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We are an alternative provision school based in Barking and Dagenham, east London. We provide full-time education and support from Years 7 to 11 (reception to Year 11 via our Access to Education Service - formerly the Home Tuition Service) for 11- to 16-year-olds who have had difficulties with their learning and behaviour in mainstream school. Some students are with us for a few months, others throughout their secondary schooling. At Mayesbrook Park School, we aim to give all our students the necessary skills to move forward successfully into the next phase of their lives be that reintegration into mainstream school, further education or employment. Through our balanced curriculum, personalised support and enrichment activities, we encourage students to engage with their studies. Through our team of skilled teachers and learning support staff, we help reduce their barriers to learning. And through our high expectations, we challenge our students to succeed. Skills Builder allows us to focus our students on a specific skillset and actually apply their essential skills.
Overall impact
I feel this year we have really been able to pull the whole programme together and the students have seen the connection between the different subjects and the esssential skills.
Keep it simple
We have replaced our old reward monitoring system with using the specific Skills Builder category tickets. If anyone gets all eight, they are then put into an additional draw. Each member of SLT also has their own area of responsibility from the eight essential skills and they all hold their own keyring which is on display on their school keys.
Start early, keep going
The Skills Builder programme is accessed by all year groups and all classes have regular, planned opportunities for the learning and practising of the key skills. This happens consistently across the school, and its regularly monitored by the Skills Builder Leaders and wider members of the Senior Leadership Team.
Measure it
We have used a variety of techniques to measure progress in the skills, including providing the ladders from the Skills Builder Framework in every classroom. Staff were provided with the individual tickets representing each of the key skills, which staff could then give to the students when they were demonstrating that they have achieved a particular step. Students were then responsible for ensuring the ticket goes to the safe space for counting and then we tally them up and the tickets are pulled at the end of half term in a raffle draw. We also use the Skills Builder Hub as a way of measuring progress against the eight essential skills.
Focus tightly
Students have dedicated Skills Builder slots weekly in order to achieve progress within the essential skills. This repeated format with dedicated skills for specific subjects has really changed the way in which students are now able to focus soley on the skills and are repeating the format enough to be able to recognise and now apply the skills.
Keep practising
Following on from focus tightly, the students then go on a weekly reward trip which reflects the eight essential skills. This allows them to fully apply their skills to external experiences as well as seeing what it is like to be taught by someone else - especially given the nature of our students in alternative provision, who are not used to being in larger settings, by listening and following instruction from others who they may not be confident with. Students also have the opportunity to practise their essential skills in wider curriculum areas, as subject teachers provide links to the skills within their lessons.
Bring it to life
We bring it to life with a combination of everything that we do. By having Skills Builder quite literally embedded in every single lesson, it has allowed each student to fully recognise the benefits and essential skill terminology, widen their own vocabulary and apply the skills in many aspects of their everyday life.
What's next
We plan for next year to increase the engagement even more and have each subject completing aspects like the workbook where we have seen real progress in PE, and in art where they have been creating physical projects with the techniques learnt.
