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We are a two form entry primary school from North Tyneside. We began exploring Skills Builder a year prior to our being involved with the accelerator programme through our local careers hub. After exploring content, we applied to be more involved with Skills Builder. Our school has a curriculum underpinned by our school ethos of 'Aspire, respect, Challenge' and we saw Skills Builder as a perfect way to help support the personal development of our KS2 children.
Overall impact
The approach this year has been extremely successful in underpinning our school ethos with real, practical approaches and systems to work towards all in the name of 'Aspire, Respect, Challenge'. Teaching staff have developed their practice throughout the year and the system now feels embedded within our curriculum. Conversations take place in planning meetings, SLT briefings and across school (teachers and pupils) and parental feedback to the award certificates and ethos has been very positive.
Keep it simple
We use the resources to support both classroom displays (KS2 classrooms around the board) and one central communal display board to share the language of essential skills and also provide visual cues during lessons for teachers reference. Fortnightly assemblies introduce a new skill to KS2 which they learn through their PSHE and bespoke Skills Builder lesson content. Teachers then use the HUB assembly and lesson content throughout the two-week period, along with making reference to their skill aim throughout curriculum learning by referencing their wall displays. After a fortnight, we discuss with the children both how and why they've gained specific praise for making progress in this skill. Certificates are then awarded for this skill achievement or progress during assembly. Specific assemblies, after school clubs and curriculum opportunities such as visits from; Police (Problem Solving) Sports Visitor - Newcastle Eagles (Teamwork) and careers visits has embedded the vocabulary.
Start early, keep going
KS2 Y3-6 has been the focus for our school. Time has been allocated in the timetable to engage with the skills, with each being given a fortnightly focus. This can be seen in the bespoke, in class, assembly time, after school clubs (Commando Joes- Team Missions) PSHE lessons and also within our Personal Development Week, which takes place at the beginning of a new term.
Measure it
We began with a Baseline Hub (group) assessment which was started during teacher training evening. Our aim was to measure class progress once per term and this was supported by staff meeting sessions with Jonathan Noble and Helen Jones. We at one point assigned our PPA teacher to help monitor progress as he was working across KS2 however this unfortunately became unworkable due to staffing. In response, Jonathan Noble used the Personal Development weeks as an opportunity to complete assessments with staff under his support.
Focus tightly
Skill steps can be taught explicitly at the follow times: - During personal development week (one per each term) - PSHE- once a fortnight, teachers will model a skill step(s) (e.g. Hub - short lessons lasting 15-20mins) and also use best practice examples using the display content that they have available in the classroom. Teaching of skill focus: Each term there will be 2/3 skills for teachers to focus on. PSHE lesson time is where explicitly modelling the skill step occurs; however, due to timetable factors, teachers have also used a bespoke approach to deliver this modelling. Furthermore, as the teaching staff became more confident within the whole school approach, they began to model the skills within a larger curriculum context. The mid-year review lead to the assignment of a teacher led staff meeting to reflect on skill progress and find resources to support teaching at an appropriate step level. PSHE monitoring (May) allowed a book look to monitor delivery of the skills.
Keep practising
Commando Joe's (extra curricular club) brings children, that may need development on a skill, together in a team building scenario. Here, they develop multi skill use under topic headings and missions. End of science, history and geography topics (one per half term) have given us time to teach skill steps in relation to relevant careers explored in curriculum content. Teachers share the skill/skill step in relevant powerpoint resources for Geography/History lessons (where relevant) at the end of topics for the skill step they modelled previously. Teachers draw links to skills during wider lessons and then whole class examine how they would be applied in real world scenarios and careers. Display posters and specific skill aims on display within the classrooms support verbal reference of the skills and Jonathan's walk through in classrooms identified teachers referencing skill steps and on the school yard. Pupil voice revealed pupils can talk about the skills in wider curriculum.
Bring it to life
Our Year 6 had a local visit to the Nissan factory where teachers made reference to relevant skills and gave opportunity for pupils to self reflect on what skills they have witnessed (e.g. taking inspiration from skill passports). We have engaged in 3 different Skills Builder led careers interviews where bespoke teaching of relevant skills took place before and after. Further projects such as our STEM Lego projects (programmes to build robotics and presentations included within these projects) within all year groups allowed for cross curricular skills focus opportunities which were planned in the timetable and then mapped to a skill (explicitly links made to skill/skill steps). Other related trips and visits came in the form of a KS2 visit from the Police (career opportunity), Newcastle Eagles, visit to Warburton's factory, Local MP visit and a team building workshop from an outside provider. All were linked to skills in the same way as above.
What's next
Moving forward, we will continue to embed the skills within our wider curriculum, after school clubs, assemblies and our personal development week, which has been supported greatly with the application of the skills content and approach. Having an allocated member of staff to monitor the assessment has proved vital and I would look to define this role from the outset if I was to begin again. Furthermore, more developed timetables in year 2 of the programme would help define our delivery further.
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