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Our school, Co-op academy Princeville is located in the county of West Yorkshire. We are a two form entry with an intake of 60 children per year group. Our school has 484 pupils between the ages of Two and 11 and this includes part-time pupils in Nursery. Over the past two years, we have been working with skills builder partnership and have used the skills builder skills to support us in the continuing journey of recovering from the pandemic for our children, staff and parents.
Overall impact
Building skills is woven throughout our curriculum including extra curricular activities. Our framework allows the children to make links with learning in school and the wider world. With the recent events of the pandemic, Skills Builder has been incredibly influential in bringing our community together and allowing children opportunities to make the links within our community, raising their aspirations and boosting their well being and productivity. Recent visitors have positively commented on the understanding the children have about the skills and the positivity that is evident throughout school.
Keep it simple
The children are familiar with the language of the essential skills as they use this in all aspects of the curriculum. Across the school in every learning area, you can find the Skills Builder posters, providing opportunities for teachers and children to reference the skills both in and out of the classroom. The skills are linked to our Co-op ways of Being. Children are awarded with Dojos for applying the skill and reference is made to the skill in our weekly learning superstar assemblies. Staff receive ongoing training and support to ensure they are confident in teaching and assessing the skills. Our weekly (key stage and phase) assemblies, delivered by teachers throughout school, are linked to the essential skills so children are constantly developing and applying their own skills. Parents and carers had a skills builder workshop explaining how the programme links to our school curriculum and ethos. External educators refer to the essential skills when delivering workshops.
Start early, keep going
As a school we are still proud that all year groups from EYFS up to year six practice all the eight essential skills. Each new focus skill is introduced fortnightly by the class teacher. During the bi-weekly skills builder sessions, children are introduced to the skill and time is spent discussing and understanding the skill. The children then explore the skill further by linking it to real life contexts. Many opportunities are provided for the children to implement the essential skill. The school's emphasis on oracy proficiency has also raised the children's ability to articulate their understanding of the skills. Parents were introduced to the skills builder challenges this year and use it to reinforce pupil's learning of the essential Skills. Each week, a skills builder challenge is sent home as part of homework along with reflective questions supporting the parents/carers in taking part in the essential skill activities with their children.
Measure it
The Skills Builder Hub has been used by all the teachers to assess the children against the framework. Teachers are asked to update their progress every term which coincides with the schools assessment week. The hub tool has been useful as it has allowed the staff to assess, plan and tailor sessions to meet the class needs. This has ensured that children make the maximum progress. As a school, we have a timetable to ensure that we have a consistent approach when focusing on the skills. We started the year with 2 sessions per week however in Spring, we went back to 1 session weekly. The two week focus on the skills allows the staff time to assess the progress the children are making with the skill and provides children with the opportunity to apply their knowledge. Revisiting key knowledge is a vital way for children to learn. The time table ensures that children are revisiting the skills throughout the year therefore as a result of this children deepen their understanding and master the skill.
Focus tightly
Each class across the school has bi-weekly skills builder focused lessons in which children are taught using the planned hub resources. Children lower down school make use of the skills builder stories as they are appropriate for their age. Children complete a range of activities that develop their knowledge of each skill. During this time, they have time to reflect on this skill and celebrate their peers for using the skill. Providing children with a range of opportunities has allowed them to become inquisitive when linking skills to the real world. When employees have attended our school, children have independently created questions that link to the essential skills.
Keep practising
For all the children, Skills Builder skills are explicitly taught during skills builder time. It is also linked during assemblies and sent home as challenges. In addition to this time, all the children in KS1 and KS2 are exposed to skills builder in the following subjects; Personal social Health Education (PSHE), Design Technology and Geography. For children in EYFS, skills builders essential skills are weaved into the provision and focus areas. Children that have attended writing therapy, music sessions with Rock Steady, In the autumn term, P.E with Aces linked their sessions to the essential skills however due to staff turbulence, this did not remain as consistent as we'd hoped through to the summer term. Lately, teachers have started also linking the essential skills to our school trips, providing children with another opportunity to understand how the essential skills are used in everyday life.
Bring it to life
Our project based learning alongside the employee sessions have provided the experiences for our children to apply the essential skills and make links to the world outside the classroom. The Skills Builder projects were selected so the children build relationships with the local community. One of the aims was to enable children to understand their locality as well as broaden their horizons. New experiences such as school trips and visitors provide the opportunity for children to reflect on their use of essential skills throughout the day.
What's next
As a school we would love to continue to embed the essential skills throughout the curriculum. The classroom posters displayed in learning areas and the assemblies have been vital to the collective progress of the school's understanding towards the essential skills. Praising the children for the use of skills have been a success as children can immaculate the effective use of skills. The feedback from the teachers demonstrated that the children were excited about the projects and enjoyed learning about the skills. Taking this into consideration we would like to develop our relationships with the wider community further, which would without doubt create opportunities and experiences for our children. I would also like to look into the enrichment activities that are in place for next academic year and use them as opportunities for children to practise the essential skills even more.
