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The Taunton Academy was the first academy to join the Richard Huish Trust, part of the Richard Huish College ? an outstanding sixth form college at the heart of the Taunton community. The trust?s vision is to provide exceptional education and training, through the delivery of a holistic academic and vocational curriculum. This is delivered through the core values that shape the behaviour of all trust members. We got involved with the Skills Builder Accelerator programme to further progression with the essential skills our students will need in school, at work and beyond.
Overall impact
The overall impact of the Accelerator programmes has been that teachers have been able to explicitly teach these essential skills and link these skills to every day teaching and learning activities. Students are able to link their Skills Builder lessons to the tasks and activities across all subjects. The wider community have been able to see the progression
Keep it simple
The language of essential skills is used during specific Skills Builder teaching and learning sessions and among key members of the community, including: students, teachers and leaders. Some events such as assemblies also begin to reference the essential skills. The essential skills form part of our Relational Approach Policy where students are made the center of the school's focus. Our teachers recognize student progression and award achievement with certificates for each essential skill. Each tutor displays the essential skills in the their classroom to provide visual reminders of their achievements.
Start early, keep going
We implemented Skills Builder training as part of our KS3 and KS4 tutoring programme from October 2022. Year groups 7-10. There is planned and regular opportunities for learning and practices the essential skills. As programme lead we have designed these sessions with one essential skills per term as a focus. This enables tutors to develop the skill intensively for a 6-7 week period. Tutors use the extensive range of resources to support their teaching sessions including Skills Passports and Skills Workbooks.
Measure it
All tutors regularly use the formative assessment to prioritise and inform the teaching of essential skills. The Hub report is used by Programme Leaders to measure progression and support teachers to focus on the most beneficial skills for their tutor group. At the end of each Half Term, staff update progress on Skills Builder Hub and relay this to SLT.
Focus tightly
Teachers use the Skills Builder Hub to complete their initial assessments, Teachers are then directed to the most beneficial resources that match the progression stage of their group. This is a regular part of the tutoring programme for students and students are engaged on progression within their groups. Teachers are encouraged to tailor activities and teaching to the needs of their unique groups.
Keep practising
The teaching and learning of essential skills has supported students in their project work, extra curricular clubs and within the curriculum. Year 10 have been practicing the persuasive speaking skills within debating club and debates as part of our ethical studies on crime and punishment. Year 9 have been using the speaking, listening and creative essential skills during our Human Rights and Social Justice topic. Students were tasked decide on a social injustice and create protests to highlight their activism. Whilst some of our Year 8 created Children's Books with morale messages about bullying, friendship and celebrating our uniqueness.
Bring it to life
The Taunton Academy encourages its students to take their learning outside of school, the essential skills support students in these endeavours. Our students have used their developing communication, positivity and resilience skills to succeed in the PlayStation Schools Cup Final , Royal Marine Cadets and Duke of Edinburgh award.
What's next
Teaching and Learning will continue to encompass the essential skills for school, work and beyond but will go further. We will aim to make explicit links between lessons, topics, extra-curricular activities and out of school endeavors. As a school we are continually striving to consolidate and build on our successes, as we equally encourage our students to do in every aspects of the lives.
