Our learners understand the skills they are developing

PUPIL COMMENTS 

All pupils are able to discuss the skills that they are developing in their learning. (Friday 5 feedback)

Our learning, teaching and assessment approaches support the development of skills for learning, life and work. Within Braes High we have a developed framework of skills and pupils are encouraged to track their progress in these areas. The development of these skills should be made explicit in the learning and teaching process, through linking to the Learning Intentions/Success Criteria and Feedback. This allows young people to make links in their learning.

Examples of Effective Practice

• Skills are made explicit in the learning and teaching

• Learners can recognise, reflect on and apply skills in their learning across curricular areas

• Skills are explicitly linked to skills for learning, life and work

Throughout the BGE experience, pupils are encouraged to review their skills development as part of the PSE program.  

Gen+

We recognise that there is an established skills framework which was built for allowing our young people to recognise their strengths across the school. With the change in landscape, and recognising the change in skills required for learning, life and work, we have taken the opportunity to implement a new skills framework, using the platform Gen+.

Designed for learners aged 9-14, the Gen+ programme combines digital with in-person learning for an engaging, interactive experience.

The vision is to equip and inspire the next generation through a comprehensive, digitally-led, meta-skills programme, so they have the tools, skills and confidence to learn, lead, and thrive in the 21st Century.

This will form part of the S3 profile completed by all pupils and adds to the already positive work being undertaken by pupils and staff in this area. 

National guidance makes it explicit that every practitioner should seek opportunities to develop and track a young person’s literacy and numeracy skills across all areas and levels of learning: reflecting how vital these skills are for success in learning and in providing foundations for lifelong learning.

Literacy holds a central place in the curriculum, as it underpins all learning. It is important for staff and pupils to be able to recognise literacy across the curriculum in order to build pupil confidence - so that each pupil can articulate their ideas in any arena in order to serve them in their academic, professional and personal lives beyond their time at Braes.

Numeracy is a key area of Curriculum for Excellence. It provides learners with essential analytic, problem-solving, and decision-making skills involving numbers which are a prerequisite for learning in other areas of the curriculum – particularly in the Science, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, which are of key importance for our future economic prosperity. 

Literacy and Numeracy are key skills at the heart of unlocking the Broad General Education (BGE) curriculum.  There is a working team in place which is focusing focus solely on the monitoring and tracking of literacy and numeracy levels across all curricular areas. Alongside other English and mathematics specialists within the team, comprehensive use of the literacy and numeracy benchmarks and Falkirk Council’s progression pathways are being used to support colleagues to make informed judgements about literacy and numeracy skills within their curricular area. By sharing this good practice, the team are helping to deeply embed literacy and numeracy across learning whilst also contributing to improvements in attainment. This collaborative approach should strengthen pupil experience by allowing them to understand the transferable nature of the skills they are learning - a vision shared and contributed to by all.  Creating conditions for new opportunities to build transferable skills, learners are deepening their knowledge and understanding that these are transferable skills allowing for new learning to take place. 

To establish a clear overview of how our young people are performing across the curriculum, literacy and numeracy is being tracked in some measure by all subjects.  This further data is reflective of a learner's whole school experience and is leading to improvements for an individual's progress and achievement.  It is also allowing early targeted interventions where appropriate to support learner's further in their learning.    

Working collegiately, substantial progress has been made developing learners' ability to use literacy and numeracy skills as staff are committed to raising the standards of literacy and numeracy and understand this is a responsibility for all. Current progress has been achieved in the process of tracking literacy and numeracy across all curricular areas to allow learners to become more confident and understand the transferable nature of their skills.     

During assessment of skills, establishing next steps in learning should be carefully considered, assessing should take place at appropriate stages as well as all practitioners being confident in their ability to teach the essential skills of literacy and numeracy. Moderation across different subject areas is underway and will be a focus to strengthen upon as we move into the next academic session. 

Learners should take ownership of their learning and unlock the importance of how literacy and numeracy feeds directly into other curricular areas. Learners should naturally see the links of these skills in all curricular areas allowing for deeper progression in their learning.  

‘Health and well-being (HWB) is fundamental to the overall success of all our pupils at Braes High School. Curriculum for Excellence gives a new focus to Health and Wellbeing as a Responsibility of all practitioners to support and develop pupil wellbeing. All staff have responsibility for the welfare of young people in their care, and to use learning and teaching methodologies which promote effective learning. At Braes our pupils are at the centre of everything that we do, and pupils experience a wide range of challenging and exciting learning experiences that contribute to their mental, emotional, physical and social wellbeing – particularly in Physical Education, Home Economics and PSE. These subjects are vital in supporting pupils to learn and develop valuable and transferrable skills that will be vital for life, the world of work and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

We also have a range of health and wellbeing supports and initiatives that support our Learning and Teaching, including our Onwards and Upwards programme; HWB referral system; our HWB website Braes Brightside; the Flourish programme and many more to ensure we are ‘Getting It Right for Every Child’. We have also have achieved our Rights Respecting School Gold award and this is embedded within our school community to ensure pupils’ voices are heard and achievements celebrated. These initiatives and support, along with all of our staff, ensure pupils consistently experience a safe, nurturing and inclusive environment that recongnises success and develops skills and knowledge that promote a healthy lifestyle throughout their school career and beyond.’