St Paul's is a 1.5 form entry school in the heart of Goms Mill, Stoke-on-Trent. We currently have 253 children and we are proud to serve them, and the wider community. We are a welcoming Christian school where everyone is valued and given the opportunity to flourish. We show we care for ourselves and others by making good choices and encouraging others to do the same. We value the communities we are a part of and strive to serve them. All that we do and all that we are is embedded from The Early Years throughout the school and is underpinned by our Christian values: Compassion, Endurance and Friendship. In an attempt to raise the aspirations of our learners, we engaged with the Skills Builder Partnership to provide our children with essential life skills. We believe that "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world" (Nelson Mandela) and we firmly believe that our children have the potential to change the world. As a leadership team, we want to teach our students not just to cope, but to thrive. This is even more critical given the challenges facing a post COVID-19 world. Education at St Paul's is in part an investment in 'human capital'. By investing in our pupils' education, we hope that they will in turn, contribute to our wider community and economy.

The Accelerator programme has allowed staff at St Paul's to provide the children (and their families in our wider community) with opportunities to build the essential skills to thrive throughout their lives. We want our children to become valuable members of society and we are keen to invest in their education. The language around the eight essential skills is now firmly embedded. More importantly, the children value the skills and recognise them as a valuable part of their education. At St Paul's, we have a fortnightly focus skills so that children have regular opportunities to practise the skill. Once each skills have been taught, teachers chose a focus skill which has been identified as an area for development for the following two weeks, and then the cycle begins again. The Skills Builder Hub allows staff to assess and plan valuable teaching opportunities for their class, either discretely through wider curriculum topics, or explicitly during dedicated Skills Builder time that has been built in to our timetable from Early Years / Foundation Stage to Year 6. Examples of excellent lessons have been evident across the whole school, in a range of different subjects. For example, it has been wonderful to see the children in Early Years / Foundation Stage identify the skills icons in their continuous provision, or the engagement in thought-provoking Skills Builder lessons when listening to the Skills Stories. Other examples include using creativity skills in English when writing stories, leadership skills in Science when completing an investigation, or problem solving skills in History when sequencing events on a timeline. Another particular highlight can be seen when looking at our response to school closures during lockdown. The COVID crisis provided us with the opportunity to support parents and carers at home, as we used the Home Learning Zone to ensure that the children were able to continue with their Skills Builder learning. When remote learning tasks had a Skills Builder focus, we noticed higher levels of engagement and it was pleasing to see that siblings were able to work together on projects at home. Parental engagement was also high, with parents commenting on the importance of these lessons. Adults at home were impressed that their children were able to reflect on their learning. By scheduling time during staff meetings, all practitioners have time to explore the Hub, plan lessons, share excellent practise and champion the importance of Skills Builder. We have also added Skills Builder 'Dojo Points' so that the children can earn rewards when they demonstrate the use of one of the skills- parents are also notified when their children receive 'Skills Builder Points'. The children have benefited from challenge days and virtual trips; these sessions were hugely popular and impactful. We are extremely proud of the work that we have done so far and we are excited to see the impact that the children of St Paul's can have on the world as they continue on their learning journey at school, and beyond!

In the next academic year, we plan on continuing to reinforce the importance of the essential skills at St Paul's and in the wider community. Once COVID restrictions have been reduced, we aim to increase the opportunities for extra curricular Skills Builder learning. Teachers are committed to building skills into their extra-curricular programme so that the students can understand the importance of applying the skills in different contexts. We also aim to establish a Skills Builder School Council so that the pupil voice across the school is maximised; this will include the delivery of whole school assemblies and Celebration of Skills Assemblies. Skills Builder Home Learning resources will also be used as part of our homework, as feedback from parents suggests that this would increase levels of engagement with homework tasks.