Beyond the classroom
Traditional teaching is no longer enough to prepare students for the 21st Century. They need to develop the ability to analyze, synthesize, and apply what they’ve learned to solve problems, design solutions, and communicate effectively. To be prepared for the 21st-century workforce, students need to be able to quickly understand new technologies, processes, and concepts that likely did not exist just a few years, or even months, earlier.
We believe these are the key skills:
Communication
The ability to listen, write and speak effectively to present and exchange information and ideas in a creative, clear and concise manner.
Teamwork
The ability to build team engagement, collaborate, share knowledge and explain ideas to others whilst recognising your own and others’ creativity.
Thinking / Problem solving
The ability to collect and examine information, think critically and creatively, and analyse situations to generate solutions to problems and make informed skillful decisions
Initiative
The ability to take initiatives, evaluate and calculate risks, and do more than is required in the pursuit of successful outcomes whilst understanding
Organisation
The ability to effectively manage tasks, plan and prioritise actions within a time schedule and set smart goals whilst using creativity to enhance the outcomes of tasks.
Resilience
The ability to persist when facing setbacks whilst adjusting to pressure and creatively adapting to different/varying circumstances.
Confidence
The self-motivation and ability to generate and retain strong self-belief in personal skills, capabilities, and likelihood of success.
Creativity
The use of imagination or original ideas both independently and collaboratively to create something; whilst being willing to see every creation as something that can be improved
Financial Capability
The ability to analyse financial information, manage money well, and make informed decisions to plan for the future.
Technology
The ability to use technology in a proficient and confident manner, as well as being adaptable to an ever-changing digital world, responsibly accessing and sharing information to encourage a broader depth of communication
Learning
Learning is about wanting to understand new things and being able to pick them up quickly. Being able to take on new tasks and to adapt when the way things are done in the workplace change. The skill to extract information from a variety of sources and apply it in the most effective way in a given situation
How do we do this at BSS?
1. Youth Effectiveness Training (YET)
- To become aware of their important needs
- To make and keep friends
- To tune in to others
- To overcome fears that block them
- To resolve conflicts instead of arguing and fighting
- To relate to people who are different from them
2. Habits of Mind (16 problem solving life-related skills)
- Persisting
- Managing Impulsivity
- Listening with Understanding and Empathy
- Thinking Flexibly
- Thinking about Thinking (Metacognition)
- Striving for Accuracy
- Questioning and Posing Problems
- Applying Past Knowledge to New Situations
- Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision
- Gathering Data through All Senses
- Creating, Imagining, Innovating
- Responding with Wonderment and Awe
- Taking Responsible Risks
- Finding Humour
- Thinking Interdependently
- Remaining Open to Continuous Learning
3. KEYS TO SUCCESS (The core of our school linked to the IB Learner Profile)
- Balance (Managing impulsivity and thinking interdependently)
- Open-mindedness (Thinking flexibly)
- Communicating (Communicating with clarity and precision)
- Knowledge (Gathering data through all senses and applying past knowledge)
- Inquiry (Questioning and Responding with wonderment and awe)
- Risk-taking (Persistence and taking responsible risks)
- Care (Listening with empathy and thinking interdependently)
- Thinking (Striving for Accuracy & Creating, Imagining & Innovating)
- Principles (Metacognition)
- Reflection (Remaining Open to Continuous Learning & Metacognition)
4. TBL SCHOOL (ROBERT SWARTZ)
- Creative thinking - Generating original ideas; Expressing ideas
- Clarifying ideas - Thinking about the parts of a whole; Comparing and contrasting; Sequencing; Ranking
- Complex thinking - Decision making; Problem-solving
- Critical thinking - Judging the reliability of sources; Making reliable predictions; Finding what caused something to happen
