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We got involved in order to raise aspirations and engagement within our Foundation cohort of students studying Level 2 courses and resitting exams. It gave us the opportunity to offer additional lessons in key skills to add to their CV's and to promote confidence in life skills rather than focus on pure academic achievement. Being able to access training, networking and all the resources as well as provide data for monitoring was key to the success of the course. It ensured that this group are students had a full timetable and could complete independent study which we could monitor and assess.
Overall impact
It is has been an excellent way to introduce Skills Builder with the support of the team, being able to ask questions when I was confused about how to use all the platforms. Jessica has been supportive and always had the answers to my questions. I have also enjoyed and gained valuable knowledge from the networking events and training days when I was able to interact with other schools and colleges doing the same as I was.
Keep it simple
Posters were put up around the centre in open spaces. The posters were in key areas where students were taught and in the front of their classwork folders. The Universal Framework language was used at beginning of every lesson, so students understood what skill they were working on and how to progress through the skill steps. Skills builder was also introduced in assemblies and all careers meetings in centre. Data was used in parental meetings with an explanation of the skills builder values.
Start early, keep going
Skills Builder was introduced at beginning of term and has been used in every lesson alongside 'Barclays Life Skills'. Parental involvement has been used to support certain skills when the homework has been set. Assemblies have been run to introduce the 8 skills and to teach students what they mean in real life situations and moving forward, rather than a pure focus on sixth form education. Work experience was a key part of the skills course and students were asked to self-reflect and assess their own performance when they returned, this was then reviewed against the feedback from the businesses on individual performance for the week.
Measure it
Benchmark has been essential in analysing the data when students have completed the assessments either in class or as a homework exercise. The students logged in at the first session and watched videos and worked independently in some sessions, whilst all coming together for others. It was really useful to establish some clear differences in skill levels and to get students working together to support each other. Having access to visual customisable teacher charts was advantageous, particularly in the cohort I was teaching rather than more reports. It allowed us to show the class where we were and how they were progressing, which then allowed us to have individual conversations. Being able to see immediately whether students have loaded work and examples with the green/red was useful when time is limited to review accessibility to a course.
Focus tightly
We used the translation tool available for the Universal Framework to have interactions with parents so there was a full understanding across the cohort of the skills and the steps. The Hub gave access to short lessons which we could then expand with other resources. Launchpad was introduced very early so students could create their accounts and use it in lessons to work on progressing through the skills steps. It was important that the steps were fully explained as students were unsure at first about what 'Basic' was and how to get to 'Mastery'! I printed off the workbooks for students at end of each term to take home and complete.
Keep practising
Students were given a community led project, to use three skills, Creativity, Teamwork and Problem Solving, which as a group they decided to lead on. They designed, implemented and carried out community work which involved parent/carers and school. It was wonderful to see them come together and utilise each others strengths to achieve their goal and awards were given. An end of term celebration with awards and recognition was a great way to end the project. All students achieved different awards and were individual recognised.
Bring it to life
Work experience is key in this course, with a lot of preparation prior to going into the workplace, with practise of S&L skills. I also have invited in external speakers to allow students to see how the skills relate to companies, job market and life. Students had local colleges, LLoyds Bank, NHS and Apprenticeship providers coming into talk to them and have Q&A sessions, including talking about essential skills.
What's next
To continue using Skills Builder and to introduce into other subject areas so the Universal Framework language becomes part of every day life.
