The purpose of this study is to examine how a group of experienced teachers of English respond to pupils’ written work in year nine. Further, this study also examines what kind of responses a teacher of English gives to some pupils’ texts. The methods used combine semi-structured interviews and analysis of one teacher’s response to six texts written by pupils in year nine to gather the data needed. The main findings concern experienced teachers’ of English thoughts about providing feedback to pupils’ written work and the results from the analysis of a teacher’s response to six pupils’ texts. The teachers find it important to maintain a good balance between criticism and encouragement when providing feedback to pupils’ written work. Teachers use different formats and approaches depending on the type of learners and the type of texts and they always use predetermined criteria when responding to pupils’ written work. Further, the results from the analysis of the teacher’s response to six pupil texts show that the teacher focuses on language, content and task-specific requirements when responding to pupils’ written work.