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Pragnya Bodhini High School is a state board school, located in one of the western suburbs of Mumbai, India. It caters for 700 learners from 3 to 14 years old and brings students from diverse cultural, religious and economic backgrounds.Our mission is to achieve ‘excellence in education’. Most of our students are first generation learners who rely on the school for their overall development, therefore we focus on knowledge, skills and attitude to help our students grow personally and professionally when they leave school. The Skills Builder program has been instrumental in enhancing our students' overall development. Students’ exceptional conduct is increasingly recognised since we began the Skills Builder program. We are equally proud to share our expertise with other schools through the Skills Builder accelerator program.
Overall impact
The Skills Builder program has transformed the learning environment of the school. It has encouraged the teachers to keep their teaching pedagogies to be more learner centric than teacher centric. After several years on the programme, we are now widening the impact by developing teacher engagement and working with heads of other schools and organisations promoting the importance of skill based learning. Skill-based activities continue to be a regular feature in our curriculum. We see our learners as better listeners who are able to articulate their thoughts with clarity and confidence. We see them embracing the idea of visible thinking – where they have come to ask beyond ‘what’ and ‘how’ and are now seeking answers for ‘whys’ too. The Skills Builder team has offered continuous support, by constantly guiding us on how to use the tools and resources available on universal framework. We could take a lot of reference from the resources available and contextualise it for our learners. This program has encouraged both our team of teachers and our students to express, experience, experiment and create.
Keep it simple
At the start of the Skills Builder program at our school, the entire teaching staff underwent detailed training from the Skills Builder team. Our Education Associate provided a wonderful training session on how to teach and assess these 8 essential skills. Our experienced staff effectively mentored new colleagues, transforming noisy classrooms into busy and productive learning environments. Along with the display in classrooms, the mention of the 8 essential skills were also included in progress reports, where the teacher would assess and comment on students’ progress in every skill. Rewarding students based on the skills showcased became a part of the classroom culture. This year, our students had the opportunity to participate in a forum of over twenty international boarding schools. We were so proud to see our students using their essential skills to ensure they left a mark on the competition.
Start early, keep going
Adopting the principle of ‘start early keep going’ as part of the Skills Builder programme inspired us to adopt this principle among other areas of the curriculum. Each activity conducted for the Primary and Secondary was extended to the Kindergartners too by downscaling the difficulty level making the format and topic age appropriate. We invited teachers from other school to participate in skill based workshops by our school’s mentoring team where we focused on the practicality of this principle. The potential success of our approach inspired them, and it's always gratifying to see them implement these ideas in their own schools.
Measure it
Teachers measured students’ progress by observing and evaluating skill based activities in class. We also continued our previous practice of creating assessment worksheets for students, adapted from the Skills Builder Skills Workbooks, which helped them in understanding the essence of the skill and accomplish the given task. Just like last year this data proved to be very helpful for student profiling, for planning interventions and support. It was also a support when the student is promoted to the next class - as it allows the new class teacher to have an overview of the skill based progress of the student at a glance.
Focus tightly
We have a daily 30 minute period dedicated to teaching essential skills in the timetable. This period focused on initiating a dialogue with the students and teacher about a chosen skill and why it is important, what can be done to master it and how they will be going about it. Along with other aspects of our ‘lesson plan template’, like objectives, learning outcomes, resources etc, skills & skill steps acquired were also expected to be planned. Every activity, lesson or event executed is associated with skill enhancement and this over a period of time has become standard practice throughout the school.
Keep practising
For us to achieve this principle, consistency had to be the key. We held a variety of different events to give students opportunities to apply their essential skills. Weekly JAM (Just a Minute) sessions became a regular feature across all classes every Saturday, where the students were given a set of new topics every week to choose from and share their thoughts. Another example was a weekly holistic session we ran where a speaker was invited to the classes to share different topics. In these, students listened, engaged in a conversation and asked questions. Assemblies also remained a point of focus for essential skills, where it was ensured that each day, a different set of students conducted it and got a fair chance to share. The day for each class ended with a quiet time that allowed them to reflect on the day’s happenings and for the teachers it ended with circle time where every day one teacher got a chance to share her positive highlights of the day. This year we have also undertaken activities as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals programme. All of these opportunities gave students a great chance to apply their essential skills.
Bring it to life
Our students have many opportunities to bring the skills to life. In addition to classroom learning, they have actively participated in interschool and intra-school competitions, showcasing their skills. They have undertaken impactful community projects, focusing on Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being. Their 'Out of Order' project, addressed the problem of food wastage. Students used aiming high skills to conduct research, speaking and listening skills to engage the community and creativity skills to think of innovative solutions to this problem. Through surveys, collaborations, and awareness campaigns, the students secured a national award. Undeterred, they expanded their project, forming a school meal club and organizing community workshops. Recognizing the need for additional resources, they deployed speaking skills to successfully pitch their project, securing a substantial grant to further their initiatives. This comprehensive project required the application of various skills, from communication and teamwork to leadership and problem-solving. The students' exceptional performance, marked by conviction and confidence, is a testament to the skills-based culture fostered through the Skill Builder program. We are immensely proud of their achievement and the positive impact they have created.
What's next
As we continue the Accelerator+ programme with the support of the Skills Builder team, we would like to integrate the skills further with the UN Sustainable Development goals. We will conduct further training on this not only for our own teachers but also for teachers from other schools. We are also looking forward to spreading the word of Skills Builder during our annual ACS festival, which focuses on skills. Students from Pragnya Bodhini High School will continue using their essential skills to take the lead in local, regional and national events as we move ahead in the 50th year of our school that is rooted in knowledge, attitude & skills.
