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We are a Key Stage 3 Pupil Referral Unit (soon to be KS4 too) for young people experiencing social, emotional, and mental health; in addition, we offer support and guidance for those presenting challenging behaviour in their current educational setting. The Braybrook Centre offer early interventions to those who are at risk of exclusion and cater for those who have been permanently excluded from mainstream education. As a short-term provision, our primary focus is to reintegrate young people into a permanent education provision. Our core values are based around: Support, Trust, Achieve and Respect. We work in partnership with mainstream schools, academies and other organisations to ensure the needs of our young people are met. So, to borrow from Skills Builder itself, for our students in particular these essential skills unlock learning in our classrooms, boost academic outcomes, perseverance and self belief.
Overall impact
It has been a real eye opener for some of our students in terms of how important these essential skills are and not just their academic achievements at the end of KS4. Staff have genuinely enjoyed delivering all aspects of these skills, as we do not prescribe the 'how' they should do it, but they fully understand and support the 'why' these essential skills are a real priority for our young people.
Keep it simple
Every classroom has a set of the skills builder posters, proudly on display and we also have our main skills builder display prominently outside of our SLT office. This main skills builder display identifies which skill we are currently focusing on and students are often given skills builder stickers in their exercise books, across a whole range of cross-curricular subjects, when they are demonstrating that skill in their learning. In addition, a student from every form group is awarded a skills builder celebration certificate on a weekly basis during our celebration assembly. Skills achievement points have also been added to SIMS, so students can now receive achievement points for each essential skill. Medium-term planning for all subjects references essential skills. We recently ran a very successful parents' afternoon and introduced parents and carers to the essential skills. This has helped us to create a consistent language and awareness of essential skills.
Start early, keep going
We have exposed all of our students to the essential skills through dedicated skills builder times and also within all other subject lessons. Recently, we carried out a successful parents afternoon where we informed parents of our skills builder drive and the change we aim to make the lives of our young people with the support of skills builder.
Measure it
Teachers are tracking students' progress against the skills in their day-to-day teaching and with the use of assessment on the skills builder hub website. Staff have the freedom to use passports, workbooks, assemblies, lessons and all of the other resources (as well as their own) that the skills builder website provides in order to enhance the skill set of all of their students. We have collated full termly snapshots of where each student is at so that we have a reference point to show where and how much our students have grown.
Focus tightly
We provide every student in our centre with a minimum daily dose of dedicated skills builder lesson time. These happen daily between 9.00-9.20am and on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday are often extended by additional 40 minutes (maximum). Staff are accessing the great range of resources available including short lessons, skill stories, workshops, workbooks and self-assessment resources.
Keep practising
Schemes of work now have a strand of skills builder explicitly running through them. Teachers are confident referencing the essential skills in curriculum lessons, and use stickers to reward students who display these in lessons. Where before we were growing and so practising a different skill on a weekly basis, we are now diving deeper in to each skill with a bi-weekly focus. Assemblies always demonstrate how the key focus links to skills builder; for example, most recently, how resilience links to staying positive. Every Wednesday and Friday our students participate in a range of extracurricular activities, from caving to hairdressing to rock climbing. We explicitly brief the instructors on the focus skill, and they encourage students to reflect on how they have used this skill during the session.
Bring it to life
Preparing for adulthood lessons are a key factor in driving how the essential skills can enhance your success in the world of work. We also weave the key skills through career fairs, visits to places of employment, visitors to our centre and through the wide variety of enrichment opportunities we provide our students with. These include music studios, climbing centres and boxing gyms etc. Staff lead discussions of essential skills during trips, and we also encourage external speakers to talk about their own essential skills.
What's next
We will continue with our current format in terms of delivery, but as we merge and grow in to a full (short-stop) secondary provider (KS3 & KS4) our main focus is to upskill ALL staff in the delivery, it's importance and the benefits of skills builder for all.
