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Skegness Infant academy is a coastal school in a seaside town. We have 320 children on role and teach pupils from nursery to year 2. We link with Skegness Junior academy who have also been on the skills builder journey with us. We have a high percentage of deprivation in the area and many of our parents work seasonally. There are poor transport links and some of our children do not travel far from the area or have broad experiences outside the town. We wanted to get involved with skills builder to develop effective growth mindset approaches, so pupils become resilient and have a positive attitude to learning. We wanted them to remain motivated to achieve goals now and in the future, and to give them the skills and knowledge to enable this to happen. We wanted to develop oracy skills as this was a high priority for the academy. We hoped skills builder would give us a robust route to supporting them to achieve this. Using skills builder teaching and learning resources, we hoped to further enhance our creative curriculum and build in more opportunities for awe and wonder. This will build imagination and continue to develop the growth mindset and create a positive attitude to reach solutions to problems. Skills builder seemed to fit seamlessly with our ethos and school values and we knew it would give us the opportunity to embed these into all aspects of school life.
Overall impact
We feel that skills builder has had a huge impact on the academy as a whole. The children have enjoyed learning about the skills and using the vocabulary. Skills builder is in the heart of everything we do so that we can give the children the best opportunities. It has raised their aspirations and equipped them with skills for now, their future education and the rest of their lives The highlight was definitely the challenge day which brought all the skills together and gave all their learning and practice a purpose. It was lovely to see them equip themselves with the skills they have learnt.
Keep it simple
We made skills builder a priority in the academy improvement plan and have added skills to the curriculum and medium term plans for all year groups. All staff (including non teaching) are using the language of essential skills. There are displays in all classrooms and the hall. We use dojo points as a reward system and these now include the essential skills and are a focus for our dojo champions. Skill certificates are given at the end of half term relating to the skills of term. Pupils are familiar with the language and use it both in lessons and outside of them. Essential skill language fits and matches with our academy values, it has naturally been built into assemblies because of this. Our twitter account references essential skills in communication with parents. The homezone QR code is being built into final newsletter before the summer holidays to encourage skill development at home. Essential skills naturally link to our school values and now underpin the culture of the academy.
Start early, keep going
We start our skills builder journey in the nursery. All year groups and learners have regular and planned opportunities and everyone is taught and is practising essential skills. We introduce 1 or 2 skills a term as a focus but continue to build on and develop previous skills. In early years we use widget symbols in the environment as part of our continuous provision.
Measure it
We have a variety of ways of observing and tracking progression of the essential skills. All teachers use the hub as a way to track their children and plan the focus for their skills builder sessions. The use of Hub is consistent among all teachers and they are using it to baseline and measure progress. Through observations and discussions staff show a clear awareness about the progress and needs of the pupils. We also use anecdotal evidence. The children are baselined at the beginning of the year and then assessed on the focus skill at the end of each term.
Focus tightly
The teaching of essential skills is consistent through the year. Assemblies are used to launch the skills before using 'skill lessons' to teach specific skill steps that are class are working on. This is evident on the assembly timetable. Skill lessons look different depending on the needs of each individual class. Some classes access whole lessons and some use parts of them and skill stories. Skill lessons are timetabled weekly in which learners are explicitly taught the skills. The skill steps to be worked on are evident for each class, termly, on their medium term plans.
Keep practising
Curriculum leaders refer to the skills on their curriculum journey maps. Outside of 'skill lessons' we consistently talk about essential skills in all areas of the curriculum and in extra curricular activities. They are referenced in every lesson and in the early years each routine. Medium term plans show the build up of skills as they are introduced termly so in term 6 all skills are referenced in all subject areas. Displays in the academy and in nursery show the cross curricular links with skills builder symbols added to make the links obvious to the children. After school sporting clubs, off timetable days and an events calendar also reference the essential skills as part of best practice and the skills of the term reflect the events that are taking place. We now give the essential skills sheet to any visitors. Essential skills have been built into our SMART school council and leadership roles are assigned.
Bring it to life
We really enjoyed the Challenge Day which allowed students to reflect on the idea that skills they have been learning have an extra value. We also have careers events which we link heavily to the essential skills and their role in the world beyond school. These can be online lessons, the use of developing experts in science and through off site visits and visitors. We visit the farm, shops, library, church and lifeboat station. In the early years we talk about the role of skills in careers and practice them in roleplay. We used the skills builder career cards to link with our "I want to be" dressing up day and we track the children's aspirations through school. We also take part in the fiver challenge and community events such as litter picking.
What's next
We feel that skills builder has had a very positive impact on our children and we need to continue to develop these essential skills. We are looking forward to continuing our skills builder journey next year. We aim to further embed links between the essential skills and wider community. We are looking forward to trying the projects next year and running our own challenge days to further build our creative curriculum.
