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We exist to help every student take the steps they need to take to progress along their individual pathway towards Further Education, employment and independent adult life.
Overall impact
Having an external employeers come into the school, who perform mock interviews with our students an a year basis, The feedback we had was the best to date. Students where able to hightlight strength and weakness, but more importantly they where able to explain what steps they have achieved and give working examples of how they had achieved this.
Keep it simple
Development of essential skills forms part of strategic planning and policy development at Maplewell. Essential skills are a clear focus and priority in annual reviews, EHCP policies and assessment policies. The language of the essential skills also features in subject markbooks. The eight skills have been split across the terms, and assemblies are used to launch the specific focus for the term. Communication takes place with parents on a regular basis, via newsletters and Weduc.
Start early, keep going
All year groups and classes have regular and planned opportunities for the learning and practising of essential skills. We have also shared the Skills Builder Homezone website on our ClassDojo platform to ensure that students of all ages and abilities have the opportunity to build their essential skills at home.
Measure it
All teachers regularly use formative assessment to prioritise and inform the teaching of essential skills. This takes place using the Skills Builder Hub after the delivery of a session. We use Hub reports to monitor this across the school, and we use this data to inform next steps/close any gaps in learning. Personal Booklets are also used to set individual targets against the framework, informing Annual Reviews and EHCP targets.
Focus tightly
All teachers engage in focused and explicit teaching of essential skills. We have used flexible support as part of our accelerator+ programme to ensure that all staff have been trained and are familiar with the language of essential skills. LSAs to use Personal Booklets during curriculum lessons and the Inclusive Learning Resource Pack from the Hub to support EHCP time, once a week. This is reflected on timetables and planning documents, and staff use certificates from the Hub to reward students for progress made against the steps on the Universal Framework.
Keep practising
Our rich curriculum takes account of prior learning and experiences and helps pupils to develop the full range of knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes. We provide pupils with opportunities for discussion, debate, exploration of ideas, independent responses to new material, individual research and development of their own lines of enquiry. This is all underpinned by the language of the eight essential skills. All staff provide regular opportunities for students to practise essential skills in the wider curriculum, crossing into different subject areas. Skills have been linked to topic pages to ensure that students have an opportunity to practise the essential skills. After school clubs, such as debate club and journalism clubs run at lunch time, encouraging students to use their essential skills.
Bring it to life
At Maplewell, we make provision for all students to have experiences to apply essential skills. Essential skill icons on lanyards for visitors or information leaflet to support links to external visitors and organisations. We have also explore the World of Work modules, and are incorporating these resources into our provision to provide students with an opportunity to bring the skills to life. After School Clubs at Maplewell have been designed to provide students with an extension to their learning opportunities and to develop their peer relationships. The range of activities promotes a healthy lifestyle and the development of the eight essential skills. These clubs are available to all students.
What's next
We have been a journey on the Skill builder programme working thought Bronze, Sliver and Hopefully Gold. We are very ambitions and looking to achieve Flagship status.
