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At Hungerford Primary School we are proud of all of our pupils’ talents and achievements. We believe that each child is special and unique and we expect them to achieve to their fullest individual potential, both in their learning and behaviour, regardless of ability. We take pride in the nurturing of every pupil and having a positive learning environment, to provide both support and challenge to all of our children.
Our school is a two form entry primary school with an integrated nursery and strong links to local children’s centres. We are dedicated to providing the best possible education for pupils in a safe and stimulating environment. We follow a literacy rich curriculum which links arts, science and humanities subjects through engaging, meaningful themes and project based learning.
Essential skills drive our projects and the knowledge we want children to have by the time they leave us. We attempted a success skills focus a few years back but we found the steps were not small enough for all children to make progress so I am very excited that we found Skills Builder.
Overall impact
The accelerator programme has had an impact on me. It’s helped me embed Listening and Speaking as explicit skills in my Project Based Learning. Teachers have found their expectations are clearer when they are asking for good speaking and good listening. Children have enjoyed understanding the skills of listening and learning. They were starting to understand the processes involved and it is something that they can focus on and do. Parents are clearer on using the language we have been by doing this will be have it better embedded has time goes on.
On trips, many facilitators have always commented on how our children learn is very clear and strong. Their listening and speaking has been noted and complimented on across the year groups.
Keep it simple
At Hungerford, for the "Keep it simple" principle, we launched the programme through a whole-school assembly on the Listening skill. We rolled it out to teachers and students first, as we wanted the students to initially inform their parents about it. This was part of our soft launch in the Autumn term, followed by a full launch in January.
In terms of rewards, we added the skills to our house token system, using the specific language of the steps for targeted praise. Our school council worked with the Skills Leader in assemblies, giving out tokens when students showed progress in Speaking and Listening skill steps.
To ensure strategic awareness, we kept our governors up to date with the progress of the programme and we engaged parents and carers through activities sent home. Additionally, we made our partner schools aware of our programme through the existing peer review system.
For visual displays, our Year 6 students created and displayed posters about the Listening skill around the school.
Start early, keep going
The programme is embedded across the entire school. We have adopted a whole-school approach, ensuring that all year groups and classes have regular opportunities for learning and practising essential skills. To meet the specific needs of all our learners, we have implemented a tailored focus within our ASD provision, utilising the Expanded Framework to support our students.
Measure it
We use Skills Passports for the individual assessment of our children, allowing us to capture clear evidence of progress. These passports are shared amongst staff to ensure everyone is aware of individual student targets. This year, we have a particular focus on assessing the Listening and Speaking skills, and teachers will be tracking and monitoring the impact across all year groups using these passports.
To ensure our assessment methods are appropriate for all, we use supported peer and self-assessments with our older students. Furthermore, we have used our teacher training to link Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) targets directly to the skill steps, which allows for highly focused measurement of progress. This approach is reinforced by our teaching assistants, who consistently use the skills language to assess progress within small intervention groups.
Focus tightly
Dedicating specific time for explicit teaching is how we "Focussed tightly" on skill development at Hungerford. We used a 30-minute slot each week during circle time to explicitly teach the skills using stories and other targeted resources. Our teachers found this gave an improved focus to these sessions. To ensure the skills were well embedded and understood, our initial focus was on Listening with the focus shifting to Speaking during the later part of the year.
Keep practising
For the "Keep practising" principle at Hungerford, we ensured there were regular opportunities for students to reinforce their skills across the wider curriculum.
All of our mainstream classes actively referenced the skill definitions and steps for Listening. In our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), we embedded this by referencing the skills when giving instructions to the children. We also use project-based learning, where we aim to reference the focus skill and support students in being able to articulate their learning.
Beyond the classroom, Speaking and Listening skills were given an explicit focus in extra reading and grammar tuition sessions. Our teacher training, which explored linking EHCP targets to skill steps, was vital in ensuring these skills could be referenced and practised curriculum-wide for all of our learners.
Bring it to life
Our school visits are the core of this. For instance, our Year 6 students went to the British Museum and focused on how their Listening skills were important to get the most from the visit. Similarly, our Year 1 and 2 students visited the National Archive with a specific focus on using their Listening skills for retention. A visit related to the Windrush generation provided an opportunity for students to practise questioning and articulating what they had learnt.
We also worked with external partners to embed the skills language outside the classroom. During our whole-school Bikeability sessions, we gave a particular focus to Listening skills, especially when interacting with unknown adults. To support this, the Skills Leader shared the Framework with the instructors so they could use the same consistent language with the students.
In addition, Year 6 completed a social responsibility carousel day which had a focus on Listening skills. From this, we reflected that in future events of this kind, we could get students to ask visitors about how they use essential skills in their own roles, further deepening the connection to the world of work.
What's next
We will start the autumn term by introducing listening and speaking again in our remembering assembly and teachers will carry out the carpet sessions again. We hope that it will be embedded deeply and that we will see an improvement in speaking and listening across the curriculum. In Spring, we will introduce problem solving in spring term and aiming high in the summer term.
