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West Lancashire Community High School is a special needs school for students aged 11-19 with generic learning difficulties. We are committed to ensuring that as a school we provide the highest quality education that helps prepare each individual student for the next stage in their lives. As a school we have introduced the Skills Builder programme to help encourage our students to build essential skills for the future. The Skills Builder Programme is seen as a platform to help raise the profile of these eight essential skills and provide a way of weaving these skilled areas within our current curriculum across all the key stages. The Skills Builder Programme allows all staff to bring these skills to life for the students. It allows students to be aware of the essential skills and use this to help work towards their aspiration and goals as well developing as individuals in preparation for adulthood. The Skills Builder Programme has further supported the work between school and local businesses, raising the profile of our students, their skills and ambitions for the future and how local businesses support this.
Overall impact
The accelerator programme has helped us to ensure that essential skills are embedded in everything we do at school. Our students are more attuned to themselves as individuals, recognising their strengths and identifying areas for development to help them progress towards their ambitions. They are much more confident articulating their essential skills and reflecting on their progress. Teachers are confident using Skills Builder resources to teach and assess the essential skills, at both an individual and group level. The programme has also helped to enhance our curriculum, as we have woven the skills into all our planning. This year, we have built on our impact by focusing on building awareness of the essential skills in our wider community, beyond the school gates. We have done lots of work with local employers, for example we ran an essential skills breakfast workshop for our work experience providers. We also gave these employers information packs and flyers about Skills Builder. Our SLT also gave a presentation about Skills Builder to different employers at the Skelmersdale Ambassadors event. We have also worked to engage other schools with essential skills. I recently presented at a networking event focused on strategies for building essential skills with SEND students. I also welcomed a visit from a Skills Leader from Peterhouse School, who was keen to learn about our approach to building essential skills. Through Skills Builder events, I've built up a network of Skills Leaders in other SEND provisions and regularly share ideas with them. We have also built parents' awareness of essential skills through parent workshops, presentations at transition events, and regular Homezone Challenges on our newsletter. We've also presented to governors to ensure they are engaged with essential skills.
Keep it simple
Getting involved with Skills Builder Accelerator has provided an opportunity to share ideas, develop and embed the programme within school as well as providing staff the opportunity to gain further knowledge and understanding through bespoke training, relevant to our school. The one to one strategy meetings have provided invaluable support to ensure that momentum has continued and ideas that have originally been placed on paper have been brought to life with the knowledge and support of the Education Associate. All students and staff are able to talk confidently about essential skills. This is thanks to our Skills Builder displays and even a mural in our corridor. We've also embedded the skills into our rewards system, with stickers, tokens and student of the week certificates for students who display the essential skills. Weekly assemblies introduce and share essential skills, and offer an opportunity to celebrate achievements. The essential skills are referenced in our School Development Plan and long-term plans. I have supported staff to teach essential skills through staff trainings, drop-in sessions and checklists. We've also raised parents' awareness of essential skills at transition events and by including Homezone challenges on our newsletter.
Start early, keep going
Students in all Key Stages are taught the eight essential skills. For some this is part of discrete lessons, for others this is incorporated by weaving a skill focus into all curriculum planning. We also work hard to ensure that students continue to build their essential skills when they leave school. We work closely with local businesses who support our students within the world of work to ensure that language is consistent even when students are learning beyond the classroom. Parent workshops and communication with parents supports students to learn about the essential skills at home too. We provide monthly challenges for parents on our newsletter and communicate students' successes in essential skills through Evidence for Learning.
Measure it
All staff regularly use the assessment tool on the Skills Builder Hub to monitor students' progress in the essential skills and identify their next steps. This group-level assessment has shown great progress being made in all the essential skills. Some staff also use a separate spreadsheet to track individual students' progress against the steps of the Expanded Universal Framework. Evidence for Learning helps to capture skill progression against identified next steps. This further supports learning and progression in skill areas beyond the classroom with parents having access to Home Zone.
Focus tightly
Explicit teaching of the essential skills looks different for all key stages. KS3 have discrete Skills Builder time on a Friday afternoon, as well as opportunities to learn about the essential skills through their lessons. KS4 have enjoyed using projects such as Groovy Gardeners to build their essential skills. KS5 have had the opportunity to build and reflect on their essential skills through their work experience. All students are also provided with weekly opportunities through all planned lessons with essential skills being woven into the curriculum across all key stages. This is outlined in medium term planning and shared with teaching staff to ensure that it is incorporated into daily planning. Students receive feedback on their essential skills in the classroom and through essential skills.
Keep practising
All students are given the opportunities to practice essential skills on a daily basis. Skill foci are woven into curriculum plans across all key stages and subject leads ensure that these references are being made in lessons. On my learning walks, I have seen teachers confidently teaching essential skills through the wider curriculum. Many staff include the skills icons on their lesson slides and use Skills Builder resources as plenaries to help students reflect on their progress. There is also evidence of essential skills being used in students' books from different subject areas. During National Careers Week, every single lesson had an essential skills learning outcome. Skills Builder Projects have also been used within the wider curriculum, for example Breaking News in English and Free to be Me in PSHE. Whilst we don't run lunchtime or after-school clubs, students have the opportunity to build and reflect on essential skills through extra-curricular activities such as yearly residential trips and Duke of Edinburgh expeditions.
Bring it to life
West Lancashire Community High School prides itself on preparing students for adulthood. Students have had the opportunity to learn about the essential skills needed in wider life through educational visits, work experience, school games, community projects, careers week and business engagement, Christmas enterprise, horticulture, gym and swim programme, residentials and Duke of Edinburgh programme. All these planned events, opportunities and experiences, help provide opportunities for students to develop their essential skills as they progress through school and into adulthood. Our work experience programmes have been a fantastic opportunity for students to build their essential skills. We ran an essential skills workshop for all our work experience providers, and provided them with information packs about the essential skills. This helped them to discuss essential skills with students during their placements. Students also reflect on how they use their essential skills in their work experience diaries. We also ran a really successful Reverse Careers Fair, where students presented their essential skills strengths to employers. This was a fantastic event and led to three students successfully securing new placement opportunities. The skills have also been brought to life through the projects, which KS4 have enjoyed using. For example, we used Brilliant Books on World Book Day and Groovy Gardeners during National Careers Week.
What's next
Within the wider community, businesses have been very supportive and this was identified during national careers week when postcards and letters were shared explaining the activities some of the students would be taking part in to build essential skills. The local business community was very supportive of this and welcomed students to explore their business and ask questions. Building on from this, business engagement has grown and students are being further supported in the world of work through a supportive programme using a consistent approach to the use of language linked to Skills Builder. To further build on successes would be to work closely with the social care and the business community to ensure that students continue to develop their essential skills after they have left education. Enabling students to have the skills to lead independent lives with the support of those around them. We would also like to share best practice with those who are new to Skills Builder.
