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Treloar Trust offers outstanding teaching, learning, professional care, therapy, advice and guidance so that every individual can achieve and work towards a future that is as independent as possible. Treloar School and Treloar College offer specialist environments where learning takes place alongside therapy and care. Our students are physically disabled with complex needs. Mainstream schools and colleges cannot provide the support they need to achieve their goals. Our vision: a world where physically disabled young people take control of their lives and achieve their aspirations. Our mission is to enable physically disabled young people to achieve their aspirations by: providing personalised learning, therapy and care, supporting transition into adulthood, promoting independence and inclusion. We are inclusive. Everyone, regardless of physical ability, where they live or socioeconomic background, should have the opportunity to take part in life. We act with integrity and respect. Physically disabled young people should be free to direct their own lives. We listen to young people's views and support them to make age-appropriate choices about their daily life and informed choices about their future. We celebrate and promote diversity, value and support each other, and treat everyone with mutual respect. We support a culture of openness, honesty and transparency, where the safeguarding of our students and wellbeing of our staff is paramount. We strive for excellence. Physically disabled young people and their families deserve outstanding care and support. We work to make sure all our services are excellent and actively challenge each other to ensure continuous quality improvement. Skills Builder complements our academic offer and focusses or students on developing and recognising their strengths and essential skills.
Overall impact
Skills Builder has helped us to acknowledge and raise awareness of the essential skills. Students are able to recognise their strengths and how they are demonstrating the essential skills in everyday college life. As we reinforce the language of the essential skills and Universal Framework, students are able to see clearly how these skills transfer to the workplace, and life after Treloar's. Our celebration assembly each week is a highlight and students love to share the success of others. The Skills Builder Univeral Framework has supported staff to deliver focussed sessions that are helpful for students and enables them to progress.
Keep it simple
Skills Builder is outlined in our curriculum plan/overview for the benefit of students, parents and carers. Further information can be found on our college website and and in our policies, also available through our website. All our classrooms contain a Skills Builder display which promotes the language of the Universal Framework. Group and 1-2-1 sessions are delivered using the Hub and students work independently using Benchmark to progress their learning and deepen their understanding of the essential skills. Staff are provided with a 'Skills Builder Calendar' which maps out the 'focus' skills each half term and details when staff should deliver sessions, planning and preparation for staff is really reduced and engagement is high. We celebrate success in a weekly Skills Builder celebration assembly.
Start early, keep going
Skills Builder is delivered in each year of our college programme and really compliments our focus on vocational and employment skills. Skills Builder is delivered as an exclusive session during tutor time each week and allows students to become familiar with the essential skills, the Universal Framework and the common language used to express these skills. As students progress through the college programme, they are regularly exposed to the essential skills and the Universal Framework through projects and work experience.
Measure it
Staff and students provide weekly nominations for those who have demonstrated the essential skills well. All nominations are celebrated in our weekly Skills Builder assembly. All staff and students attend to share in the successes of others and award prizes for the best demonstrations of the essential skills. Staff use essential skills 'tokens' in lessons, therapies, and residential settings if they witness good demonstration of the essential skills. Students document their success with photos and these are uploaded to our target tracking system. We can then produce reports for students which show their achievements and recognise their application of the essential skills. Students and staff also assess essential skills via Benchmark; the monitoring and tracking of this is ongoing over the course of the academic year.
Focus tightly
Students complete self-assessments of the focus skills at the beginning of each half term. Staff also complete the same assessment for their classes. Using the reports/outcomes of these assessments, tutors are able to choose bespoke Hub resources to address the specific areas of development of groups and individuals. Students are able to work on identified activities using the weekly Benchmark tutorial session. At Treloar's we also focus on different skills each half term.
Keep practising
Students are given many opportunities to practise their essential skills through all areas of college life. The common essential skills language is embedded into the curriculum and all areas of academic study. Visual displays in all classrooms and the signs on classroom doors remind students that the essential skills are always a focus. Students access the Hub resources and Benchmark on a weekly basis. At Treloar, students access an extensive internal, external and virtual work experience programme and spend time in the community allowing them to practise their essential skills in unfamiliar situations.
Bring it to life
Students at Treloar are able to practise and use their essential skills in wider life on a daily basis. Our community skills and residential programmes encourage and challenge students to continually develop their essential skills. Our extensive internal, external and virtual work experience programme also complements this. Regular opportunities to meet and speak with employers is facilitated through our transition programme. Our weekly Skills Builder assembly celebrates the examples of students demonstrating the essential skills in their everyday college life.
What's next
We are expanding Skills Builder to include 2 additional classes from our Skills for Independence cohort due to the success of the 2 previous years embedding Skills Builder in our curriculum. We will continue to recognise achievement weekly. We intend to track the achievement of essential skills using Databridge, our management information system and produce reports/tracking documents to support student development.
