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Situated in Beirut-Lebanon, Al-Kawthar School fosters a passion for learning from the moment students start preschool to the moment they graduate. The school’s curriculum enables every student to acquire the knowledge, essential skills and personal qualities needed to open doors to life-long opportunities and to progress to further education and employment. After two years raising awareness and spreading knowledge about the program with the British Council’s core skills, this year, our school has focused on utilising the Skills Builder program to find the best ways to teach and assess the essential skills. As the flagship school to all Al- Mabarrat schools, we wanted to prioritise helping our teachers understand the Accelerator program better and we were keen to build our students’ skills in a systematic way using the tools and methodologies.
Due to the success of the Accelerator programme, we have continued to share our learnings and successes with the other schools within the Al-Mabarrat schools community, encouraging them to apply for the Accelerator program for the year 2024-2025.
Overall impact
We developed an inclusive plan for teaching, reinforcing, and assessing essential skills.. The school conducted an advertising campaign targeting parents, teachers, students, and other schools using social media to disseminate information about the Accelerator program. Strategy meetings provided an open forum to discuss our progress and provided beneficial feedback. We spoke at networking events to share our experiences with other educators. We have worked hard to continually improve the ways we integrate and teach the essential skills in school. We have continued to work with teachers and our appointed Skills Committee, continuing weekly meetings where we had a group learning space which provided an opportunity to ask questions and address issues raised to make our working path clearer. With a greater understanding of the program, we were able to complete curriculum mapping to identify where the essential skills could better be integrated. New resources and activities to introduce and teach the essential skills have been created. To ensure a motivating learning environment, we engaged parents in person to communicate the importance of essential skills and their role in the students' education. We formed a parent-teacher association and provided parents with resources to support their children's acquisition of essential skills.
Keep it simple
The incorporation of displays served as visual reminders of essential skills, reinforcing their importance in everyday scenarios. The visual reminders were prepared by students with the help of their parents. Resources taken from Home Zone provided a basis for work with parents and students. New students were integrated into the program through orientation sessions. Recognising the need for support, especially for new teachers, we made several actions to keep them involved through the ready-made lesson plans and modelling sessions to ensure continuity and consistency in delivering essential skills education across all classrooms. An additional action was to implement reflection questions to assess all teachers’ knowledge and use of the program. Analysis of this led to the introduction of regular workshops during administrative meetings to empower teachers with the necessary knowledge and tools. To extend the impact beyond our own walls, we produced a documentary showcasing our journey in integrating essential skills education. This documentary served as a resource for other schools, followed by consultation sessions to aid schools interested in adopting the Accelerator program. We also invited them to attend the launch days of all cycles, where each cycle reinforced specific essential skills based on the needs of the students.
Start early, keep going
All students across all cycles have been able to build their essential skills as a result of the Accelerator+ Programme. Through collaborative discussions among faculty members, "staying positive" and "aiming high" emerged as focal points for the enhancement of the entire school community from kindergarten to high school, every student had the opportunity to engage with and develop these newly introduced skills as an integral part of their learning journey. Ahead of integrating the new skills into the classroom, teachers underwent thorough preparations to tailor their lesson plans and activities accordingly. Collaborative planning sessions allowed educators to brainstorm innovative teaching methodologies and align them with the learning objectives associated with the new skills. To ensure effective implementation, teachers were provided with resources from online and offline resources in addition to further reading materials pertaining to the newly introduced skills. Workshops and professional development sessions were organised to deepen their understanding and proficiency in integrating the new skills into their teaching practices.
Measure it
Each cycle adopted a unique approach to analyse the pre-assessment data. Building on the insights gained from the current assessment cycle, we adopted a forward-thinking approach by leveraging post-assessment data to inform next year's pre-assessment. This cyclical process ensures continuity and progression in student learning, facilitating continuous improvement over time. The post-assessment phase placed emphasis on assessing not only students' acquisition of knowledge but also their application through observation and practice. We conducted two types of assessments throughout the year. One type of assessment was to measure students' prior knowledge of the new skills introduced in each cycle. The other type of assessment was to measure the development of essential skills chosen in each cycle in previous years. We conducted individual assessments for each student, and the cycle committees discussed the results as class-level assessments. We used a variety of offline and online tools to support the assessments, including the Skills Builder Hub and offline individual-student assessments. All teachers completed assessments throughout the year. The teachers then used the results of the assessments to plan further activities for students. These activities were a mixture of support and challenge, so that all students could reach their full potential.
Focus tightly
This year, we embarked on the development of an inclusive plan that served as a guiding example for all school activities and initiatives, ensuring equitable access to quality essential skills education for all. The plan included a timetable devised to allocate specific time slots for essential skills development, distribution of the skills among cycles and subjects, in addition to suggested activities that teachers can benefit from in any lesson plan. In order to maintain high standards of teaching and promote student engagement, we developed a customised observation checklist tailored to the school's specific needs and objectives. This tool facilitated systematic classroom observations, allowing educators to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement in instructional practices. In our attempt to share our successful experience with other schools, we organised workshops with educators from other schools, thereby extending the benefits of our inclusive practices to the wider educational community. These workshops provided valuable insights, best practices, and practical strategies for fostering inclusivity and enhancing teaching effectiveness.
Keep practising
The Skills Builder launch day served as a platform for showcasing the school's commitment to the Skills Builder program. Through interactive workshops, demonstrations and exhibitions, students were introduced to essential skills in a fun and engaging manner. From communication and collaboration to creativity and critical thinking, the launch day set the tone for essential skill development throughout the academic year. Following the launch day, we organised exhibitions and sports festivals to further reinforce essential skill development among students. Art exhibitions showcased students' creativity and innovation, while sports festivals provided a platform for teamwork. All of these activities provided an opportunity for students to practise and build their essential skills in a range of different scenarios. By focusing on the essential skills, we are preparing our students for a bright future.
Bring it to life
The annual celebrations took different forms this year:
In kindergarten, a “Skills Festival” was held, incorporating a rich tapestry of customs, music and characters. Students collaborated to create captivating plays, performances, and presentations that not only entertain but also educate and inspire. In primary classes, students shared their journey with skills through a play about a girl who recently joined our school and the impact of the Skills Builder program on her character. In elementary classes, Homezone activities were integrated as performance tasks, encouraging active participation from both students and parents.
Intermediate and secondary classes, students explored themes of teamwork and leadership, while captivating audiences with their artistic expression and storytelling prowess. Students engaged in thought-provoking debates and discussions on pertinent issues where they honed their critical thinking and communication skills while delving into topics of societal relevance. In social service projects, students engaged in meaningful acts of service to their community where they learned the value of empathy, compassion, and civic responsibility.
Students from all cycles took part in the Spring Festival (an annual event celebrated outside the school) in addition to their participation in the science and mathematics fair where they used leadership, teamwork, creativity, and communication skills.
What's next
Next year, we will continue what we have started this year focusing on teaching the skills and start measuring the impact on students’ behaviour and teachers’ performance.
Now that we have secured a Skills Builder Flagship Award, we will be the leading school for other schools from Al-Mabarrat that are accepted to join the Accelerator programme in 2024-25. We aim to be an open school; giving other schools within the Association the opportunity to attend the leading committee meetings, providing them with prepared teacher training and lesson plans. As in previous years, we will continue to strategically introduce essential skills in every cycle and make sure our plan takes into consideration the 6 principles of best practice. By the end next year, all cycles will be exposing its students to the eight skills. We will start preparing a cumulative portfolio for each student to check their progress throughout the year. This would be an essential tool for documenting and showcasing a student's journey, promoting reflective learning, and aiding in personal and professional development.