Skills Builder Global

This content was written by

ZŠ Cejkovicka

Context

Základní škola Čejkovická 10 in Brno is a modern school focused on an individual approach, a positive climate, and developing every pupil as a unique personality. The school’s key values are trust, collaboration, openness, responsibility, and a joy of learning. The educational process supports not only academic knowledge but also the development of essential skills, important for life in the 21st century.

Overall impact

Joining the Accelerator programme gave the school a unified language for skills development across year groups and subjects. Every month, we worked with pupils to discover a specific skill, which we introduced in a community circle, reflected on during activities, and then pupils "collected" it in the form of stickers for becoming aware of and applying it. The programme has had a positive effect on the classroom climate and pupils’ motivation, supporting teachers' targeted work with skills and enriching extracurricular activities too.

Keep it simple

Each skill was introduced simply, using one sentence, an icon, and a practical activity. For example, we broke down the skill of "listening" during a listening game, where pupils realised what it's like to be truly heard. This removed complexity and made the skills tangible and concrete for the children.

Start early, keep going

We started with the skills right in September and gradually dedicated time to them each month—regularly and systematically, both in lessons and in community circles and school events. Pupils had the chance to track their own progress using a classroom poster where they put stickers if they became aware of a skill.

Measure it

The visual form of the classroom poster, where pupils added stickers, served as a simple tool for tracking progress. In addition, there was regular self-reflection—pupils shared in the circle when they managed to use the skill and how they perceived it. Teachers tracked the change in the children's active approach to the skills and their behaviour in the group.

Focus tightly

Each month, we chose one specific skill that we worked through with an activity, a discussion, and examples from real life. An important principle was not just to introduce the skill, but to guide pupils to "become aware" of it—naming a specific situation where they used the skill or observed it in others.

Keep practising

We integrated the skills into various parts of our teaching—in projects, group work, games, and regular lessons. The repetition and application of the skill took place in different ways throughout the month, often during so-called "everyday" moments, for example, during mutual listening or when working together to tidy up the classroom.

Bring it to life

We actively applied the skills on trips, on induction courses, and in extracurricular activities. The grand finale was our garden party, where each station was based on an individual skill. This helped the children understand that what they were learning was meaningful outside of the classroom. At the end of the party, they received a commemorative bookmark with all eight skills.

What's next

We plan to continue the systematic development of essential skills across year groups and to further connect the Skills Builder methodology with real-life situations from daily school life. We would also like to integrate skills into school assessment, expand our collaboration with parents, and further develop visual elements such as skills passports, noticeboards, and worksheets. Our goal is for skills to become a natural part of pupils' learning and life.

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