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Located at the intersection of Surrey, Hampshire, and West Sussex, our independent prep school serves approximately 480 children aged 2 to 13. For some time, we've emphasized the importance of behaviours for learning. However, we faced challenges in measuring these behaviours and lacked a structured framework to support our teachers effectively.
A colleague with industry experience recommended the Skills Builder framework, and it has proven to be exactly what we needed. Skills Builder offers a wealth of resources and clearly defined, measurable steps, which have been instrumental in tracking our children's progress. Additionally, the robust support from our Skills Builder associate has been invaluable.
By integrating Skills Builder into our curriculum, we now have a comprehensive and structured approach that not only supports our teachers but also enhances our students' learning experience. The framework’s simplicity and effectiveness have made a significant positive impact on our educational environment.
Overall impact
We have made great progress this year and hope to continue next year with more explicit teaching of the skills within lessons. The children are aware of how important these skills are to develop. They know their significance for their future and how they contribute to making them better learners. Children who apply and make progress in these skills are celebrated, often highlighting those who might otherwise be overlooked. Everyone has something to celebrate, no matter what their starting point.
The eight essential skills can be seen everywhere around the school. They are written into many of our policies and have become our school values they also provide the structure for our Keys Diploma Award. This is a two-year programme that can be achieved by evidencing progress in the eight essential skills across all areas of school life: physical activity, academics, creative arts, and the enrichment programme.
Keep it simple
Development of the essential skills forms part of the strategic planning and policy development, with the result that the language of essential skills is used across many areas of school life and among many members of the community. The eight skills have been incorporated into our school values, and our reward system is now intrinsically linked to the eight skills. Assemblies and celebration assemblies along with other events often reference the skills. The skills icons are displayed in every classroom and communal spaces and we have been able to build a weekly lesson into some year groups where a skill can be specifically taught. Our weekly newsletter to parents has a homework skill task taken from the 'Homezone'. We also now report on progress within the eight skills each term along with academic progress in each subject.
Start early, keep going
All teachers have access to the Hub and use the resources regularly, particularly with our younger children from Nursery to Year 3. The short lessons and skill lessons help to introduce a skill, and the assemblies are used regularly. We have benefited from several CPD sessions over the year led by our skills associate. These sessions have ensured everyone is familiar with all the resources and using them to their full potential. Parents were invited to a Skills Builder workshop at the beginning of the year. This encouraged them to understand the importance of the skills, with the hope that they could also support the skills development at home.
Measure it
We have started to use the assessment tool; however, this is an area we want to improve on next year. The stepped objectives have been invaluable, providing teachers with clear goals to teach and encourage. Each classroom has the expanded framework on display, so teachers can use the language consistently and the children know specifically what they are being asked to develop. We have also replicated the language used in the assessment framework in our end-of-term reports.
Focus tightly
Using the Skills Builder language consistently throughout the school has been a focus this year. Classes from Reception to Year 4 have been able to build a Skills Builder lesson into their timetable each week, where the focused skill is explicitly taught. Children in Years 5 to 8 use Form Time to teach the skill, usually by using one of the short stories or skill lessons. Having a homework task in the weekly newsletter also encourages parents to discuss and develop a skill at home. We used one of the Challenge Day projects, Operation Moonbase, to explicitly teach the skills in the Summer Term. This was a fantastic opportunity for all children in Years 1-6 to showcase the progress they had made in applying the skills throughout the day.
Keep practising
We plan to use the projects more next year, possibly as an after-school club. We will also use one of the Challenge Days again, as it was very successful. Additionally, we hope to start each lesson with not only a clear learning objective but also a skill-focused objective. This will help the children understand which skill the teacher is planning to develop in each lesson.
We have also introduced a diploma specific to our school called the 'Keys Diploma'. This award is something the children work on over two years. The children evidence progress in all eight skills across the four main areas of school life: academic, creative arts, sport, and our enrichment programme. This encourages the children to build a portfolio of their strengths in all areas of school and clearly highlights areas for development. We hope that the children will transfer to their Senior Schools able to articulate their strengths in the skills as well as their academic progress.
Bring it to life
The Challenge Day was really successful and we hope to use more of these next year. Our older children would benefit from the career resources and virtual workshops. This is an area for development next year.
What's next
We plan to focus more tightly on the development of the skills within each curriculum lessons and also ensure that each teacher is using the language consistently across the school. Timetabling a lesson specifically for the teaching of a skill will hopefully address some of the issues we have had this year. We have implemented so many changes this year to our school structure and curriculum that we need a year to imbed everything fully. Skills Builder has been a huge part of this change with both staff and children benefiting from the programme.
