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Park Hill Junior School is a 3 form entry Junior school in South London with families and children from a range of cultures and backgrounds. This is our third year of using the Skills Builder programme. We initially started the programme as it linked with one of our school aims of preparing children with knowledge and skills for their future. We have continued the programme the last 2 years to build on our work as we really saw the benefit it gave our pupils as they learnt and practised the essential skills which they will use in the next stages of their education and in their future careers.
Overall impact
Each year we have been able to develop how we use Skills Builder to ensure that it works well for our children and staff. The language of the essential skills is used regularly by different members of the community and is embedded within our school days rather than as an add on. Being able to focus on the steps has helped our children really understand how to be successful within a skill and allows them to practise and show their understanding of the skill and step. Listening to feedback and making changes has been really helpful. Having each year group focus on 4 skills (which they teach explicitly) has enabled teachers to ensure the skills and steps are embedded and linked rather than them rushing through the skills. Our challenge day has been a highlight with one child saying that it was their favourite day of the year. Having the staff dress up and become the characters for the day really brought it all to life. Working with our Education Associate and listening to webinars about cognitive load helped me to make changes and also explain the progress and assessing system to the staff.
Keep it simple
Our vision has been for all members of our community to use the language of the essential skills. To include parents more, this year we held a parent information event which demonstrated to the parents what we do at school with Skills Builder but also what they can do at home and the parents completed activities with their children. The event was well attended as we linked it to our curriculum showcase and there was a great buzz in the hall from parents and children completing the activities and playing games. This event was led by our new Skills Champions (a few selected children from year 5 and 6) who spoke to the parents and introduced them to everything. The Skills Champions were introduced this year and along with supporting this event, they have also been nominating children to receive Skills Builder certificates and we wish to develop their role more next year. We have continued to display the skill icons and steps in the classroom and reward children with certificates.
Start early, keep going
All classes teach short lessons from the Hub either weekly or fortnightly. Years 3 and 5 looked at the same 4 skills and year 4 and 6 focused on the other 4 and these have been mapped out linked to the curriculum. Teachers can then focus on 1 of the skills for longer and gives the children an opportunity to come back to specifically looking at a skill in another year. For example in year 5, they did creativity in the summer term with their Ancient Greek theme as they completed lots of DT and art activities. As well as teaching 4 specific skills in the year, staff refer to and link any of the skills to their lessons. E.g. year 5 might not specifically teach Teamwork lessons but will still talk about this skill in PE lessons. Parents are informed of which skill their children are focusing on in our monthly newsletters and examples of activities from the homezone are linked.
Measure it
We have focused more on the benchmarking and reassessing of the skills this year. Staff are aware of the progress structure and clarification of good progress in a year has been explained. Staff have also seen their class progress from the HUB report and the graph visuals. As we are focusing on skill steps this year, teachers are able to see the progress made by their class as they move from one step to another or see that now, after a few weeks of practising and embedding the step, most or all of the class complete the step rather than none or some at the start. Benchmarking has enabled the teachers to chose the specific step their class needs to work on. This is also helpful for transition meetings where teachers can explain if the class need support with any of the essential skills with their new teacher next year.
Focus tightly
Classes look at specific steps within the skill and this is applied to appropriate lessons from across the curriculum. Teachers also use the skill icons on their planning slides to show where children can practise and build on the 8 essential skills. These steps are displayed on their class boards and so any adult working within the classroom can refer to this step with the class and praise those who are demonstrating it or remind and focus those who may need more support. The Hub short lessons are used either weekly or fortnightly in a class and staff also have the option to select activities from a working document, rather than just sticking to the Hub lessons. Suggestions on the list include activities linked on the Skill Builder website, a top trump game, reflections on their skills and steps so far and class voting for who deserves a certificate.
Keep practising
The essential skills are interwoven within our curriculum. They are included on our termly curriculum maps so staff, children and parents are aware of when and in which subject they are practising and applying the skills. Skill icons are also displayed on planning slides and where possible, the current skill step they are working on (displayed on the board), is referred to in lessons. The skills have also been included during our special days or weeks e.g. during STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Mathematics) week children applied their problem solving and creativity skills to a range of activities and during Health and Sports Week, Teamwork and Staying Positive were referred to. The skills and the language of them are also referred to in our assemblies where children recognise how other people have used the skills in their own lives. The companies that run our afterschool clubs were sent information about Skills Builder and asked to use this language with our children. The drama club gave us positive feedback about this.
Bring it to life
Throughout the past few years we have focused on this principle. Year 6 have taken part in Q&A sessions with employers (run by Skills Builder) and a Junior Citizenship Scheme event. Both of these enabled the children to discuss how the skills are used within different jobs. During our 'Inspire Me Day' we had members of the community discuss their jobs with the children and lead presentations/workshops. The guests were asked to refer to the skills they use in their jobs with a particular focus on Aiming High. The parents and volunteers included this language on their slides and in discussions and children were left inspired and informed as to how the skills apply to their future lives (which is one of our aims for our curriculum). The whole school also took part in the Crime Scene Challenge Day during STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Mathematics) week. Staff dressed up as the characters and children applied all the skills throughout the day to work out who committed the crime. The whole school was buzzing with energy.
What's next
As a school we are very flexible and want to continue to improve so know that not everything is set in stone, particularly if it is not working for our school. I would like to re-establish the roles of the Skills Champions next year and plan different jobs and roles for them. I would like us to measure the skills more and go over this again with the staff so they feel confident. We have new members of staff next year so it will be important to ensure that they feel supported with delivering, linking and teaching the essential skills and refresh for everybody at the start of the year will help with this.
