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Mayflower Primary School is situated in a remote seaside town in North Essex, where employability and aspirations are low within the community. The school is committed to creating a positive environment where children thrive through our high expectations and our developing rich, broad and balanced curriculum. In addition to the acquisition of skills, knowledge and understanding, importance is placed on developing the child as an individual, capable of independent learning and self-discipline. Thus, the school recognised Skills Builder as an essential part of our curriculum, as staff wanted to equip pupils with the essential skills they need to succeed in all aspects of life.
Overall impact
All pupils can articulate how they have used the skill successfully across the curriculum, during lessons and throughout their school day. For example, in Year 1; "I use my listening skills every day to listen to what I have to do and follow instructions." When pupils completed their skills reflections after our Lunar Landing event, a Year 5 pupil wrote; "The skills that we used when the moon came was creativity because after that we got to make our own moon. It was really hard so we had to use problem solving and team work as we had to work together." Teachers have enjoyed using the Skills Builder short lessons to see how the children can grow in their essential skills. In particular, one teacher commented on their class growth as a community when the children are able to praise one another about their effective use of the skills.
Keep it simple
The school has established character education as a means to improve children's behaviour and self-esteem. Each of the eight essential skills is linked to our school's six core virtues. Throughout the school day, all teachers refer to the term's two selected focus skills as well as each subject specific skill. These are referenced in each year group's long term plans on the school website. All letters sent by the school have the skill icons displayed to promote the essential skills as an ethos of the school. Each class has the term's whole school focus skills icons displayed at the front of the classroom and every classroom display has the relevant skills related to it. There are visible for the children to create cross-curricular schemas of learning related to each skill. Teachers praise children for using their skills through the use of class dojos and in our weekly Wow assemblies.
Start early, keep going
All year groups from EYFS up to Year 6 are taught the eight essential skills. Each new school focus skill is introduced by the Head Teacher in our weekly whole school assemblies and is referenced during further assemblies throughout the year. Each class has a weekly Skills Builder lesson, which provides children with the knowledge of how to use the skill effectively. The school's emphasis on oracy proficiency has also raised pupils' ability to articulate their understanding of the skills. Parents were introduced to HomeZone and use it to reinforce children's learning of the essential skills. Each weekly a HomeZone Challenge is also posted on Class Dojo so all parents can easily access essential skill activities for their children.
Measure it
All teachers assess their class against the Universal Framework for the term's whole school focus skills twice every half term. Email reminders are sent out to ensure all teachers use the Hub resources during their Skills Builder lessons. This ensures each class' Skills Builder lessons are tailored to the needs of its' pupils and are effective in developing each child's knowledge and application of the essential skills. All teachers praise children for using the skills through class dojo points, enabling children to understand how to effectively use each skill. Parents meetings and end of year reports reference skills with a focus on pupils' progress in the skill. There is also a whole school Skills Builder display, showing the six whole school skills and the steps associated with them. Children use these to evaluate their progress within each skill.
Focus tightly
Each class has a weekly focused Skills Builder lesson in which children are taught using the planned Hub resources to reinforce each skill. Pupils have specific tasks that they complete to develop their knowledge of each skill in Skills Builder and Character Education lessons which lead to further opportunities for them to develop the skill in context in subject lessons across the curriculum. Children also have time to reflect on their skills and praise each other for using the skills, demonstrating their in depth understanding of the importance of each skill. Specific intervention groups which target our SEN children's speaking and listening skills have also been introduced by our Speech and Language Support Assistant. Oracy proficiency intervention groups in Year 1 use the Skills Builder Hub resources to further aid the development of pupils' essential skills.
Keep practising
Every after school and lunchtime club has a focus skill associated with it to enable teachers to highlight how children use the essential skills in a wide range of contexts. The school has recently introduced OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) during lunchtimes in which pupils receive tokens for displaying effective use of the eight essential skills. The school has planned Forest School sessions for each class where children work on their essential skills and have time to reflect on their use of skills at the end when Skills Builder awards are given out. The essential skills are also highlighted on the Forest School blog which parents can access to understand how our children use the essential skills in practice.
Bring it to life
All pupils from EYFS to Year 6 can apply their skills in lessons successfully and can articulate why they have used a specific skill. The school is also beginning to use the Skills Builder pupil reflection after each trip a class goes on so children can assess their own use of each skill. Any visitors to the school receive a handout which explains how the school utilises the essential skills so they can incorporate the same ethos into their session delivery.
What's next
The school will continue to embed the curriculum practices it has already established through the strong links that have been made between the school's virtues and essential skills. The Head Teacher assemblies and skill icon displays in classes have been key to collectively progress the school community's understanding of the essential skills. Praising pupil's use of the skills has been a success as children can emulate effective use of the skills. However, further opportunities are being planned for pupils to use the reflection tasks after school trips/visits for pupils to highlight their peer's effective use of the essential skills. Forest School has been another excellent opportunity for pupils to utilise their skills in practice and reflect on their use of their skills. In the coming year this is going to be embedded into our Beach School sessions to provide further opportunities for the essential skills to be brought to life.
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