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Newark Hill Academy is a 2-form entry school, with 30 pupils in each class. We are located very close to Peterborough City Centre and have a high proportion of children who are disadvantaged. At Newark Hill Academy, everything that we do is centred on the whole child. We ensure our children are delivered a broad and balanced curriculum, and we recognise the importance of providing our pupils with all of the skills they need to lead successful lives now and in the future. We began our Skills Builder Journey in 2020. We were keen to get involved with the programme because we wanted to equip our children with the skills and knowledge they need to achieve their goals in life, throughout their school journeys as well as when they enter their working lives. We felt that the Skills Builder Programme would integrate well into our existing curriculum and support our staff with ways in which to embed the essential skills into all aspects of pupils? learning, across the whole school. We were extremely proud to achieve our flagship award at the end of the academic year 2022/2023 and this year we have continued to promote the essential skills into the wider school community.
Overall impact
The Skills Builder Programme has had a highly positive impact on both pupils and staff. The programme is simple and easy to implement and resources provided on the Hub have been a great support in delivering effective and engaging lessons. Children across the school are able to articulate what each skill means and they demonstrate awareness of how they can make progress within each of the skills. Pupils have particularly enjoyed participating in the challenge day projects. Speaking from the perspective of Skills Builder Lead, the planning sessions and strategy reviews have really helped me to focus us on what we want to achieve as a school, and provided me with a clear plan of action. Overall, Skills Builder has enabled us to equip our pupils with skills that will benefit them in their everyday lives and working careers. This year we have also continued to embed the essential skills across the wider school community. During staff meetings, teachers have been given the opportunity to reflect on their own skills and begin to complete their own baseline assessment.
Keep it simple
The essential skills are embedded within teaching and learning policies, and curriculum plans across the school. Our long-term and medium-term planning indicates which skills are being focussed on each half term. Our whole school, long-term planning document is accessible to parents via our whole school website. All classrooms have the essential skills on display so that they can always be referred to. The language of the essential skills is used by all staff members, across all areas of learning. Assemblies, staff meetings, parent meetings, learning events and weekly newsletters regularly reference these skills. The skills used in lessons are included on the learning objectives, which provides the children with a visual reminder of the skills they are using. Our dojo points reward system is linked to the 8 essential skills, so that children are rewarded points when they are demonstrating good use of a particular skill. We have a Skills Builder display in one of our main corridors.
Start early, keep going
Our essential skill teaching includes all of our pupils, from Early Years right through to Year 6. During the Summer term, when we hold our transition meetings for parents new to Early Years, we introduce our parents to the Skills Builder Framework and the essential skills so that they are aware of these from the very beginning of their children?s school journey. All staff have access to the resources on the Skills Builder Hub and use these frequently to support their teaching. All year groups and classes have regular and planned opportunities for the learning and practising of essential skills. All staff have receive refresher training of our key practices at the beginning of the academic year, and during other staff meetings and briefings. Staff new to the school have received more extensive training, delivered by both our Skills Builder Lead within school and our Education Associate.This ensures a consistent approach is maintained throughout all year groups across the school.
Measure it
This year, we have worked hard to maintain our consistent approach towards the assessment of essential skills across the school. At the beginning of the Autumn term, all staff completed their baseline data using the assessment tool on the Skills Builder Hub. Following this, teachers have reviewed and updated their hub assessments on a termly basis, to plan for next steps. These assessments are tracked frequently in order to ensure that they are completed across the whole school. This year something we have wanted to achieve is a more personalised assessment overview for those pupils not working within same step levels as the majority of their class. Class teachers have started to develop smaller sub groups on the Skills Builder Hub for these pupils. Our provision maps across the school also make reference to the essential skills, identifying children's strength and next steps for specific steps within particular skills. These are also reviewed on a termly basis.
Focus tightly
Regular opportunities to develop essential skills are given to all pupils, by skills being embedded across all areas of learning and through everyday classroom language. The essential skills are mapped to the themes and topics of each lesson. Across the school, planning demonstrates that all teachers dedicate time to the teaching of skills, pitching teaching at an appropriate level. Teachers use a range of resources on the Hub, lessons, videos and other resources. The skills are also enhanced within extra-curricular provision, with different after school clubs focussing in on a different skill area. We also have a specific Skills Builder after school club in which pupils engage in a range of engaging activities with different weekly skills focuses. Some of our intervention groups are tailored to focus on particular essential skills that our children need support developing.
Keep practising
We have embedded the essential skills into all aspects of our curriculum. Staff give children the opportunity to use and practise their essential skills by incorporating the skills and language across all lessons. This is done in a range of ways, for example; using the skills displays in each classroom and displaying the skills symbols on learning objectives. Children are encouraged to show the skills in all that they do: classroom-based lessons, PE and sports activities, play times and extra-curricular activities. Our after-school clubs provide opportunities for our pupils to practise essential skills. Homework set across the school aligns with one skills at a time and children and parents are encouraged to engage with the home learning hub. Homezone challenges are set via our school newsletter. We have provided parents with information around the essential skills and ways in which they can promote these skills with their children at home.
Bring it to life
As a school, we provide the opportunity for all our pupils to experience the application of essential skills. We host several careers days and events throughout the year. During these events, we always ensure that discussions and activities have explicit links to how the essential skills contribute to daily life. This year, a number of our year groups have engaged with online careers Q&A sessions. Before these events, children have been given the opportunity to plan their questions, which have been based around each of the essential skills. Our annual whole school Skills Builder Challenge Day has once again been a huge success in providing pupils with the opportunities to put all their skills into practise. At the end of the event, pupils are awarded certificates for thriving in specific skills.
What's next
The essential skills are now well established and embedded into our daily practice and we will continue to use the essential skills across our everyday learning, maintaining that consistency throughout everyday school life and beyond. One area in particular that we intend to develop further is the development of staff's essential skills. Next year, we would like to provide staff with more opportunities to develop and re-assess their own skills. By providing staff with short periods of directed time, within staff meetings, we will be able to ensure that we achieve a consistent approach with this. We are very much looking forward to continuing our Skills Builder journey and teaching our children the essential skills needed for their everyday lives, both now and in the future.
