Skills Builder

This content was written by

Shining Star International

Context

We are an Indian curriculum K-12 school located in Abu Dhabi. We serve the expatriate community in the neighbourhood, we have a student body of over 2,000 students with a diverse range of nationalities. We are committed to education for sustainable development, so 21st-century skills are important to us. We are a Common Sense Education school, and we are also recognized as a T4 Education top ten school in the innovation category for the best school prize. We believe in giving our students opportunities to practice their skills, so we hold assemblies where they can present their work. This helps them to develop their public speaking and presentation skills, as well as their confidence. We are a vibrant and diverse school that is committed to providing our students with the best possible education. We believe that all students can succeed, and we are dedicated to helping them reach their full potential.

Overall impact

Staff training on the Skills Builder Hub ensured that teachers were able to integrate essential skills into their lessons. Teachers found the Hub to be a useful and enjoyable resource, and they were able to use it to help their students develop their skills.

Keep it simple

We held two online training sessions for staff, facilitated by Skills Builder. In these sessions, we learned how to integrate essential skills into our everyday teaching and how to practice these skills in our subjects. We also learned how to recognize and celebrate students' use of these skills. As part of our recognition program, we award "Stars of the Week" to students who demonstrate exceptional use of essential skills. This program helps to motivate students to continue developing their skills and to use them in their learning.

Start early, keep going

Some teachers used the Skills Builder Hub this year, from a range of year groups across the school. The “Stars of the Week” was awarded across year groups too.

Measure it

Some teachers used the Skills Builder Hub to assess their classes in skills. We focussed. This year we mainly focussed on listening and speaking.

Focus tightly

Assessments help in identifying the students and then grouping them according to their skills abilities. Then the teacher plans the lessons where each group is engaged according to their ability. This has helped the teachers to plan their lessons.

Keep practising

We are using after school activities clubs to develop students skills, for example environment club, model UN, communication skills development, coding club and photography, visual and performing arts and sports . They develop a number of skills such as communication, problem solving and creativity.

Bring it to life

We have a variety of projects that help bring skills to life and link them to the wider world. For example, we participate in a Sustainable Development Goals project and a climate action project. We also connect with local government, such as when students presented their "Growing Up with Gratitude" project presentations to local officials. In addition, students have participated in a 3-month calendar of gratitude service learning program in the school. They have also participated in conversations on climate action with the local community in preparation for COP 28. Students have also presented a flash mob dance at one of the local malls. Finally, students have participated in interschool competitions where their innovation skills are tested. They have presented prototypes for sustainability in these competitions.

What's next

This year was a challenge to grow the work as there were lots of competing priorities. Next year we would like this to change and for more teachers to use the Skills Builder platform.

UAE