Skills Builder

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Auxilium Convent High School Wadala

Context

Auxilium is a girls school in Dadar, Mumbai. It has 2051 students from Kindergarten to Grade 10. The school has a strong focus on essential skills, and has already implemented some skills-based learning programs. Along with the strong support and collaboration of the teachers, the school progressively ventures into newer areas of academic excellence to give every child the best for its future with the aim of contributing to the society as best as they can. Auxilium imparts quality education in harmony with the essential skills; by this means fashioning self-assured young women who are proficient to make their own identity and is an asset to their community. The essential skills nurture the student’s potential and polish their abilities giving them an edge over others to excel in the world of work.

Overall impact

The Skills Builder program had a positive impact on our school. It helped our students to gradually transition from digital to personal, face-to-face learning. Our whole teaching staff was involved in the program, and we made it a part of every activity at the school, both curricular and co-curricular. This meant that all students, teachers, and families were familiar with the essential skills. The training and support from Skills Builder was also very helpful. It helped us to understand the essential skills and how to embed them into our curriculum. We were also able to get feedback from the Skills Builder team on our implementation of the program. Based on our training, we implemented the following changes in our school: We created a "Master Skills Builders" team to lead the implementation of the program. We developed lesson plans, reinforcement activities, and assessments for all 8 essential skills. We created displays around the school to remind students and staff about the essential skills. We embedded the Skills Passport in our almanac so that students could track their progress. We conducted regular assessments to track student learning.

Keep it simple

The Senior Leadership and Management team at Auxilium School were involved in the planning and delivery of the Skills Builder Program. They ensured that the language of the Universal Framework was being spread throughout the school by using it in all of their training and materials. They also created a "Skills Glossary" for teachers and students to reference. In addition, they conducted regular workshops and refresher courses on the essential skills. To ensure that the program was implemented successfully, two staff members headed a "Master Skills Builders" team. This team met regularly with the School Leadership team to discuss progress and strategies. They also played a crucial role in the systematic dissemination of lesson plans, reinforcement, and assessment. This included regular WhatsApp messages to staff members with information about the schedule of lessons, follow-up activities, assemblies, reinforcement schedule, assessments, and holiday homework. To keep students, staff, and visitors aware of the essential skills, the school created displays near the Principal's office, at the reception, along the central staircase, and in the corridors. These displays showed all 8 essential skills and their steps from 0 to 15. The Skills Passport was also embedded in the almanac for students, so teachers could showcase and celebrate achievements in the skills with the students. Timely assessments were done and as per the assessments, every student was given a certificate. The Master Skills Builder's efforts were recognized at public forums. The KG had their assessment approval in the report card. Grade 1 to 4, Grade 5, and Grade 6 onwards had certificates as per their level of content covered.

Start early, keep going

This year, the whole school was involved in the Skills Builder program. The Pre-Primary Section (Kindergarten) conducted Skills Builder sessions through video, songs, and interactive sessions. The teachers used an assessment card based on the 8 skills to track student progress. They also integrated Skills Builder skills into their regular curriculum. The Primary Section had a dedicated Skills Builder class on Monday and Tuesday as their first period. The lesson plans for this class were aligned with the Universal Framework. The school also arranged the timetable to accommodate a regular slot for Skills Builder in the Secondary section, from 1:00 to 1:30 p.m. The Master Skills Builder teachers monitored and supported teachers in planning Skills Builder sessions that were suitable for their class. They also provided regular feedback and assessment to students.

Measure it

This year, the focus has been on how we could measure the development of skills across the whole school. We received teacher training around the formative assessment and during the meeting our Master Assessment Faculty shared the assessment patterns conducted in school. We could then align good practice from Skills Builder with our systems. From this, we were able to develop a consistent and accessible system for assessment of the skills. Staff meeting held to inform about the assessment pattern. Teachers had opportunities to assess students’ progress throughout the school year, including challenge days and projects. The Master Skills Builder Teachers monitored and managed data collection from the teachers around these events. We also used the Reflective log to support students with self-evaluation.

Focus tightly

The Skills Builders programme is pursued diligently by the teachers in all three sections on a regular scheduled basis in curricular and co-curricular activities. A core group of Master Skills Builders coordinates the Pre-primary, Primary and Secondary Section. A team of Master Skills Builders, made up of mostly the subject teachers of the Secondary Section prepare lesson plans, activities for reinforcement, assessment sheets, data sheets for their particular skill which is shared for all to use. In the Primary section the class teacher conducts Skills Builder sessions twice every week. In the Secondary section, there is a Skills Builder class every day. All sessions look at developing specific steps from the Universal Framework. All the activities and lesson plans are posted on the teacher’s WhatsApp group by the Master Skills Builders. All the teachers write in their weekly log book the skills that they would embed in the topic under study and also provide a weekly feedback of the same.

Keep practising

Reinforcement was done in different ways across the curriculum to consolidate the learnings from the Skills Builder sessions. Some reinforcement was done through curricular activities across all the subjects, focusing on reinforcing and focusing on specific steps learnt. Almost all the extra-curricular activities were flavoured with the students using the Essential Skills, like the Annual Day celebration, the Teacher’s day, the celebration of festivals and significant events as the Triple Jubilee Dramatics competition, Women’s Day, and National Science Day. We also reinforced the skills through the Indian Socio Emotional Learning Framework (ISELF). Teachers incorporated the essential skills in the interactive sessions on the 5 areas of ISELF : Self-awareness, Self-management, Relational management, Social awareness and Decision making.

Bring it to life

Auxilium School links essential skills to a number of different projects and community-based activities. Some examples include: Outdoor Guide Camps: Students use essential skills in various activities, such as marching and social service. Republic Day Parade: Students use essential skills to march in the parade. Outreach programs: Students share their time, talent, and resources with underprivileged children, tribal children, and leprosy patients. House duties: Students demonstrate their skills in house duties. Cleanliness drive: Students participate in a cleanliness drive. Sigmatics and Interschool Science Competition: Students apply essential skills to achieve success in these competitions. Career Guidance sessions: Students learn about employability skills from enterprising alumni. These activities help students to develop and apply essential skills, which prepares them for future success.

What's next

This academic year 2023-24, the school will introduce of Skills and Interest based club activities on a weekly basis during the Skills Builder schedule for practical application of the Employability skills as the mandate offered by the National Education Policy NEP 2020 to include vocational skills. Hence Skills Builder will be combined with Vocational clubs opted by students as a practical aspect of Skills Builder.

India