Al-Kawthar School has strategically committed to developing the whole child through the Skills Builder Accelerator. This year, the school integrated emotional and value-based learning, rethinking teaching, assessment, and student support. This case study aligns with the six Skills Builder Accelerator principles: universality, explicit teaching, application opportunities, reflective assessment, parent/community engagement, and sustained progress. These principles were expanded through systematized planning, affective integration, and a collaborative culture, transforming challenges into growth opportunities. Al-Kawthar School in Beirut, Lebanon, fosters a passion for learning from preschool through graduation, equipping students with knowledge, essential skills, and personal qualities for lifelong opportunities, university, and work. After two years of integrating the Skills Builder program with the British Council’s core skills, the school, as a Flagship Skills Builder School, focused on helping teachers understand the program and systematically building student skills. Al-Kawthar serves as a model for the Al-Mabarrat network, with all schools aiming to join the Partnership by the end of 2025.
Our core team participated in an Al-Mabarrat network meeting, sharing Skills Builder experiences and guiding new schools on implementation, reinforcing our leadership and collective momentum. To maintain the Flagship award, we refined our plan, focusing on one specific skill per cycle for teaching, reinforcement, and assessment. The assessment strategy emphasized analysis for intervention, using pre-assessments to identify skill-specific needs, such as "Staying Positive" in Cycle One. Despite a two-month war disruption, teachers accelerated implementation due to their deep program understanding and professional growth. Weekly core committee meetings, with unchanged membership, demonstrated stability and commitment, launching new skills and themes to enhance engagement. Dynamic communication through social media highlighted skill integration, inspiring broader community engagement. Parents actively reinforced life skills at home, guided by school resources and PTA engagement, ensuring a unified approach to student development.
This year, our school adopted Universal Framework 2.0, featuring updated skill names and redesigned icons prominently displayed throughout classrooms and common areas, making the framework more accessible and engaging. We continued integrating skill-focused displays, often co-created by students and teachers, illustrating key steps for each skill. Students and parents enthusiastically collaborated after our vision-setting meeting, embracing life skills' importance, with many activities stemming from Home Zone. We provided systematized, high-quality lesson plans, uniform across cycles and modeled by experienced teachers, accelerating novice teacher onboarding and ensuring consistent implementation. Recognition of growth was a highlight, with awards celebrating academic achievement and attitude improvement, demonstrating the tangible impact of skill development.
Amidst national challenges, teachers became increasingly autonomous with the Skills Builder Hub, supported by experienced educators. Regular administrative and unit meetings emphasized the program’s importance, ensuring continuity. This academic year, we strategically focused on one core skill per cycle for in-depth teaching and engagement, while reinforcing others. Students aged 4 to 17 engaged with the designated skill, ensuring comprehensive, age-appropriate development. Many teachers required minimal mentoring, demonstrating growing confidence and autonomy in adapting materials. Veteran teachers excelled in crafting lesson plans, implementation, and assessment, enriching student outcomes and fostering a unified approach. Collaborative planning continued, but the shift to teacher-led exploration highlighted educators as confident Skills Builder leaders.
Our assessment strategy focused on analysis for intervention. We conducted two types of assessments: knowledge and skill development. Each cycle tailored its approach to interpreting pre-assessment data for precise instruction. In Cycle 2, Step 4 in Listening was identified as needing remediation, leading to a revised post-war instructional timeline with intervention periods. This year, the assessment integrated an effective approach, capturing emotional awareness, self-regulation, empathy, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Teachers observed attitudes, emotional responses, and social interactions, alongside cognitive and behavioral indicators, using reflective journals and feedback for a holistic view. To promote positive thinking (Staying Positive), we structured student development using Krathwohl’s five affective domain levels. Students progressed from Receiving (listening to stories of optimism) to Responding (participating in discussions and role-playing positive reframing). They then moved to Valuing (expressing belief in positive thinking), Organization (aligning optimism with other values like patience and empathy), and finally Characterization by a Value Complex (consistently displaying positivity as a character trait). This structured application allowed precise assessment and support for emotional and value-based growth, reinforcing holistic student development.
This year, we refined last year's inclusive plan to meet evolving priorities and learner needs. The core committee designed a comprehensive timetable for teaching, assessing, and intervening, focusing on one main skill per cycle for deeper implementation and tracking. Following May knowledge assessments, intervention periods were embedded for timely support and instructional adjustments, ensuring no student lagged, especially post-war. The plan maintained its inclusive foundation by distributing skill responsibilities across subjects and cycles, providing flexible activities for consistency and creativity. An updated observation checklist aligned with this year's approach, monitoring practices and providing feedback. The stability of this year's structure provides a strong foundation for next year's planning.
Indoor and outdoor activities increasingly showcased essential skill application, including celebrations, class projects, debates, exhibitions, and sports festivals, demonstrating communication, teamwork, creativity, and resilience. The launching day introduced life skills through interactive workshops, demonstrations, and exhibitions, setting the tone for skill development. Subsequent exhibitions and sports festivals reinforced skills: art for creativity, sports for teamwork, math and science for creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving, and speaking and listening evident everywhere.
Our school community embraced diverse celebrations across all grade levels. Kindergarten held a "Skills Festival" with customs, music, scripts, and character portrayals. Cycle 1 celebrated "Staying Positive" through class and community performances. Cycle 2 invited parents to a Labor Day celebration, showcasing essential skills in occupations, and Grade four students brought Sports Day to life with games reflecting life skills. Cycle 3 and secondary levels used outdoor activities like community service projects and Math/Science exhibitions to apply communication, leadership, creativity, and critical thinking in real-world contexts. The Spring Festival culminated these efforts, with students participating in contests reflecting essential skills, attended by the Al-Mabarrat community, amplifying our commitment to making skills visible and celebrated. This summer, we will integrate the Skills Builder program into summer activities through project-based learning, applying core skills and effective competencies.
Building on this year's foundation, next year's plan will expand cross-cycle collaboration through interdisciplinary projects and peer mentoring. With teachers demonstrating high autonomy and students embracing skill integration, the next step is to enhance student leadership, including more active roles for student councils, advanced affective assessments, and deeper community involvement. We aim to scale up successful activities like performance tasks and exhibitions to network-wide initiatives, positioning Al-Kawthar as a flagship model for holistic, skills-based education across the Al-Mabarrat network. Official assessment tests for Listening, Speaking, and Problem Solving in KG3, Grades 6, 7, and 8 showed 80% of students achieved 90% or higher proficiency in knowledge. Next year, targeted interventions will ensure 100% of students achieve full knowledge mastery across all 8 steps of each tested skill, guided by assessment insights.
