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We have got involved with Skills Builder because we believe that the development of these essential skills will give our students the best chances of success in regard to their future career pathways. The school is based in Newham East London and has 1650 pupils on role. Co-educational. The school serves a diverse community. The school is a larger-than-average secondary school. A much higher-than-average proportion of the students are eligible for the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for students known to be eligible for free school meals, Most students are from minority ethnic backgrounds: the main groups are African, Bangladeshi and Any Other White. The proportions of disabled students and those with special educational needs who are supported at school action and those at school action plus with a statement of special educational need are much higher than average. Well over half of the students speak English as an additional language. Many of these are fluent English speakers, with a small proportion in the early stages of learning to speak English.
Overall impact
For teachers it has enabled them to identify priority essential skills and help them to be able to teach them. For this reason it has been a great source of professional development for them. They have been able to draw links with the essential skill and their own subject lessons so it has helped to them to identify transferable skills. For pupils, it has helped them to understand the essential skills and identify the meaning of each. The fact that they are able to access these lessons each week means that they are able to really develop these skills. The Challenge Day activity was incredibly useful because it was fun, interesting and gave them the opportunity to develop these key skills. For the parents, it has been beneficial because it has also helped them to understand the key essential skills that employers are looking for. This information can help them to support their child to practice these skills in order to develop them further. The wider community as a whole are very impressed with the work we are doing with Skills Builder. They know that the young people are getting the chance to opportunities which they themselves never did at school. All can see the benefit's that his programme will have for the futures of our young people.
Keep it simple
We have a included Skill Builder short lessons from the Hub into the pastoral curriculum. Every child Year 7 - 10 accesses these once a week in form time. We have rewards and certificates linked to pupils making good progress in these sessions, and we issue these in assemblies. We have had staff training twice this year on how to embed in the pastoral and subject curriculum. We have completed a Skills Builder Challenge Day also (Start up success). Through our newsletters we are able to share information with pupils, parents and staff.
Start early, keep going
Every child Year 7 - 10 accesses these once a week in form time. Form tutors know how to choose the right step level to pitch the session appropriately for their pupils because they have been trained and use the class-level assessment tool on Skills Builder Hub. Parents are kept fully updated with our Skills Builder programme.
Measure it
We get feedback from staff concerning pupil progress. This is really useful because it allows us to adapt, refine and modify the instructions to tutors to ensure that all pupils are able to make progress. I also use the Hub report I am sent to assess the progress scores of each class to measure the progress being made.
Focus tightly
Our Skills Builder programme is part of careers programme. From Year 7 - 10 there are opportunities for all pupils to practise these essential skills and record them on platforms like unifrog (which also uses the Skills Builder approach). Pupils are taught Short Lessons from the Hub each week as part of careers form time programme. All tutors have access to the Hub and they take pupils through the lesson each week.
Keep practising
Pupils are able to practice their essential skills through taking part in opportunities like career insight trips and visits, mentoring opportunities with established business, and work experience. All pupils have a access to a high quality extra curricular programme which help to develop essential skills. Subject leads have been able to incorporate the the essential within the curriculum. We have run a Skills Builder Challenge Day this year which enabled our young people to develop and demonstrate a range of essential skills.
Bring it to life
Through mentoring, our pupils work with business people. We have worked with Ciena software company and 15 billion. We have a number of career insight trips and visits. E.G The HM treasury office delivered workshops to each tutor group in Year 9. Year 11 pupils accessed a careers fair which representatives from leading business were able to share an insight into their organisations. Pupils in Years 9 and 10 complete work experience and reflect on their essential skills through the lens of 'employabilty'
What's next
For staff, the next steps will be to appoint Skill Builder champions within departments who can work in collaboration with other departments to share good practice and formulate ideas about how to incorporate it even further into schemes of work. Cross-curricular links can be also establish so that teachers can make pupils aware how the content and skills will relate to other subject For pupils, we can appoint Skill Builder ambassadors and their role will be to provide pupil voice and feedback on their experience of learning the essential skills within both the pastoral and subject curriculum. These pupils will also be responsible for maintaining its profile among the school and can contribute to assemblies and displays as well as have a stand at parents evening and share with parents the impact of the programme.
