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Harefield Infant and Junior schools work across two sites in the village of Harefield. Members of the leadership team have had experience with Skills Builder, then Enabling Enterprise, at previous schools and felt that it would be a strong program to help embed our school values and build confidence in children for the wider curriculum. We have predominantly focused on using the project activities once per term in each year group, and these have been a fantastic way to celebrate the progress that the children have made.
Overall impact
The school projects have become a key aspect of each term across the schools. Children look forward to these whole-school events and enjoy celebrating the outcomes of their work with parents. Children are becoming increasingly aware of the 8 essential skills and how they can be applied in all areas of the curriculum. Parents have enjoyed visiting the school to experience children's work and hear them talk enthusiastically about their goals. Year 6's participation at the PTA Summer Fair was a particular highlight of this.
Keep it simple
The 8 essential skills are displayed in every classroom. There have been termly projects linked to the skills that parents have been invited to celebrate with their children. The skills have been the focus of some of our weekly assemblies and our children have been rewarded with certificates based on how well they demonstrate certain skills throughout the week.
Start early, keep going
Children from the reception classes through to year 6 have all taken part in termly projects. Children in the nursery took part in the spring and summer term projects. Where possible, parents were invited into school at the end of these projects to celebrate the outcomes the children produced. In KS2, the short activity skills focuses from the Skills Builder Hub have you be used to supplement learning in lessons such as science and topic.
Measure it
Using the Skills Builder Hub, teachers have made assessments as an overview of how children in the class demonstrated progress with particular focus skills. From Autumn to Summer, it is clear that good progress is being achieved in every class against the majority of skill domains.
Focus tightly
Outside of the Skills Builder projects, children are rewards house points for demonstrating good use of the 8 skills, which reminds them consistently of how the skills can be applied to every activity. This is supported by having the 8 skill icons displayed in every classroom, so that they can be referred to constantly.
Keep practising
Students predominantly practice their essential skills through the termly projects that take place in every year group. The schools' assembly rotas also build in weekly practice and reminders how the 8 essential skills play an important part in every school day.
Bring it to life
In KS2, children have previously been on school trips linked to the project they will be undertaking. Our school council and PTA run multiple fundraising/charitable events through the year and a next step will be to incorporate the 8 essential skills into this process, though we have already seen some success with this when the Year 6 cohort set up a stall at the PTA Summer Fair as part of their final project.
What's next
It is our intention to build the Skills Builder Hub short lessons into particular lessons and specific times during the week so that every class is explicitly teaching toward an essential skill each week.
