By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyse site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information.
We are a secondary alternative provision who proudly serve young people from Bolton and beyond who have been permanently excluded from mainstream education. We pride ourselves on being a welcoming and supportive environment that offers fresh starts for all students, regardless of their previous educational experience. We believe in unconditional positive regard and strive to build lasting positive relationships in order to inspire personal transformation. Our curriculum is designed to address barriers to learning, enable students to re-access mainstream education where appropriate, and shape students into happy, healthy adults who contribute positively to society.
Overall impact
The Accelerator + programme has enabled us to thoroughly embed Skills Builder through the very core of our offer over the last 2 years leading up to us achieving the gold award. It has allowed us to highlight the importance of the key essential skills not only for working life, but also for life in general. Visual representation of the icons and access to the comprehensive library of supportive resources has enabled us to strengthen our offer to all. Pupils are much more aware of the importance of the essential skills and can now see more relevance in the subjects that we offer, which will ultimately support them beyond secondary school education. It is now amazing to see our pupils being able to use the common language confidently to discuss the essential skills and to be able to highlight moments when they have exhibited them either in lessons or when experiencing 'real-world' situations with employers and businesses.
Keep it simple
Skills builder is an integral part of Youth Challenge's whole school strategy and the essential skills are not only visible, but are also fully embedded into every curriculum subject. Skills builder focused lessons develop the skills being explicitly taught in several key subjects regularly. Visibility and visual reminders of skills builder is really important to us. This is achieved with icons being displayed and used in every classroom on a daily basis and displays being created throughout the school, We also use skills stickers which are placed in pupils books to identify when skills have been practiced, developed and recognised. Skills Builder also has a dedicated section on the school website which allows staff, pupils and parents to access the online resources with ease. A common language is fostered throughout the school, which is regularly reflected upon and further developed through pupil opportunities, assessments and staff CPD.
Start early, keep going
All pupils from Y7 - Y11 access regular skills builder lessons via the careers curriculum, sports curriculum and the ECM curriculum that allow pupils to work as groups or as individuals to gain knowledge, to develop and to improve their understanding of the key essential skills via the hub and via benchmark which is formally assessed, monitored, reviewed and re-assessed. They are also exposed to the essential skills in all curriculum subjects every lesson, when teachers visually inform them of the skills that they will be practising during their planned lessons with the skills icons displayed on their classroom interactive boards. This ensures that pupils are constantly immersed in opportunities to improve them. These experiences are logged within their books, via the hub or benchmark or upon our formal assessment grid for sports.
Measure it
In lessons skills are always present. large icons are used so that pupils can be prompted about which skill they will be working on during that particular lesson and stickers are being used to highlight step progress within the pupil's books. Within the careers lessons, each half term, we focus upon one skills which is then explicitly taught and formative assessment techniques are used to ensure pupils are accessing and being taught the right steps. The whole staff team informally tracking progress through the use of rewards in the wider curriculum. Group progress is captured on hub and students are baselined with regular progress checks being completed. Pupils are also encouraged to self-reflect using skills builder benchmark as and when possible. Our KS4 PE curriculum has skills builder at the core of its delivery and our assessment processes are regularly reviewed and scored when pupils work on specific skills directly related to specific sports.
Focus tightly
All students are taught careers and so all students will be explicitly taught the essential skills in the careers lessons via the Skills Builder Hub, allowing for bespoke sessions to be implemented and differentiated for pupils at different stages. Students have explicit lesson at least twice a term and sometimes more. In PE at KS4 the skills have been embedded into the curriculum and explicit teaching of the skills happens here also. The skills are also assessed in PE to show progress. Progress within the skills is then Rewarded with raffle tickets which accounts for prizes at the end of each week.
Keep practising
Our ECM curriculum (every child matters) is completed offsite, and it has skills builder through its core and this is evident throughout the curriculum planning. ECM is accessed once a week by all students. Within the wider curriculum offer, all staff refer to the skills in all lessons and utilise the steps to promote specific skills. Our comprehensive vocational curriculum and opportunities to attend work experience immerses pupils in 'real-life' situations that show them the skills in practice and gives them a multitude of opportunities to develop and improve them often.
Bring it to life
At Youth Challenge we host many employer encounter events, and visit many off site opportunities' that encourage the use of the key essential skills and gives them opportunities to develop and improve them. When meeting employers, we ensure that the employers have been given a skills brief and they are encouraged to talk about skills that are required within their own workplace. Work experience opportunities can appear very different at Youth Challenge from a mainstream setting. Pupils attend work experience when they are 'work ready' and placements can be for longer periods of time. While attending the work experience placement, pupils and employers complete regular reviews which also incorporates conversations about the skills shown within the work place and how they have improved over time The off site ECM curriculum allows pupils to experience the key skills in many different settings, which is essential for them to see how they transfer and become visible in the world around them
What's next
Our next steps will be to continue to embed Skills builder into our school and to ensure that pupils have more opportunities to develop and to experience the skills regularly. We will also extend our support to parents to ensure that they feel confident in supporting their children's progress outside of school.
