By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyse site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information.
Palacio de Granda is an all-through school situated in Asturias, Spain, catering for students aged 1-18 years old, with 660 students on roll. We are a bilingual school (Spanish and English), follow the Spanish National Curriculum and complement it with a variety of programmes in order to provide well-rounded education: development of creativity, critical thinking, teamwork and technological proficiency, emotional intelligence and personal and professional development.
We have endeavoured to embed skills and values, including our school group (ISP) values, our own school values, and skills from the Spanish National Curriculum. This resulted in an overwhelming amount of “key words” for staff and students, and staff were frustrated by the lack of visible and measurable impact.
Despite our efforts, it seemed that our children are not developing resilience or autonomy as learners, and an individualist mindset takes precedence over teamwork for many. Despite falling above the local average, we knew that our students’ speaking and listening skills also needed more direction. Skills Builder provides a clearly structured framework in which to progressively teach essential skills. It allows progress to be checked and evidenced by providing staff with a clear and concise starting point, as well as a defined teaching sequence.
Overall impact
This year we have focused on laying the foundations of the Skills Builder programme, with a view to expanding this in subsequent years. We have built familiarity with the skills among part of the school community. We are excited about the potential of the programme and the impact it can have in the medium and long term. We have started to see how we can bring the skills to life in many different areas of the school, creating cross-curricular opportunities. Our Year 3 focus group demonstrates increased awareness and confidence. As a whole, they are better able to initiate conversations and actively listen. Parents are enthusiastic, noting improved student interaction, as evidenced by a the end of year IPC project. They commented how impressed they were by the pupils’ ability to present themselves and interact intelligently.
We have experienced a very positive response from our work experience mentors (employers), who have found the guide we produced with the framework in Spanish very valuable. They were complimentary about the structure it provides to the students going out on their placements, as well as for themselves, particularly as work experience placement is something which is not common in Spanish schools at all.
Keep it simple
At the start of the year we attempted to implement skills, specifically Speaking and Listening, to our Year 2 pupils (which is the 1st year of Primary school in Spain) via their English language teachers. We soon realised that we had underestimated the amount of metacognition involved for our non-native English pupils in the process of understanding and embedding the skills. Therefore, we adapted our strategies and started looking for and creating opportunities for our new focus groups to put a certain skill into practice and understand how to progress in using it. We have made the skills clear and visible around the schools with posters and displays so students and staff are familiar with them. We have also used the Spanish version of the Universal Framework so skills are accessible to all. The headteacher has delivered Skills Builder assemblies to introduce these skills and tangible and teachable concepts. Students then took on the role of delivering skill focused assemblies themselves, and sharing their understanding of the skills with their peers. Skills Builder has been shared with parents and the wider community through our school newsletter, where students are also celebrated for their progress in the skills.
Start early, keep going
We identified two core groups where there was a need for skill focused study. Primary school students and 1º Bachillerato / Year 12 (work experience) students. The International Primary Curriculum (IPC) class formed the 'flagship' group for focused skill study. The language of the Universal Framework was pitched at an accessible level for these students to work on the skills using English as an additional language. Year 12 students were also introduced to the skills as part of their completing work experience placements.
Measure it
We used the Skills Builder Hub to conduct an initial assessment of all skills and identify which skills to focus on for the year. The IPC co-ordinator regularly updated the hub and used this to track progress and pitch skills teaching at the right level. The School created a work experience booklet for Year 12 students to reflect on the development of the core skills during their placement. This was created in Spanish to ensure students were able to reflect meaningfully on their development. A copy was also shared in advance with the employers / mentors, to guide their final conversation with their students / tutees.
Focus tightly
Skill assemblies delivered by the headteacher allowed dedicated time for the explicit teaching of essential skills for the IPC students and the entire Primary School cohort. Pupils then took on the role of delivering these assemblies, which gave them the opportunity to demonstrate their learning. Both the skills leader and the headteacher held meetings with Year 12 ahead of their work experience placements to explain each skill in depth and explore strategies for developing these over the course of their work experience.
Keep practising
We have focused on showing students the transferability of essential skills through school trips and educational visits. The Skills Leader created ‘skill question sheets’ which primary school students have been taking on trips and visits and asking employees which skills they use and how.
We also introduced practical workshops to Years 11 and 12, and stressed taking the opportunity to practise the skills when attending these. An example of that was the “stitching workshop” delivered by a medical doctor, where the students needed to listen very carefully to the instructions, in order to put instructions into practice and achieve the desired results, or alternatively, ask appropriate questions to further their understanding.
Bring it to life
The work experience booklet is an excellent tool to support students in applying their essential skills in the workplace. As well as student focus and reflection on these skills, work experience mentors were also asked to comment on how the students had developed their skills over the course of the placement.
What's next
We are looking forward to scaling up the programme next year for both primary students and Year 12 (work experience) students. We are going to begin focused teaching of essential skills earlier on for Year 12 students, so they are prepared to utilise these skills when on their placements. We will use the Spanish version of the Universal Framework to bring in focused teaching time for more Primary School classes.
Finally, we also plan to involve the families more, so that our work can be supported by parents and carers outside school hours.
_Skills.webp)
