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Mill Lodge is a one form entry primary school in Shirley, Solihull. We are a proud Platinum award winning OPAL school, providing learning through play opportunities for our pupils. Our ethos is underpinned by our 6 core values: Kindness, Respect, Honesty, Commitment, Cooperation and Responsibility. Mill Lodge is a kind and safe school where every individual commits to achieve their full potential and is a valued and respected member of our community. We have been involved with the Skills Builder programme for several years and in recent times have gone from strength to strength in integrating Skills Builder into daily life at school. Skills Builder was something we were immediately passionate about upon discovering it as we knew it would fit in perfectly with our ethos, values and children's rights and were confident it would support our engaging curriculum. We strongly believe in promoting and supporting children in developing the eight essential skills to ready them for their next steps as they move through life.
Overall impact
The Accelerator programme has been hugely beneficial to our school, teachers, support staff and students. We are proudly driving the programme forward at Mill Lodge and are beginning to make meaningful links between the Skills Builder principles and the curriculum. We promote the skills and weave them into daily life in school at every opportunity. Children are becoming increasingly confident and aware of the importance of essential skills and this is supported by the explicit teaching of mini lessons on the Hub. At Mill Lodge we focus on one essential skill each half term and we celebrate individual successes in an awards assembly at the end of each half term. Display boards, training for teachers and support staff, laminated skills logos in every classroom and regular teaching opportunities are all having a huge impact on our children, and increased opportunities for the learning and practicing of essential skills will support our pupils as they move through education and into adult life.
Keep it simple
Skills Builder language is used daily around school by teachers, support staff and children. We promote Skills Builder with parents - sharing Skills Builder news and home learning tasks in our weekly newsletters and through posts on social media. We ran a parent workshop this year with the support of our fantastic associate. Training has been delivered to mealtime supervisors who are beginning to refer to the eight essential skills with the children. We launch a focus skill each half term in a whole school assembly and these skills are then developed and worked on in every class using the mini lessons on the Hub. We hold a celebration assembly at the end of each half term to award pupils in each class for their commitment to developing the focus skill. Our lesson observation forms reference the eight essential skills. The language of skills is used day to day in praise and across the curriculum. Our children are confident in discussing the skills and explaining their importance.
Start early, keep going
Skills Builder has been a whole school focus this year. We run Skills Builder across our Early Years setting in addition to Years 1-6. Our Hub reports show that most year groups are receiving regular teaching in the skills. Our Nursery class references the skills in an age appropriate way and the children are awarded skills certificates. Our Nursery and Reception classes joined the rest of the school and worked together to complete a project in Projects Week this year. They used Skills Builder to plan a small garden for their outdoor area. KS1 have created an exciting corridor display to show their learning from Projects Week.
Measure it
Teachers complete regular assessments using the Hub. At the end of each half term, the focus skill is reviewed and updated using the assessment tools. All skills are again assessed at the end of the academic year and assessment data is discussed as part of teacher handover meetings. The Hub reports that the Headteacher and Skills Builder Leader are shown at regular intervals throughout the year enable monitoring of progression of skills throughout school.
Focus tightly
A minimum of two lessons each half term are delivered by teachers to their classes. These lessons are based on the half termly focus skill and are pitched at levels suitable for each class based on assessments. We use the lessons on the Hub - they are a fantastic resource and require very little preparation! Children engage well in these sessions and are aware of how they can build their essential skills. Next year we are looking to use the self assessment passport tools on the Hub to promote the skill steps language.
Keep practising
This year, training was delivered to class teachers on incorporating Skills Builder language in lessons and we are beginning to weave Skills Builder into our curriculum through Medium Term Planning. Teacher observations show that language is being used across a range of lessons and subject areas. Students hear about the steps within each skill more frequently and these are discussed in classrooms. We have displays up in every classroom demonstrating age appropriate steps and these are frequently referred to by both teaching staff and pupils. Language is observed to be being used by children during OPAL play, particularly around the skills of Teamwork, Creativity and Problem Solving. 'Girl Power' is an initiative in our school centred around female leadership and promoting physical education. Skills are referred to in these after school sessions.
Bring it to life
Skills Builder essential skills are being referenced on trips out of school by teachers and we look for opportunities to discuss skills wherever possible. Challenge Days are ran across year groups and these are hugely successful with both staff and students. Children engage extremely well in fun activities that support their development of their skills. Each year group this year took part in Projects Week - 10 hours of learning across 5 afternoons. Our pupils always look forward to Challenge Days and Project Weeks!
What's next
We are looking to incorporate Skills Builder comments and feedback in our end of year reports next year. We will continue to focus on mapping out essential skills into our medium term planning across a wide range of subjects. We are hoping to run workshops whereby parents/carers can come into school to complete a Skills Builder project or activity with their children. We very much look forward to working closely with our brilliant associate next year and finding ways to take Skills Builder to the next level in our school.
