Next week, our ethos theme is: ‘We can work well with a partner or in a group’. The soft skills of teamwork and collaboration will be vital in the future workplace which is why one of our Froebelian Flyers is ‘Collaborative Colin’. The World Economic Forum has published a list of the ten skills which will be needed in workplaces of the future as part of its report, The Future of Jobs (link here). The skills can be condensed into four key areas: critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration. These are the skills that robots and artificial intelligence still can’t do as well as humans.

The WEF believes: ‘Deeper learning takes places when adults debate, discuss and learn from each other and share their knowledge and experiences. This is sometimes referred to as ‘social learning’. Embedding group-based learning into the fundamental architecture of education is essential to encouraging sharing behaviours. Sharing and working in groups develops communication and collaboration skills.’

The ability to communicate, co-operate and compromise takes time to develop in young children so we try to create opportunities every day for them to practice and develop their collaborative skills in their learning and in their play. Teamwork divides the tasks and multiplies the success!