A school has told teachers not to use red ink to mark homework, because it is a “negative colour”.
Teachers have been told to use green ink instead, and to urge students to respond in purple.
The rule is being brought in at MountsBayAcademy in Penzance, Cornwall.
“Students make more progress if it is a dialogue and the new system is designed to help that,” Headteacher Sara Davey said.
“A lot of primary schools are already using a similar system amazingly well and I think it was felt that red ink was a very negative colour.”
But Prof Michael Reiss, from the University of London’s Institute of Education, said: “If schools start using green ink to criticise students’ work, green may become the new red.”