However, the problem goes deeper than weakness preoccupies teacher as well as the pupil. Consider comments at the develop- mental level. The most common formula is: 'You are good at A but not so good at B. We must now work on B in the following ways...' Of course, this is common sense, and often it's the right direction. Assessment is driving learning. But the AFL relationship doesn't have to be negative, and progression is unbalanced if it always is. How often do you see comments like this? 'You good at A, but not so good at B. We will work on B later, but for the moment we will build on the strength that you have with A....' The AFL relationship demands that you build on strengths as well as remedying weaknesses. The pupil works particularly well with historical sources, or has very strong sense of how to apply algebra to real life, or is advanced in the poetry or the grammar of German. matters very much to the pupil's development (not just to his morale) that these individual abilities are recognised and extended in your marking and the planning that flows from it. In this way your work is strongly differentiated and is likely to take pupils to new levels of sophistication within areas of strength. To sum up: they need to move forward in areas of weakness.