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Minet Junior School is a four form entry school in Hillingdon. Our students have diverse ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds, speak a number of languages, and have varied life experiences. Many are first or second generation immigrants to the United Kingdom. We enrolled in Skills Builder Accelerator programme so that we could develop our student's aspirations for their lives and develop their confidence in themselves and their capabilities through the essential skills.
Overall impact
Children have been overheard referencing the essential skills independently during activities in the classroom. In addition, some children have used them to compliment their peers during activities. For example: "You did really good listening skills and helped our group follow the instructions." and "You did good leadership skills when you helped people know what tasks to do."
Keep it simple
The 8 essential skills are displayed in all classrooms and in some of our learning mentor spaces. We use the language of the essential skills in lessons across the curriculum to support children's understanding of the different skills. Children are becoming increasingly able to recognise the skills they are using in their lessons and apply them to their tasks. 'Star of the week' certificates have been used to reward students who demonstrate the essential skills. We have also delivered assemblies about essential skills, including one organised by the School Council.
Start early, keep going
Children in years 3, 4 and 5 took part in a project week linked to their PSHE topic on careers in Autumn 2. Most children also take part in weekly hub lessons with their classroom teachers to develop specific skills. Year 6 used their project week to develop items to sell at the Summer Fayre, providing them with the opportunity to see real world applications of their skills and showcase them to parents. The Year 6 stalls were a great success, raising more than £150 in their first year!
Measure it
Using the Skills Builder Hub, teachers have made assessments as an overview of how their class are progressing with the different skills. As teachers complete weekly hub lessons, assessments are updates to reflect student progress in the different skills. On a more informal level, students are now often overheard referencing the skills with their peers and highlighting the efforts their classmates make.
Focus tightly
Weekly lessons from the Skills Builder Hub give children opportunities to explicitly develop individual skills. Skills are also linked in lessons across the curriculum and icons are placed on slides as a visual reminder to give children chances to apply their skills in different subject areas. As skills are displayed in classrooms, children are also able to reference them in their lessons.
Keep practising
Links are being made across the curriculum to the essential skills, giving children opportunities to apply their skills. We participated in a school-wide project week to support applying our essential skills and have plans to introduce more projects next year to give further opportunities to practise essential skills. Mny teachers are using the skill icons on their learning slides throughout the curriculum.
Bring it to life
We engaged in a project week in Autumn 2 with years 3, 4 and 5 while year 6 completed their project week in the Summer term. This gave children opportunities to practise the skills in context. School council have delivered an assembly this year that they devleoped based on two of the essential skills and we plan to continue to have the children plan assemblies based on the essential skills as well as using the ready-made assemblies from the Hub to reinforce the real life applications of the essential skills.
What's next
We will participate in the Skills Builder Accelerator + programme and continue to roll out essential skills in the curriculum, making links to our already existing projects.
