St Mary's Star Skills
This year, we are working the Skills Builder Partnership to develop eight essential skills which go beyond use just in the classroom - our Star Skills! These skills are vital in everyday life, and need developing particularly in preparation for life after primary school.
They are:
| Listening: | This skill is about being able to receive information effectively. |
| Speaking: | This skill is about orally communicating ideas or information. |
| Problem Solving: | This skill is about using your ability to find a solution to a problem. |
| Creativity: | This skill is about generating new imagination and using your ideas. |
| Staying Positive: | This skill is about staying motivated despite setbacks. |
| Aiming High: | This skill is about trying hard and achieving your goal. |
| Leadership: | This skill is about supporting, encouraging, and developing others to achieve a shared goal. |
| Teamwork: | This skill is about co-operating and collaborating with others and achieving a shared goal. |
The skill icons are up in all the learning areas of the school (differentiated depending on the age of the children in the class) and as a school community, we are looking out for the children using these in different contexts. Each child has their name up in the classroom and if an adult, or another child, spots them using a skill, they will move their name onto that skill to celebrate it. During class assemblies, the children will be challenged to consider which skill they haven't been on that week and aim to focus on ones they are not as confident in.
The Skills Builder website has a lot of brilliant resources for parents to use at home, too, and we'd encourage you to spend some time on their website, looking at what they do: www.skillsbuilder.org/parents-and-carers
Each week, one child from each class will be chosen to receive a Star Skill certificate and this will be shared in celebration assembly on a Friday, before coming home to celebrate it with their families.
The 6 Bs
At St Mary's, we want to give children the tools to become independent learners and help them to rely less on the adults in their classrooms, and more on themselves and their friends. The 6 Bs are strategies that the children can use before automatically asking an adult for help. By keeping calm, using their previous learning, their environment and their peers, children learn how to be independent and become more confident in their own ability to solve problems. The 6 Bs are also linked with our belief that having a growth mindset will help the children to achieve much more than they might think they are capable of!
