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We were keen to get involved in Skills Builder Accelerator as we felt it would be a positive way to improve both learning of the curriculum but also give our students the necessary skills needed to be successful in whatever career paths they chose.
Overall impact
I have seen how the programme has helped our students enjoy and understand the process of learning new skills and seeing their relevance to their progress. I have seem one group in particular develop their team work skills significantly after several sessions of explicit essential skills training.
Keep it simple
We have had a successful year with the skills builder programme and our aim is to build further on this. Our Keystage 3 cohort has been a key focus, students are now accustomed to having specific Skills Builder sessions which are fun engaging lessons built explicitly around students doing sessions aimed at gaining essential skills. We have also worked on getting the whole school involved in Skills Builder as every teacher is required to mention an essential skill when they give the learning objective. This is so the staff become more familiar with the essential skills and it becomes more embedded into the school ethos. With the split between religious lessons in the morning and secular lessons in the afternoon the Skills Builder programme offers an important way to bridge the two curriculums.
Start early, keep going
Students are now accustomed to having specific Skills Builder sessions which are fun engaging lessons built explicitly around students doing sessions aimed at gaining Essential skills. They also use Benchmark and Launchpad in computer lessons during the year to self assess their developing skills.
Measure it
Students use Benchmark in computer lessons during the year to self assess their skills. In the summer terms teachers delivering skills builder sessions also assess how students are developing their essential skills.
Focus tightly
Students are given explicit Skills Builder sessions on Friday afternoon. These are fun interactive sessions built around developing essential skills through direct instruction and collaborative learning. Students also use Launchpad in computer lessons.
Keep practising
Teachers embed essential skills into the curriculum by making reference to different essential skills when sharing the lesson objective with the class in lessons. As well as being explicit during the lesson about skills are being practised.
Bring it to life
Students have different careers talks though out the year where visitors from different backgrounds talk about their careers and link them to essential skills. Skills are also highlighted in school trips and pupils reflect on them.
What's next
We will continue to work on embedding skills builder into our schemes of work so that they can be a core part of the school's ethos.
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