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The Gosport and Fareham Multi Academy Trust (GFM) comprises of two large secondary schools, two primaries and one special school on the south coast of the UK. Our trust of schools educated over 80% of Gosport's students. At the GFM we pride not only our academic success, but also our strong personal development framework. We have not only embedded Skills Builder into our personal development framework but also our curriculum.
Overall impact
The impact has been that students know their 8 essential skills (Gosport Futures) and lots of students can articulate how to develop their Gosport Future. It has been a real highlight seeing how teachers have taken the framework and applied it to their lessons and adapted them so we truly have a whole school approach to the essential skills.
Keep it simple
Across our secondary phase we have embedded Skills Builder across our curriculum and schools. We have firstly branded Skills Builder into our own Gosport & Fareham Futures so the language is universal across our secondary schools. The Gosport Future branding can be seen in every classroom, workspace and most corridors. The branding is then evident across lessons and on slides and presentations. The branding can be seen so students can link their curriculum knowledge to the skills. We also have the branding on our social media pages, websites and it even goes home on reports so parents are also familiar with the branding and language. Our Gosport Futures are also woven into our awards, trips, clubs and societies and positive points. By weaving the Skills Builder language into our every day working, we have given then a strong value.
Start early, keep going
Our essential skills are built into our curriculum, tutor time, clubs and societies, awards evening and more. Our current review of lessons show that Gosport Futures are mentioned and implicitly linked in most lessons. We then have lessons where the skills are explicitly linked so that students can see how what they are learning in Geography or English for example, either uses the skills or how the skills supports their learning.
Measure it
As a school we have a Google Sheet with all the steps from the essential skill framework that has been turned into report statements so that staff can take the comments and apply them in their lessons and to their reports (for example using he/she/they/their). Parents have been involved via reports and awards. Each term a Gosport Future strength and area for development is reported home to parents so they can discuss with their child the progress they are making in the 8 essential skills.
Focus tightly
Students are given regular opportunities to build their skills across the curriculum. With the majority of subjects demonstrating the logos so all students can see what essential skill they can develop today. The very best examples are then when our subjects have used the essentially skill language so students can directly see which skill they are developing and how that links to the topics. Our assembly programme also uses the essential skills. Each week the assemblies take one skill as a focus and the topic is then linked to the essential skill language. This is then carried on into our tutor programme where we have used the tutor programme to deliver some of the videos and free resources from the Skills Builder Hub.
Keep practising
In a recent year 7 residential trip to the New Forest, students were given the chance to link the challenges on the trip (canoeing and High ropes for example) to the 8 essential skills and in particular their aiming high and staying positive skills. In the evenings of the trip, students were given time to reflect on the skills and how they had developed them over the course of the trip. Our clubs and societies are all linked to the essential skills and as a minimum students can see which Gosport Future they will be using in the club. Our very best examples of clubs are where the students can see explicitly which essential skill they are developing and then use the language from Skills Builder to develop this.
Bring it to life
We have used over the last year our challenge projects during a summer school for transition. We also have also trialled this year a dedicated SOW called World of Work for year 7 & 8 where the skills are implicitly linked. Students in year 10 also have the opportunity to complete work experience either in school or out of school.
What's next
Following on from this year we would like to ensure that all lessons and departments, including A level, are consistent with the use of the essential skills so that every single student at the GFM has the same experience. We would also like our Gosport Futures to be a part of our teaching and learning. We would also like to tie together our careers team with Skills Builder more and hopefully use more of the resources Skills Builder have.
