Skills Builder Global

This content was written by

Mid Calder Primary School

Context

The school's catchment area consists of the village of Mid Calder, both the conservation village itself and the housing estates to the west of the village. The school is housed in a main building, built in 1977 and refurbished in June 2004. The grounds consist of hard and grassed areas, a small landscaped garden and our "Wild Connections" school woodland. Our school badge with the Latin "Spero Meliora" to hope for better things creates a very positive vison within our school; all members of our learning community support and lead each other and themselves to be successful, optimistic and adventurous with their learning while being respectful to themselves, their environment and their Community. We aim to prepare all our young people for their future. Our learning environment aims to stimulate, challenge, support and provide opportunities to develop life skills. Using the Skills Builder programme we hoped would give us a way to identify essential skills, use a common language and give a consistent approach.

Overall impact

We have a common language around the essential skills. Clear icons are used consistently throughout the school in classrooms, corridors on displays, and during assemblies. Planning documents have changed to reflect skills. Teachers feel confident teaching the skills knowing they have the resources, support, advice, and guidance on hand if needed. A real highlight for me has been how well the staff has embraced this. I feel it has always been a bit of the curriculum that has been missing.- this helps formalise it and gives a structure and a way of tracking that has never been possible before.

Keep it simple

Through whole staff training, we as a staff embraced the icons and language across the school. The language was used consistently whenever skills were talked about. We were able to refer children to the icons and common language. Teachers dipped in and out of the resources testing aspects of it with the students where appropriate within our own lessons. Assemblies with the whole school made reference to the skills and icons too as well as Parental newsletters. Building the four Capacities of a Curriculum for Excellence - to develop successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens places a huge emphasis on skills development. The Skills Builder structure, simple language and steps through each skill gave us a foundation to start from and build upon. Clear links with our developing young workforce programme added real value with children linking the need for skills in all types of careers.

Start early, keep going

As a whole school we looked at focusing specifically on two skills over a number of several weeks. All other skills were not forgotten about, it was just that the 2 we looked at were our focus for development and tracking.This meant that we were able to cover all skills across the whole year in a systematic way. We had two open events for Parents. These events focused on two different skills each time through different contexts. One was a Scots language event where we focused on Speaking and Listening, The other was a STEM and Art event where we focused on Problem solving and Creativity. Children talked to their parents about their learning and how the skills had been incorporated throughout. This was from P1-P7.

Measure it

Staff piloted the use of the Hub baselines. This gave a good starting point within each class. Pupil voice and staff surveys have been completed. Both show evidence that pupils know the skills and how they are learning them. Feedback from our learners tells us that pupils are more aware of the 8 skills form Skills Builder and their importance not only while in school but also beyond. Feedback from parents and school partnerships has also been positive.

Focus tightly

Skills Builder has given us the opportunity to formalise when we talk about skills. Staff now plan for opportunities within the curriculum to highlight and teach skills where appropriate. There are natural opportunities that are now more focused. Staff use the skills builder resources to support. There has been a natural development in planning where staff are now adding skills to their lessons. Going forward we will need to look at mechanisms of how we track this and ensure we are covering all skills across the year and year groups. The majority of staff also allocated time each week to explicitly teach a skill. This really helped when children came across it again during other lessons and could refer to what it might look like. We have also used our whole school Assemblies to remind and revisit skills. Our Achievement awards that reflect our Values and efforts in school are now also beginning to incorporate skills recognition too.

Keep practising

Staff used the Skills Builder projects and challenge days. These were very well received by both staff and children. It gave a real context to develop and practise skills. Our Literacy and Numeracy planning documents have been adapted to allow for skills planning too. There are various annual events that we include the children in being part of. The organisation and running of them, ideas and setup have always been projects for teams of pupils. These events now have the essential skills built into them too. This has really helped children see the connection of skills in real-life scenarios and context. Staff have been able to reflect, evaluate, and feedback during discussions after the events about the skills with the pupils.

Bring it to life

The introduction of the 'Homezone' has given the opportunity for parents and carers to engage with the skills at a family/home level, connecting the language and skills talked about in school with activities at home and beyond. During our Young Engineer Award, we invite STEM-related careers into school. It has always been the case that they talk about the skills they need. Having developed the Skills Builder skills, children can relate to these in a more formalised way as well as relate their own skills experiences in school to that of others. We have also had success with the Skills Builder Q&A sessions with some of our older children. This has given them new exposure to other careers and opportunities and how the essential skills relate to different careers. We are now looking to support some of our Partners with delivering the essential skills too. Our recent Netball club has worked on incorporating the skills.

What's next

We would like to build on momentum. Continue to use and develop more consistency with staff. Look at what steps should be targeted where. Provide more real-life contexts for developing skills.

Scotland

United Kingdom