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As a small village primary school in Devon, we have used our school values - the 6Rs -respect, responsibility, reasoning, resourcefulness, resilience and reflection to support children's learning for many years. With the recent challenges in children's education, we wanted to reinvigorate these learning dispositions to support returning pupils. Through talking to the children and other stakeholders about what they believed each one meant, Apple Characters were designed and named. This was to provide a visual reminder for all about our Rs. We then wanted to unpick each one in detail, and help identify steps so the children could see how their skills progress and then actively teach these essential skills so children can achieve their true potential and have a choice in their adult lives. After talking to the children, teachers discussed the benefit of a more structured approach using a shared language to define what these meant and looked like throughout the school day. Looking at the Skills Builder website, we realised that their skills closely aligned to our Apples. Another key benefit would be to share good practice, along with the opportunity to collaborate with other sectors and organisations. This would help us to broaden the experience for all involved - an exciting opportunity to be involved in, after some challenging times. At this point, we applied for (and got accepted) onto the Skills Builder Accelerator Programme and our journey began.
Overall impact
Both staff and children are able to describe the skills and link it to what it looks like in practice through curricular and non-curricular activities. Many children can use these to enhance their learning and are starting to award tokens to each other. This will develop further as we continue to promote and teach the key skills next year and we will also include skills in our wider extra-curricular activities. Listening to children discussing their activity passports has been amazing and really helped them to appreciate what they can achieve by applying the skills they have learned has been a highlight at the end of the school year.
Keep it simple
We wanted to ensure the language linked to each skill was explicitly taught and referred to by all on a daily basis. Skills Builder is included in INSET days and in our teaching and learning policy to ensure language is used regularly and consistently. It was decided to focus on one skill per half term across the whole school, through assemblies and using some Skills Builder resources for short weekly lessons. Skills Builder is shared with parents through our newsletter where we also suggest homezone challenges so children can continue to practise the skills at home. Students are rewarded for completing skill activities at home with Skills Builder certificates.
Start early, keep going
Our learning certificates were revamped to include the skill descriptors alongside our apple characters. Two certificates are handed out per week, one of which is linked to the focus skill for the half term. These are read out in assembly and then displayed in school for a week for all to see before the children take them home to share with their parents. Speaking and listening skills are taught alongside the focus skill throughout the whole year, as we felt these were critical in all aspects of life.
Measure it
Alongside teaching each skill half-termly, the teachers have used the Hub to assess where their children were at the start of the teaching block and where they were six weeks later. We have seen improvements across many areas, and using this has enabled us to think about what else to implement. For example, we have created a home and school activity passport. Year 6 pupils support the younger students to identify what skills they are using both at home and school.
Focus tightly
Skills Builder lessons are a regular part of school life and this is timetabled to ensure that all teachers dedicate regular time to focused teaching of essential skills. On starting school children are assigned to family teams, Badgers, Hedgehogs, Rabbits and Squirrels and team points have always been earned for a wide range of reasons. At the start of the spring term, in order to support language development and identification of the skills, it made sense to give team points linked specifically to each skill. We purchased some tokens and the skills icons were stuck onto them. Team points continue to be earned by pupils, but staff are specific about what being awarded for, for example, providing an idea in a complete sentence in literacy - a speaking token, or for undertaking the challenge calculation in maths, an aiming high token.
Keep practising
Through both the certificates and team points the skills have been introduced across the whole curriculum and are forming a basic part of the language staff and children use. This year we have developed our inclusion of the skills in subject teaching. Planning for science, history, and geography now incorporates essential skills and these skills may be introduced in a short lesson or revisited throughout the class. The half termly skill is referred to in all subject teaching. The focus on these skills extends beyond individual subjects. Resources across the school, like DT projects, now include icons to identify the specific skills being addressed. All assemblies, including non-skill-based assemblies, reference the essential skills so their transferability is clear for students.
Bring it to life
Through our broader curriculum, we have restarted a range of projects including our 'Fantastic Friday' curriculum (Forest School, cookery and yoga), working with our local community and school trips. Skills are beginning to be transferred and actively taught through these life experiences. Our Year 6 children participate in the Torbay and Devon Civic Award annually. This involves being an active citizen both in their school and home community as well as actively promoting a charity of their choice. One of the joys of online assemblies is that it has allowed us to invite a number of STEM ambassadors from around the country to talk to our children about what they did at school, their education choices and what their job entails. Children have then been able to ask questions at the end of the presentation. This has widened our pupils understanding of the working world and raised their aspirations of what they can aim for in the future. All visitors to the school are given a Skills Builder information sheet, and refer to the skills when speaking to students. We completed the ?Level Up? challenge day, which was a fantastic way for learners to apply their essential skills through a topic they are interested in.
What's next
We have involved parents much more in the skills builder programme this year, and we would like to develop this by running a parent workshop in the autumn term. We would also like to grow our familiarity with the expanded passport and explore how to use this further to support SEN students.
