Today's world demands more than just academic knowledge. Essential skills like Problem Solving, Creativity, and Listening are crucial for success. A staggering 92% of teachers believe that teaching essential skills is important for preparing students for life and work.
But, with a lack of time and resources, how can teachers easily teach and track essential skills in the classroom?
The answer lies with Skills Builder Hub. An online resource and impact platform designed to make it easy for educators to teach and assess learners’ essential skills effectively.
In this webinar:
Attendees heard from Skills Builder Partnership’s Product Manager, Hannah Le Tissier, who outlined what changes have been made to Skills Builder Hub and gave attendees insight on how to maximise the use of these changes and the Hub generally. We also heard from the two guest speakers, Daniel Law from the Priory Primary School and Emily Abberly from The Oaks Academy. Both guest speakers gave practical tips and tricks on how to make the most of the resources available and the assessment tool.
What are the new features?
After listening to lots of feedback from teachers using Skills Builder Hub on a regular basis, we have made changes to make the platform easier and quicker to use. So, whether you have a teacher or admin account on Skills Builder Hub, there are changes that will benefit you.
Admin and Teacher accounts:
- There is a new 'Resources' button on the navigation bar so you can find resources more easily and quickly.
- There is a new ‘Measure Progress' button on the Dashboard so you can easily update your class’s skill scores in any essential skill.
- There is a broader range of filters, for example: ‘Age’ and ‘Language’ to help you find the most suitable resources for your learners.
- There are tag types underneath the search bar, such as ‘Careers’ to point you towards our most popular resources.
- An updated Help and Training page, including a ‘Technical support and troubleshooting’ section to quickly help alleviate any technical issues you might face.
- If you have access to premium resources through a paid programme, navigate to these quickly and easily via the 'Premium resources' tab on your Dashboard.
Admin accounts:
- A new method of inviting users using a generated link on the Manage Users page under ‘Account’. No more CSV files or adding users manually, saving you time.
- New options for admins to manage and edit groups on the Manage Groups page under ‘Account’, including adding and removing group owners and even archiving old groups.
- A new Data Overview page under ‘Account’, you can view and download group assessment data and hub usage at the click of a button, so no more waiting for Hub reports!
What are Hannah’s top tips?
Track Progress:
- Use the ‘Measure Progress’ tab on your Dashboard to complete a quick skills assessment and get recommended tailored resources quickly and easily.
- Conduct baseline and follow-up assessments to track progress and inform areas for improvement.
Stay Organised:
- Filter and favourite resources for easy access - you can find favourited resources under the 'Favourites' tab on your Dashboard'.
- Archive old groups on the Manage Groups page to keep your Hub tidy and up to date.
Help is at hand:
- Use the Help and Training page, it features a variety of content to help you build your learners’ essential skills, including online training modules.
Top Tips from our Skills Leaders
Our Skills Leaders echoed what Hannah said and provided some concrete examples:
- Leverage Hub's resources: Use the breadth of resources to reduce teacher workload. The Priory Primary School use the short 20-minute lessons to teach essential skills as part of their PSHE curriculum. Whereas, at The Oaks Academy, short lessons are incorporated into form time and assemblies.
- Make the most of data: Use the Data Overview page to identify gaps in students' essential skills and tailor instruction accordingly. This data could be used to run targeted skills-based interventions or to determine next term's focus skill.
- Prioritise regular assessment: Implement regular, structured assessments to track student progress and inform instruction. At the Priory Primary School this takes place during their planned essential skill lessons to help reduce teacher workload.
- Visualise skills: Use display materials like Skills Icons to create a visually engaging learning environment and highlight the importance of essential skills.
- Connect skills to curriculum: Integrate essential skills into your curriculum and extracurricular activities. For example, at The Oaks Academy, the skills icons are printed on to magnets for each classroom, which are used by teachers to link curriculum learning to essential skills.
By embracing these strategies, you can make the most out of Skills Builder Hub and make teaching essential skills a whole lot easier
