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Manor Academy is a Special Needs secondary school and we got involved with the Skills Builder Accelerator project because we wanted to arm our pupils with the best chance of gaining employment post education.
Overall impact
Students and staff are beginning to embrace the embedding of Skills Builder within their day to day curriculum and wider afield. The staff and students particularly enjoy the Challenge Days and I know that the engagement with the projects is really good by both students and staff.
Keep it simple
We are now starting to embed the essential skills into our curriculum and all classrooms have a Skills Builder display. We also crash the timetable termly for Skills Builder Challenge Days.
Start early, keep going
Aside from all age groups being involved in the Skills Builder Challenge Days, KS3 are taught the essential skills in Work Skills lessons, KS4 are involved in the Skills Builder projects and in KS5 the pupils have an actual Skills Builder lesson. Unfortunately, parent involvement is in its infancy.
Measure it
We use the Framework to see how our pupils are progressing and we use Skills Builder feedback sheets to see how the pupils have progressed during the Skills Builder Challenge Days. This has provided us with an insight into how each pupil is progressing but we need to do further work on assessing the actual progression.
Focus tightly
Each pupil is given regular opportunities to build their essential skills through lessons and the curriculum. There are displays in each classroom and teachers / teaching assistants have completed relevant training to understand careers and Skills Builder.
Keep practising
Students are given chances to practise their essential skills through projects, Challenge Days and extra curricular opportunities like trips / residentials. Students take part in a variety of vocational subjects and have the chance to take part in projects like the Duke of Edinburgh scheme and School Production.
Bring it to life
We always emphasise to students that these are the essential skills that employers are after in the real world. We try to use real life challenges and projects to bring the essential skills to life and we are in the process of working with employers. We invite professionals in from the world of work to talk to the students about their jobs. If they can't attend in person, they will often video call the pupils instead. For those who are old enough and capable of accessing, we arrange work experience placements in roles that may suit and interest them.
What's next
Further embedding of Skills Builder into the curriculum of all subjects and further staff training for even further engagement.
