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Sandown Primary School and Nursery sits at the heart of our community in Hastings. The school has 515 pupils and the context is 47% Disadvantaged Pupils in an area of Coastal Challenge. Worklessness and low aspiration is identified as a barrier to learning and future life success for many of our learners. The school works tirelessly to broaden horizons, raise aspirations and encourage the importance of working and making a positive contribution to society. The school vision of Bringing Home and School Together is key to improving outcomes for our pupils as we recognise that working with the entire family deepens the positive impact of any initiatives. Our families engage well with the school and our Parental Engagement rates are high. When we first encountered SkillsBuilder we recognised immediately the value for our pupils in learning these 8 Essential Skills for Life and how they can impact wider aspirations and future life chances for our children.
Overall impact
Since joining the Skillsbuilder family 5 years ago, Sandown has embedded the Eight Essential Skills firmly at the centre of its vision and values. All children can identify each of the skills and verbalise how and when they are using them. Every child aims to achieve their Skills for Life badge and parents are encouraged to attend a celebration assembly where children are rewarded as Skills Champions weekly. The impact is such that every stakeholder knows the 8 Essential Skills and recognises the importance of each of them in terms of being successful in life.
Keep it simple
The Essential Skills are woven throughout each aspect of school life. Policies, including the behaviour policy and teaching and learning Policy reference the skills, thus ensuring that practice across the school is consistent. Every classroom, corridor, shared space and the staffroom has a visual display of the 8 Skills to ensure they are visible and tangible throughout. Along the top corridor, we have created 8 colour windows with a skills transfer in each so as everyone moves around the school, to and from assembly, PE, class and playtime, they are visually reminded of the 4 pairs of skills. Assemblies follow the 8 Skills across the school year for both KS1 and KS2 and these are mapped carefully to ensure all staff know which skill is being focused on termly. The relevant skill is then shared to all stakeholders, including governors via the school messaging platform ( Dojo). Each lesson across all curriculum subjects references the relevant skills to be used during that lesson.
Start early, keep going
The PSHE Lead has worked closely with the Skills Champion to map out the skills across the lessons each term. This ensures clarity and coverage of all 8 skills being taught discretely. Children are encouraged and expected to practise the skills daily and they are rewarded daily and weekly for doing so. ( see Bring it to life). Our youngest learners from EYFS begin to recognise the skills symbols and names and can link them to the Characteristics of Effective learning. This is mapped on a chart with children being rewarded on achieving each skill with a sticker.
Measure it
Each class teacher assesses their learners using the Hub materials. The outcomes of the assessment inform key skills foci across the classes. Teachers are dynamic in terms of identifying which skill or skills they need to spotlight for their class or for groups of learners.
Focus tightly
The explicit teaching of the 8 skills is carefully planned and sequenced across the school and across each year group. The Skills steps are taught within the PSHE lessons for every year group alongside our PSHE curriculum. All teachers build time into their weekly timetable and skills learning is captured in class floor books.
Keep practising
All of the skills are integral to all learning at Sandown. Teachers ensure that at the start of a sequence of learning, they make explicit the skills that the children need to use or focus on during that particular learning. A visual reminder is placed on the Smart Slides at the beginning of a lesson and referred to regularly throughout the session. Children are asked to verbalise the skills and the relevant skills steps that they will need to use. Skills stamps are used by teachers as part of the marking and feedback process.
Bring it to life
Every week, Skills Champions are identified by class teachers and TAs and celebrated and rewarded in our Marvellous Monday / Funky Friday assembly. Parents and the wider community are invited to share in this celebration. Children are asked for Top Tips where they identify a skill they have been recognised for demonstrating during the previous week. Daily, 1 child per class visits the Head with a piece of exceptional learning. The child then speaks about the skill they have been rewarded for with a Log Book mention. Each of the Eight Skills is printed in the front of every child's Homelink book. When they come to Log Book, the relevant skill is stamped with a colour coded skills stamp. Once all 8 skills have been stamped over the school year, a child is awarded their Sandown Skills for Life badge. Our Year 6 pupils aim to be awarded a Silver Sweatshirt to show they are secondary ready. To achieve this silver sweatshirt, the child must make a presentation to the Headteachers.
What's next
Next steps The development of Skills Builder 2025 we will continue to focus on children clearly verbalising each skill step when they demonstrate it. This requires all stakeholders to raise the expectation of this when they speak to children about each skill. This will be achieved through a sharper focus on a skill each term.
