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Tanica McDonald from Trinity Primary Academy
Trinity is a thriving Primary Academy situated in Wood Green, North London. The school is committed to doing everything it can to ensure that young people are able to, in the future, compete on the world stage with the skills, confidence and flair to generate new ideas, new initiatives and thereby make a full contribution to tomorrow's world.
How do they use the Skills Builder Framework?
To ensure the skills remains a focus, they have been used to create classroom and whole school displays.
In the classroom, a skill for the week is highlighted by the teachers and support staff. Throughout all lessons, both adults and pupils often refer to the skill, identifying when, where and how the skill was used. From this a pupil from each class is acknowledged for their excellent achievement and is celebrated in a whole school assembly as the 'Skill Star of the Week', where the pupil gets to add their name to the whole school display.
What's been the impact of using the Framework?
As a result of using the Skills Builder Framework, pupils can explicitly identify the skills needed when facing any challenge and can apply them well.
For staff, it is an excellent tool in helping to identify any gaps - not just for individuals but as a cohort too. In doing so, they are able to create challenges that purposely use a range of specific skills to develop them further. At other times, staff ask pupils to play a specific role within a group/team, challenging their ability and current understanding.
How do they plan to use the Framework in the future?
Moving forward, they have linked specific skills to their School Improvement Plan to ensure that the variety of skills are embedded throughout the school and the curriculum. They will continue to use the learner descriptors within lessons and for planning to ensure that at each stage our pupils are developing life long skills that will serve them well now and in the future.
Our pupils have developed a deeper understanding of what makes them a team player and how to cooperate well, ensuring that all members are made to feel valued.
By sharing the learner descriptors with the pupils, they were able to assess their own starting points and track their development clearly, supporting one another on ways they could improve with little support from staff.
The Skills Builder Framework is an excellent tool to remind the pupils, adults and parents of key skills that are required in the wider community today.