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Whitworth Park Academy is an inclusive secondary school serving the community of Spennymoor and surrounding villages. At Whitworth Park, we want all our students to become responsible citizens who are respectful of the environment and keen to play an active role in the global community. We believe that perseverance, imagination, creativity and effective teamwork can be combined to enable all students to access fulfilling careers in the long term. At Whitworth Park we value honesty; hard work; success; inclusiveness; good examination results; self-belief; self-discipline; taking responsibility and respect for everyone. These values have helped us create a vision for the school, which is one, that: is truly student-centred, places learning and teaching at its heart, has the highest expectations of its students, ensures its students are safe and secure and has an atmosphere of mutual support and respect This year we have had a whole school focus on embedding the essential skills throughout all aspects of school life. This has ensured that the language of essential skills is being used across the whole school and students are being given a wide range of opportunities to develop these skills and use them in different settings. This has been highly successful and students have been rewarded each half term for demonstrating excellent use of the skills.
Overall impact
The Skills Builder Accelerator programme has been successful at Whitworth Park Academy as we have been able to quickly embed the essential skills into all aspects of school life. A highlight has been the students progress in the development of the essential skills and then being recognised for that in their celebration assemblies.
Keep it simple
We have embedded the essential skills into all aspects of school life; in tutor time, curriculum, extra-curricular activities, Inspire Days and celebration assemblies. The essential skills are displayed across the school, in all classrooms and the corridors around the school. Teachers have found that this raises awareness of the skills and their importance. The teaching of essential skills has been integrated into the tutor time programme, where staff deliver skills lessons each Thursday. Teachers use short activities and videos from the Skills Builder Hub. In lessons staff refer to the essential skills that students will be working on and developing in the lesson.
Start early, keep going
The essential skills are taught across all year groups within the school and students have different opportunities throughout each year to apply the different skills in different activities, lessons, and events. To involve parents and ensure students are transferring the skills and applying them to life outside of school. We set Skills Builder challenges for students to do at home with their family during holidays. Families who complete the activities receive a prize.
Measure it
All teachers at Whitworth Park Academy are familiar with the eight essential skills and the steps in the Universal Framework and are confident in assessing their students against these and using this to inform their teaching. Tutors use the Skills Builder Hub and deliver weekly skills lessons. Tutors focus on different skills depending on the need of their tutor group. Each half term staff identify students who have excelled in an essential skill and students are rewarded in their rewards assembly. This information is shared with parents each half term in a personal development bulletin.
Focus tightly
At Whitworth Park we explicitly teach the essential skills as part of our tutor time programme each week. In lessons staff identify which skills are being taught in the lesson and focus on different skills depending on the needs of the students in the class. The essential skills are identified through schemes of learning so lessons link to different skills. Inspire days and extra-curricular activities all link to the development of different skills.
Keep practising
At Whitworth Park Academy we have a comprehensive extra-curricular programme which is committed to building the essential skills, so students can understand the importance of the skills and how they are useful in many different contexts. This includes debating, music, computing, sports, crafts, journalism, Duke of Edinburgh and more.
Bring it to life
We have an Inspire day each half term where all students are off timetable taking part in different activities. This is a brilliant opportunity for students to apply the essential skills they have been developing. Our students also take part in mock interviews, work experience, competition, challenges, and enterprise events where they apply different essential skills which demonstrates the importance of each skill.
What's next
Whitworth Park Academy plans to continue with the programme we have put in place across the school to develop essential skills in all areas.
