Skills Builder Global

This content was written by

NCEA Castle School

Context

We were alerted to Skills builder by our LEP and it looked like a good way to help structure our careers curriculum and show progress across skills.

Overall impact

The overall impact has been very positive and has given the teachers focus on how to plan and enhance their careers program. Having a listener of the week certificate as part of assembly has helped students understand the skill and they have been trying hard to listen to instructions and trying to get a certificate. Lovely to see.

Keep it simple

There are skills builder displays around the secondary area of the school and in all the classrooms promoting the language of the essential skills. We have trialled Skills builder in Sixth form this year. We have focused on Speaking & Listening this year and have reiterated the use of language and symbols across the class and curriculum to increase students' familiarity and understanding. We have incorporated listening skills in to some of our assessment when doing a task. Also we have a Listener of the week when as well as a Learner of the week when acknowledging students work.

Start early, keep going

We have trialed with Sixth form students and some classes across secondary. Encouraging students to use the language across their planning.

Measure it

We have started to track using the Universal and expanded frameworks and looking at how we can use this to show progress and inform future planning.

Focus tightly

We have been engaging in focused and explicit teaching about listening and speaking in sixth form and why it is important and how we use it in all areas of life.

Keep practising

We have talked about speaking and listening in each lesson and what it means for each curriculum area. We have a section on monitoring/ evidence sheets of how the student has used the skill in a particular class.

Bring it to life

We do enterprise at our school and work experience and will being mapping out the skills into these areas and also hoping to do some projscts in the coming year.

What's next

Excited to continue to use Skills builder and make it an integral part of our school curriculum. I would like to aim for a silver medal next year.