Stories from Accelerator: South East England

February 28, 2022

Applications for the Accelerator are now open. Find out more and apply here, and read on for some great stories from the programme...

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‍Our work in South East England

Over the last few years, there’s been some brilliant progress happening in schools and colleges in South East England, where we work with more than 50 Primaries, Secondaries, Special Schools and Colleges.

High quality programmes that provide opportunities to boost students’ essential skills are recognised by Skills Builder Awards. Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards are given to those modelling best practice in essential skills education by embedding our six principles:

In 2021, 302 schools and colleges achieved an Award across the UK. 90 of these chose to submit a Case Study. You can explore the full Case Study Showcase here, but here are just a few highlights…

Chorleywood Primary School are an outstanding primary school who are committed to the development of the whole child.

“We wanted to equip our pupils with all the skills, mental health and well-being strategies and academic skills and knowledge to succeed and excel in life. The Skills Builder approach has really become embedded in school life. Teachers are much more confident to incorporate the essential skills in lessons and pupils are responding well and are now identifying their successes and the successes of their peers. It has really developed into a whole school approach.”

The Academy Selsey is a small secondary serving the Manhood Peninsula in West Sussex. The school is 20% of students are eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) with some acute poverty mixed in with a population who are financially comfortable but self made rather than university educated.

‍“We noticed a real lack of understanding about opportunities but also the type of skills required to be successful. The Skills Builder programme identified 'Teamwork, Aiming High, Staying Positive' as a starting point. The impact has been huge. We have already seen Year 11 students comment on revisiting essential skills at their 'pre-college' futures interviews. Staff understand the skills, as they use simple, tangible language which can be related to all parts of the curriculum. The CPD for all aspects of Skills Builder is well informed and directed appropriately. From a senior leader's perspective, this has allowed us to approach our external partners with confidence.”

Thomas Bennett Community College is an academy within The Kemnal Academy Trust. The school has a specialised unit for a small number of pupils with autism spectrum disorder. Around 40% of pupils are eligible for the pupil premium grant.

“CEIAG has been developed over the past 5 years with specific extra-curricular inputs but the Accelerator programme gave us the chance to identify and embed essential skills into the 'taught' subject curriculum and enable students and staff to see the importance of these skills, and to also show the connection and transferability of what was being done in class to what students would need to develop for their future success beyond exam grades. I think that making the staff aware of the implicit and explicit links between the essential skills and the work they are doing in their day-to-day classroom learning experiences has been really valuable.”

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About Accelerator

Skills Builder Accelerator is our flagship programme for schools and colleges. We work together with you to develop and implement a complete strategy for teaching essential skills in your institution, including training, support, tools, and resources, resulting in real impact for your students.

Interested? Find out more here, where you can download our prospectus. You can also check your eligibility to apply for a funded programme place here.

Programme places are limited and will be allocated in three rounds.