula down to each row using the same technique as step 5.7. Add comments to the plus (this is the positive) and targets sections. You can do this in

one of two ways:

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a. Put the exact same comments into the cells and then delete the ones that don’t apply to that particular student. This works well with KS3 where there are fewer things that can go wrong.

b. Write different comments as you go along. If you write a comment once and then start to type the same thing for another student, it will autofill the comment, thus saving you time keep typing the same thing. This is really good for KS4 and 5, where students make similar mistakes, but where there may be lots of personalisation needed too.

8. You should find that this sheet is really speedy to complete, particularly if you’re fast at typing. Instead of writing the same thing out over and over again, you’ll save lots of time as it autofills.

Set up the word document:

9. Create a word document. Something like this works well:

10. Save this document in the same folder as your spreadsheet.

Linking the excel and the word document together (the merge):

11. Whilst in the word document, click ‘mailings’, then ‘select recipients’ and then ‘use an existing list’

12. Browse to find your excel sheet that you made in steps 1 to 8.13. Work through the wizard, making sure you choose to get the data from Sheet 1:

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14. Put the cursor where you want the merged information to be. Select ‘mailings’, then ‘insert merge field’ and then choose what piece of information you want to insert into the document:

15. If you’ve used the method from step 7a whereby you delete information, then this will still work!

16. When you’ve inserted all of the bits of information, click ‘preview results’ to see the data inserted into your word document. Press the arrows to move between different students.

17. That’s it! You can now either:a. Click ‘finish and merge’ and then ‘merge to printer’ orb. Click ‘finish and merge’ and then ‘edit individual documents’. This will create one

long word document of permanently merged data that you can save separately. This can then be emailed to reprographics for printing.

Other tips! I print onto coloured paper. This means that the feedback stands out in the book really

clearly. At KS3 I don’t mark bookwork very much at all and so the coloured paper highlights where I am marking in detail.

Use the same excel document for one class for one year. Just keep adding tabs for each assessment and you can reuse the grade boundaries and keep everything in one place.

In order to save copying, you can print them as A5 and you can also put two records onto one page. If you want any help doing this, give me a shout!

Sometimes the numbers in the merged information come out with loads of decimal places. If this happens, there is a way around it. Again, this is a bit more complex, but once you’ve done it a few times it becomes second nature.

o Press alt+f9o Insert the field code \# "0.00" after the title of the merge field that needs to be

limited to two decimal places. For example: MERGEFIELD Target_Grade_TG\# "0.00"

o Press alt+f9 again.

Helen Young 2019