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St Paul's Primary School, Stoke-on-Trent

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St Paul's Primary School, Stoke-on-Trent
Context
St Paul's is a 1.5 form entry school in the heart of Goms Mill, Stoke-on-Trent. We currently have 253 children and we are proud to serve them, and the wider community. We are a welcoming Christian school where everyone is valued and given the opportunity to flourish. We show we care for ourselves and others by making good choices and encouraging others to do the same. We value the communities we are a part of and strive to serve them. All that we do and all that we are is embedded from The Early Years throughout the school and is underpinned by our Christian values: Compassion, Endurance and Friendship. In an attempt to raise the aspirations of our learners, we engaged with the Skills Builder Partnership to provide our children with essential life skills. We believe that "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world" (Nelson Mandela) and we firmly believe that our children have the potential to change the world. As a leadership team, we want to teach our students not just to cope, but to thrive. This is even more critical given the challenges facing a post COVID-19 world. Education at St Paul's is in part an investment in 'human capital'. By investing in our pupils' education, we hope that they will in turn, contribute to our wider community and economy.
Overall impact
The Accelerator programme has allowed staff at St Paul's to provide the children (and their families in our wider community) with opportunities to build the essential skills to thrive throughout their lives. We want our children to become valuable members of society and we are keen to invest in their education. The language around the eight essential skills is now firmly embedded. More importantly, the children value the skills and recognise them as a valuable part of their education. At St Paul's, we have a fortnightly focus skills so that children have regular opportunities to practise the skill. Once each skills have been taught, teachers chose a focus skill which has been identified as an area for development for the following two weeks, and then the cycle begins again. The Skills Builder Hub allows staff to assess and plan valuable teaching opportunities for their class, either discretely through wider curriculum topics, or explicitly during dedicated Skills Builder time that has been built in to our timetable from Early Years / Foundation Stage to Year 6. Examples of excellent lessons have been evident across the whole school, in a range of different subjects. For example, it has been wonderful to see the children in Early Years / Foundation Stage identify the skills icons in their continuous provision, or the engagement in thought-provoking Skills Builder lessons when listening to the Skills Stories. Other examples include using creativity skills in English when writing stories, leadership skills in Science when completing an investigation, or problem solving skills in History when sequencing events on a timeline. Another particular highlight can be seen when looking at our response to school closures during lockdown. The COVID crisis provided us with the opportunity to support parents and carers at home, as we used the Home Learning Zone to ensure that the children were able to continue with their Skills Builder learning. When remote learning tasks had a Skills Builder focus, we noticed higher levels of engagement and it was pleasing to see that siblings were able to work together on projects at home. Parental engagement was also high, with parents commenting on the importance of these lessons. Adults at home were impressed that their children were able to reflect on their learning. By scheduling time during staff meetings, all practitioners have time to explore the Hub, plan lessons, share excellent practise and champion the importance of Skills Builder. We have also added Skills Builder 'Dojo Points' so that the children can earn rewards when they demonstrate the use of one of the skills- parents are also notified when their children receive 'Skills Builder Points'. The children have benefited from challenge days and virtual trips; these sessions were hugely popular and impactful. We are extremely proud of the work that we have done so far and we are excited to see the impact that the children of St Paul's can have on the world as they continue on their learning journey at school, and beyond!
Keep it simple
The essential skills are firmly embedded within teaching and learning policies and curriculum plans across the school. As Skills Builder Leader, I revised planning documents so that staff now include Skills Builder icons on their planning documents. This helps teachers to plan deliberate opportunities to explore the skills in a range of lessons across the curriculum. Miss Tyler says: "When the icons are on the planning document, I can see which skills can be focused on during a particular lesson. I also review the planning so that I can ensure that all skills have been taught at the end of a sequence of learning. It has been great to look at problem solving skills in science, and teamwork skills in RE". The Skills Builder icons are included on displays across the school, and are printed on learning objective labels. As Skills Builder Leader, I delivered whole school assemblies and workshops for parents during lockdown so that they could support their children with remote learning.
Start early, keep going
All year groups and classes have regular and planned opportunities to explore the essential skills. Mrs Beech, the EYFS Leader, says: "Skills Builder skill icons are used as part of our continuous provision and the children can talk about which skills they are using whilst engaging in play-based learning". Support staff who deliver interventions also have access to resources and use them to plan sessions for their groups. This has been particularly beneficial for our Young Carers, who work on the essential skills in small group settings. During Skills Builder staff meetings, staff have time to assess their learners against the framework and to plan activities to teach the next steps. In the Summer term, staff started to use the Skills Builder Benchmark with their learners as a self-reflection tool. Victoria (Year 2) said "I have made the most progress with teamwork and next year when I am in Year 3 I will work on problem solving. I can do this in maths when I am solving tricky problems".
Measure it
All staff have an understanding of strengths and weaknesses of their class in relation to essential skills. Staff use this knowledge to highlight progress and inform next steps. When speaking to staff about this step, teachers felt that the designated staff meeting time provided meaningful opportunities to measure the progress made by their learners. Half termly staff meetings all provide the opportunity for staff to share examples of good practice, and to plan activities that can target not only the children in their class, but any individual weaknesses that a child might have. For example, Miss Rollin (Year 1/2 teacher) has used the Skills Stories as an intervention with a child in her class who has an individual action plan to address his behavioural needs. In addition, teachers have used the online training resources, such as the Inclusion Toolkit to strengthen their understanding of how the resources can be utilised with their learners.
Focus tightly
All staff are able to draw on insights from Principle 3 (Measure It) to pitch learning at the correct level. Staff use the 'favourites' tab to add resources to use during designated 'Skills Builder' time in their weekly timetable. The resources, including those used during lockdown when delivering a remote education, mean that staff feel equipped to build skills. The changing of timetables across the school means that staff are not only teaching skills discretely though curriculum lessons, such as creativity in English when writing a story, but are also able to teach the skills explicitly in stand alone Skills Builder lessons. This has helped to raise the profile of the essential skills across the school, and any Skills Builder work or tasks are recorded in the Foundation Topic exercise books.
Keep practising
By having both dedicated time to explore the essential skills and then regular reinforcement in other subject areas too, staff are able to ensure that children are given time to practice their essential skills. This has been particularly true during lockdown, where staff set a 'screen free Wednesday' challenge that focused on one (or more) of the essential skills. Staff also used the Home Learning Zone resources during lockdown, creating links with parents. Feedback was extremely positive and we saw high levels of engagement with these lessons. It was fantastic to see that the whole family was able to take part in these activities. During the last week of this term, staff have used afternoon lessons to focus on a whole class project so that they children have the opportunity to practice their skills, and reflect on their progress before moving to their new class. In September 2021, extra curricular clubs will be available again to all year groups to focus on the essential skills.
Bring it to life
In the Spring Term, the children in Key Stage 1 and Early Years / Foundation Stage took part in the 'Trash to Treasure' project. Children were able to work on their Speaking, Creativity and Leadership skills as they considered ways to product an environmentally project. At the start of the school year, we were supported by our Skills Builder Education Associate to run a whole school Science Day, with the resources in the Operation Moonbase project. 'Off timetable days' are very impactful- staff reported an improvement in behaviour and attitudes towards learning. Although COVID-19 restrictions have impacted on our school trips this year, our Year 6 pupils benefited from a Virtual Trip, where they were able to speak to employers and business leaders. The essential skills are also displayed on our 'aspirations display', where there is a photograph of every child with 'when I grow up, I want to be ____'. In addition, we have strong links in the community with our school church, St Paul's, and we use the essential skills to work with the wider community.
What's next
In the next academic year, we plan on continuing to reinforce the importance of the essential skills at St Paul's and in the wider community. Once COVID restrictions have been reduced, we aim to increase the opportunities for extra curricular Skills Builder learning. Teachers are committed to building skills into their extra-curricular programme so that the students can understand the importance of applying the skills in different contexts. We also aim to establish a Skills Builder School Council so that the pupil voice across the school is maximised; this will include the delivery of whole school assemblies and Celebration of Skills Assemblies. Skills Builder Home Learning resources will also be used as part of our homework, as feedback from parents suggests that this would increase levels of engagement with homework tasks.
West Midlands
United Kingdom