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Windy Arbor Primary School is a large primary school that caters for children from Nursery to Year 6 and includes an Autistic Resource Centre. The Skills Builder Framework allows children to leave Windy Arbor Primary School with a solid foundation of skills necessary to empower them in the wider society such as speaking, listening, teamwork, creativity and staying positive. The eight Skills Builder skills act as a foundation for learning which equips and empowers children. It allows them to have access to wider opportunities with trips, projects and Challenge Days. Our school vision, "to equip and empower everyone so that they can make a positive contribution to society and be the best version of themselves." is reflected within the 8 essential skills. We want every child to make progress and recognise that this is beyond academic progress. We got involved in Skills Builder as it supports our vision and provided a framework to achieve this. Skills Builder has given us a language for life long learning and success.
Overall impact
Teachers are equipped with a language for learning that enables our children to thrive and continue to once they leave our school. The programme has developed pupil's ability to recognise their strengths and areas to work on. Aiming High has become such a key part of every lesson when children are faced with challenges they want to work hard to achieve their goal and remind each other regularly to do this, building resilience in our children has been a highlight. We share the children's Skills Builder targets with parents and it opens up another avenue for discussion. The virtual trips, despite a technical issue, have been highly successful with children being inspired to make changes to the world around them.
Keep it simple
In all lessons, the relevant essential skills and next steps are referred to and children are reminded of the target skill they have chosen to develop during the term. This has allowed the children to connect with each skill regularly, where the teacher and adults use the language for each essential skill consistently. In addition to this practice, each classroom, from Nursery through to Year 6, has a visual display of the essential skills icons; the children's name is under their target skill they have chosen. Teachers add notes about how children have demonstrated particular skills. This allows children to constantly refer to them and learn from each other. Parents and children are reminded through our website and directed to the new weekly Skills Builder challenges on Homezone to practise and apply skills.
Start early, keep going
All pupils from Nursery to Year 6 are taught the 8 essential skills and they are embedded throughout our day to day life and developed in our curriculum planning. The essential skills are shared with new parents through our Nursery and Reception Prospectus. The children also have their own individualised skill targets where they can choose to develop a particular skill, discuss how they are going to do this and what it will look like with their class teacher. The 8 essential skills are fundamental to the children's learning and inter-woven into our day to day life at Windy Arbor. They are embedded into our planning, policies and school development plan. Parents are involved by sharing the weekly Skills Builder challenges to try at home and the class teachers discuss with them about their child's chosen target skill during parent meetings. Our newsletter and website are regularly changed which show parents the skills children will have been practising and developing in particular lesson.
Measure it
The Skills Builder Hub assessment tools for each skill are used before each term and before beginning a Challenge Day. This captures progress throughout the year and informs the teachers on the steps to target during the upcoming Challenge Day. The teachers will also discuss with the children about their target skill each term to allow the children to reflect and teachers to help them develop the skill they have chosen. The children will consider how they may have improved in that skill and what strategies they have learned to help them develop and be successful. Staff regularly refer to the step posters and skill icons that are displayed in every classroom so children can understand how the lesson can help them develop a skill. During after school provision leaders point out skills that are essential in order to take part and be successful. In Girl Power, for example, the leader asks the group to reflect and nominate a girl who has made the most progress in a focus skill.
Focus tightly
Skills are explicitly taught and developed in regular 'thought of the day' sessions, They are also shown in our planning where skills are embedded throughout particular lessons. For example in a Year 2 Arithmetic lesson where the children were working through a range of problems they were encouraged to use Teamwork and Problem Solving skills throughout the lesson. During the recent strike action we focused on Creativity for a day across school as this was a skill that needed developing. The children across school were able to reflect on their creative skills and ways to develop them, by creating a piece of Picasso inspired art work. Children are given regular chances to build on their target skill and all essential skills during lessons, assemblies, Challenge Days and extra-curricular activities.
Keep practising
Our school curriculum gives opportunities to develop and practise the 8 essential skills throughout the school day and even before and after. Teachers verbally refer to the skills in all lessons, activities, assemblies and on the playground so the children can use them and see them in action. When visitors visit our school, they use our essential skills to allow the children to see how the outside world and future careers use and value the essential skills. This makes the skills relevant to the children's lives and future. Children have the opportunity to use skills throughout their time at Windy Arbor, they are praised and rewarded for showing and developing the skills. This can be in curriculum lessons, during Challenge Days, Virtual Trips, Projects, after school clubs, breakfast clubs and residentials, as well as events that happen throughout the year, e.g. sports day, performances to parents and workshops.
Bring it to life
The children have lots of opportunities to see the essential skills in wider life, for example Reception have visitors in school like musicians, vicar, firemen, policemen and the mayor who all reference the skills with the children. Our Challenge Days and Virtual Trips provided by Skills Builder allow the children to practice and develop the skills with activities that are closely matched to wider life in the community or in their future careers. Some of our opportunities like Egyptian day, a Severn Trent workshop, Bike-ability, Windy?s Got Talent, athletics, football and spelling events allow the children to see and use the eight essential skills, especially when they are competing - they like to demonstrate Teamwork, Aiming High and Problem Solve!
What's next
We want to further develop links to future career choices by holding a careers day to make links to opportunities within the community and wider world. We want to become an example of good practice and share our experiences more widely within our network of skills and become a Skills Builder flagship school. Developing a Skills Builder councillor to support the monitoring of the essential skills within school.
