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Hugh Christie is a school for boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 18 in Tonbridge, Kent. The school is a welcoming community with a distinctive ethos and a friendly focused atmosphere. We hope all our pupils will be happy, successful and well prepared for their future life, whatever that might be. We believe that our pupils need a wide variety of skills that go beyond academic achievement and strive to prepare them for life after school in whatever form they choose. Being involved with the Skills Builder Accelerator programme lends itself greatly to accomplishing these aims and we have certainly seen a shift in our young people and their mindset this last year, especially with the added pressures of lockdown during the pandemic.
Overall impact
Students have started to think about these essential skills and started to ask questions and reflect upon self assessments that they have undertaken. Some excellent posters were produced by Year 7 & 8 students at home during lockdown along the theme of staying positive which was encouraging.
It is great to see many classrooms consistently having the Skills Builder being delivered by teachers with enthusiasm on a consistent basis each week. Routines are in place which is good to see.
Keep it simple
We have built awareness of the essential skills: We have posters up in classrooms, and by the student entrance with some explanations. We train staff on building steps and how to define them. We have introduced the students to the Skills Builder Framework and they work on steps they deem relevant to them following self assessment on the benchmarking. We reward students with certificates following a good approach or mindset.
Start early, keep going
We have set the expectation with teachers and students that the development of these essential skills is important and will make up a regular part of their provision weekly. There has been communication with parents via email and the school website to encourage the use of the Home Learning Hub, given their vital importance. There has been communication with parents via email and the school website to encourage the use of the Home Learning Hub.
Measure it
Teachers have been trained on using the Skills Builder framework of group-level assessment. Teachers' reflect on the skills of their group as a whole and what proportion of the students have achieved each step. Older students in Year's 9 & 10 self assess on the Benchmarking website to assess their own skills before working on developing identified weaknesses. Teachers and pupils do re-look at the assessments to see any progress.
Focus tightly
Dedicated time of between 15 and 30 minutes a week is available to teach the essential skills. During lockdown tasks were set for students to develop skills at home and links to the home learning hub was made available. Teachers have been given guides and resources to help them build and develop the skills.
Keep practising
The language of essential skills is being used across the school. Visual cues and reminders to encourage teachers to make reference to those skills in other parts of their teaching are in classrooms with regular reminders circulated via email. Other visual reminders include wall displays of what students have been studying and how it links to the development of essential skills are in the process of being put up.
Bring it to life
We are making provision for experience days such as project based learning and looking to embrace the opportunities of employer encounters and workplace visits. We are linking our careers provision into some elements of the Skills Builder, for example working with the Army to provide activities and enrichment over a 3 year period starting in Year 8 to help build resilience, confidence, and problem solving skills amongst others.
What's next
We want to work with all teachers to provide opportunities for students to practice the essential skill in their curriculum area. This could just be as a starter or plenary but have it as a consistent approach.
We want more consistency with teachers using the Skills Builder class-level formative assessment tool to prioritise and inform their teaching of essential skills. Built in training time within the school calendar more regularly throughout the year to keep the momentum going.
