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The Oaks Academy is an 11-16 school, situated in the former grammar school, in a pleasant area of traditional housing in the southwestern part of Crewe. The Oaks Academy was graded 'Good' at its most recent Ofsted Inspection in April 2024, which was the first time in the school's history. In September 2020, The Oaks Academy became part of The Learning Alliance, now The Learning Partnership. We are committed to making the Oaks the school of choice for our local community. Our examination results last summer demonstrate the rapid rate of success the school is making, with GCSE results now a third of a grade higher than in previous years. We are now routinely oversubscribed, with over 50% more pupils on roll compared with 3 years ago and first choice applications for year 7 up by 25% for September 2024. Attendance is consistently above national and Cheshire East averages, indicating our pupils are happy and want to attend school. We provide for pupils of all abilities and differing backgrounds. We are committed to providing an aspirational, challenging, and supportive environment where each pupil is expected to aim for the highest standard in all aspects of school life and beyond. We work in partnership with pupils, parents and carers to improve outcomes, but we are equally passionate about the personal and social development of pupils outside of the classroom and encourage pupils to take part in a range of extra-curricular programmes and opportunities to develop as lifelong learners.
Overall impact
Skills Builder has provided a universal language for staff and pupils when discussing essential skills for life. The skills are used to complement our existing Personal Development programme through facilitation of form time sessions and assemblies utilising the resources on the hub. Form tutors use the resources and have reported improvement in the use of the skills and increased confidence from pupils using them throughout the year. The pupils are positive about the form time activities and see the value of them in building skills outside of the whole school curriculum. Staff are encouraged to use the skills in lessons and share best practice in staff briefings to develop consistent practice across the school.
Keep it simple
We have included Skills Builder short lessons from the Hub into the form time programme. Using form time, we are able to plan for half termly sessions linked to the identified skills for development. To complement the skills-based form time programme we led a 'drop down' Personal Development day which was linked to the Skills Builder Universal Framework. Assembly themes are linked to the 8 essential skills to ensure regular exposure to the skills in a variety of contexts. Parents are kept informed via the parent newsletters. The whole school rewards system has been amended to reflect the 8 skills. Pupils are rewarded with achievement points when they demonstrate a particular skill in lesson time, and this is reinforced through the awarding of certificates in our half termly celebration assembly.
Start early, keep going
Pupils in year 7-10 are explicitly taught the Skills Builder lessons using the short lessons from the Hub. In line with our whole school approach to the teaching of Personal Development, we have adopted a no writing policy. Staff facilitate pupil discussions through the use of interactive white board tasks and Red, Amber, Green cards to check pupil understanding
Measure it
At the start of the year form tutors benchmarked their form against the agreed skills. Following a series of form time sessions on a particular skill, tutors re-assessed the group and progress was evident across all year groups. To support, staff feedback is taken from all staff which is used to adapt, refine and modify the instructions to tutors to ensure that all pupils are able to make progress. To support development in this area, next year we will be aligning this assessment with the whole school data drop.
Focus tightly
To support staff in their delivery of the Skills Builder lessons, they have attended 2 training sessions and receive regular updates on progress and expectations via staff briefing. As the year has progressed, we have rolled out the Skills Builder resources into mainstream lessons. Each curriculum area has a career champion who works with their team to ensure resources are delivered in line with the Skills Builder Universal Framework.
Keep practising
Our extra-curricular programme was advertised with an emphasis on the Skills Builder Framework. Each activity directly links to key skills and pupils are reminded of how the activity reinforces and develops particular skills. The half termly newsletter and website are used to promote Skills Builder with parents who are directed to use the Homezone tool for developing the essential skills at home.
Bring it to life
In line with our whole school Personal Development programme, we have been able to make further links to life beyond school. Skills builder has supported our school vision of developing pupils holistically, as we seek to secure academic and personal progress for pupils to ensure they are prepared for the wider world. The 8 essential skills will enable our pupils to be able to speak with confidence about their personal strengths and areas for development, whilst also providing specific examples of how they have demonstrated these.
What's next
Next academic year we are moving to a weekly Skills Builder form session. The academic year will be divided equally with blocked areas to focus tightly on specifics skills. Continual assessment and evaluation will enable us to see impact plus target areas of need.
