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The Skegness Academy is situated on the East Coast in Lincolnshire in an area of high deprivation, seasonal and temporary employment with over 50% of pupils attracting the Pupil Premium funding. This is SKA's third year of working with Skills Builder. It supports our wider participation agenda and helps our students to become equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to make them employable.
Overall impact
We like the consistency of using the programme across our Academy, being a large academy (over 1000 students) it means that we can incorporate the principles across our entire curriculum and PD offer and know that all our students are getting the same level of experience and expose to careers education. We use elements of the online platform in planning and delivery and we hope to be able to make this a priority for next year.
Keep it simple
Regular CPD sessions with teaching and support staff to drive the agenda from classrooms and embed it across the curriculum and all year groups to ensure all students get the same consistent approach from careers. This year, we have introduced a One Page Summary of the vision and ethos of Skills Builder including the language, terminology and essential skills. This is given to all external stakeholders who come into the Academy to present to students, whether that be an assembly, work insight day or employability workshop. We have continued to embed Skills Builder into our Praise agenda and through our Behaviour management programme, ClassCharts. There are buttons which award points for the essential skills and this is tracked/monitored by the Careers Lead. There is a weekly slot in the tutor programme for tutors to deliver high quality careers education, we use the Skills Builder programme as the foundation for this.
Start early, keep going
Parents are informed via letter of the partnership with Skills Builder and we post on our social media when careers interactions take place. Students follow a carefully planned tutor programme (1 session a week) whereby they build and develop their skills through their educational journey. The package is also tailored to that age/year group, for example, in Year 10 we start to look at transition and Post 16 options. The SEND Department have been using the resources as part of their interventions and have personalised the content to be beneficial to pupils with additional and advanced special needs.
Measure it
Regular QA by the Careers Lead and the SLT Link for Careers (Deputy Principal). CPD is monitored through feedback on MS Forms. As part of the whole school T&L focus, careers and employability is referenced and scrutinised. All faculties complete an annual appraisal of careers in their curriculum and identify priorities for the following year.
Focus tightly
We have a strong careers in the curriculum programme whereby Schemes of Learning have reference to careers. Through Student/Staff Voice and Lesson Observations, careers is scrutinised. In Short/Medium/Long Term planning, there has been a requirement for leaders to include reference to the Essential Skills and where/how they are linking them to their individual curriculum. The annual audit will also quality assure this. Where we have new or inexperienced staff, they are provided bespoke support through either mentoring from other Heads of Faculty for from the Careers Lead. Each Faculty has a Careers Champion so we have apply a joined up and consistent approach to careers education at SKA.
Keep practising
All year groups have a calendar of annual events to ensure they get regular, purposeful and meaningful interactions with careers education. SKA is fully compliant to the Baker Clause also. In Clubs and other Extra Curricular Activities, students have experience of careers education/Skills Builder referenced as part of the activity. We also hold regular work insight opportunities for all year groups. For 2022/23, we have incorporated the Crime Scene Investigation day, applying principles from the Skills Builder programme. This will be carried out with Year 7 and we have members of the Police Force coming in to support the day.
Bring it to life
Through assemblies, work insight days and through the regular opportunities for linking careers in the curriculum. See information in Principle 5 about the CSI day. In KS4, there are opportunities for students to attend different work places and educational institutions such as Micronclean and Boston College.
What's next
For the academic year 2023/24, we plan to make better use of the online platform to support our strategic planning of careers education at SKA. We also plan to further emebed the excellent practice we currently have with the careers in the curriculum programme and share the excellent practice observed across our academy. It is a strong area of PD and we will use the successes we have had through Skills Builder to support other areas of the Academy through high quality personal development. We plan to use the Skills Builder Benchmark as part of our quality assurance processes and promote more reflection from students, staff and also careers leaders at SKA. This will enable us to have a more accurate picture of careers education at SKA and focus our areas for development more closely which in turn, will improve further our overall offer.
