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Market Deeping Community Primary School is a wonderful school with a community ethos and a supportive atmosphere. We joined Skills Builder to support the development of the ‘whole child’, giving our pupils lifelong skills which will enrich them far beyond their learning journey with us. This quickly became a driving force for us, as we developed our school values to reflect the eight essential skills: we aim to be Confident Communicators (Speaking and Listening), Community Champions (Teamwork and Leadership), Aspirational Citizens (Aiming High and Staying Positive) and Resilient Learners (Creativity and Problem Solving).
Overall impact
The Accelerator programme has helped us to understand and develop the skills in our school, with the tailored support of consultants from Skills Builder. Through our regular meetings and reviews, we have worked collaboratively to set and review targets so we ensure that our work is focused and best supports our children. The staff training sessions have provided the staff with opportunities to understand the common language and conceptual direction of the Skills Builder programmed and given valuable time to our staff to engage with the wealth of resources on the Hub. We feel that our work this year has taken us that extra step and now that the Skills are essentially our Curriculum drivers and school values, the children have the best possible opportunity to understand, reflect on and improve their skills knowledge through daily application in our lessons and teaching and learning approach. The one particular stand-out moment came with the Skills Builder Challenge Day, where the whole school engaged in a whole day of learning to give them the time to really apply their skills understanding within an enjoyable day filled with fun, enthusiasm and enjoyment!
Keep it simple
The eight essential skills are embedded in our curriculum documents and lesson design, to ensure that there is a shared language across school through our teaching and learning. Our entire rewards system is built around the skills and our four school values, so children’s efforts and achievements are rewarded by reinforcing the skills. This is all captured in a Skills Builder display in every classroom, which children use to update their rewards and work towards achievement certificates.
Start early, keep going
At MDCP, all year groups take part in the Skills Builder programme via mini lessons in the classroom, assemblies as a whole school and teacher assessments which inform the next steps. Reference to the skills is part of our school culture and children of all ages can discuss the skills they are using in their tasks, using the skill specific vocabulary we teach and model.
Measure it
Teachers regularly assess their pupils on the eight essential skills and the skills steps are displayed in classrooms for children to reflect on their own personal journey. When using the Hub resources, children have the opportunity to reflect on their progress too.
Focus tightly
Time is prioritised in our curriculum to explicitly teach essential skills using resources from the Hub, which is supported during assemblies too. All curriculum documents contain the focus skill for each lesson, meaning that every lesson has a skills focus alongside the learning intention. Skills are also referred to in celebration assemblies, including the weekly Pupil of the Week.
Keep practising
With a skill included in every lesson, including Core and Foundation subjects, the children have regular opportunities to practise their essential skills across the wider curriculum and in different subject areas. As a non-negotiable for our teaching and learning policy, all teachers use this language throughout their teaching delivery. Using the essential skills supports children to accelerate their progress and embed their learning!
Bring it to life
Nothing beats those off-timetable days such as World Book Day, Challenge Days and Sports Days; the essential skills are linked tightly to these opportunities, so children discuss and reflect on their achievements positively using these key skills. Children at MDCP are fluent and confident in their discussion and application of the eight essential skills because they use them all day, every day!
What's next
The next stage in our Skills Builder journey is to move away from the tailored support of the Accelerator programme, as we believe that we have completely embedded the concept into our everyday teaching and learning. We will now strive to find more opportunities to for the children to apply the skills and progress along the steps through the inclusion of a Project and Challenge Day in each term in the next academic year. We will also look for more opportunities to engage with the wider community and local businesses to try to develop opportunities to present the skills in a real-world environment and to inspire our children and allow them to see how skills will benefit them in their futures.
