Having been a long time advocate of the teaching and learning of the essential skills, it made complete sense to make explicit the opportunities to develop these with our Education and Childcare students in the first instance at Solihull College and University Centre.
The Accelerator has provided staff and students on our Education and Childcare courses with a good introduction to the importance of and transferability of the essential skills. It is recognised these skills are the skills which make learning, relationships and work placements more successful. Highlights have included students self reflections on their own skill development with individuals reporting, for example, greater confidence when sharing ideas in their own lessons or when communicating to colleagues and parents out on placement, when asking for help from their tutors and also when sharing story books with early years children out on work placements in nurseries and schools. Students have also noted their teamwork skills have improved and they recognise strategies they can use to stay positive and problem solve when facing a challenge or a set back. Some students have adopted the mantra of 'aiming high' noting it has been used in assignment feedback to challenge them to expand their answers and demonstrate the greater depth of their learning and knowledge. Our board games exhibition as a culmination of our Number Games project was another highlight. Students were keen to share the creative maths based games they had designed and made for 2 - 5 year old children in line with the early years foundation stage curriculum requirements. A further highlight has been the willingness of the staff team to incorporate more explicit skills based teaching and learning opportunities into their planning and lesson delivery and the championing of the essential skills by our Head of School, who is keen, as we all are, to meet the needs of our local employer partners whilst providing our students with the skills they need for success and to enhance their well being.
We promote the essential skills are relevant to all of us, whatever age or stage of life we are at, when studying, at home and out in the workplace with links made to our taught curriculum and our personal and professional development programmes from the outset in our induction period and throughout the year. Students out on placement in early years settings and schools have opportunities to observe others using their essential skills in the workplace, to use and develop their own skills and also to support children with the early steps of learning the skills by planning, preparing and facilitating activities with children.
We have registered as an Accelerator+ partner 2024-25, with another member of our Education and Childcare team undertaking the Skills Leader Training, as we seek to disseminate knowledge and understanding of the Skills Builder programme wider amongst the staff. We are currently planning a programme of skills based activities for our students during the induction period in early September, which will incorporate the launch of our first project based learning experience of the year for students. Weekly focussed skill sessions will continue, with a new scheme of work in train for these sessions. This will be shared with staff ahead of the start of the academic year. All staff are on course to make skill development opportunities explicit within all courses curriculum schemes of work. The year ahead will be about consistency in our positive approach to the teaching and learning of the essential skills, ensuring they are embedded front and centre of our Education and Childcare courses.
