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Aspire Learning is an SEMH/Communication specialist Primary School based in Croydon. Our intake is around 50 children - with roughly half having SEMH needs and half having Communication needs.
We have always been conscious that, due to the range of barriers to learning that they face, our pupils might not have access to the range of career opportunities enjoyed by their mainstream peers. However, we strive to ensure high expectations for our intake - and are particularly keen to celebrate their strengths.
The Skills Builder framework gives us an excellent structure in which to both celebrate and gradually develop the skills our pupils have (and need). Our intention is that our pupils build their skills, confidence and self-awareness during their time with us in order that they can begin to view their future life (both in terms of secondary education and the world of work) with both optimism and pragmatism.
Overall impact
Perhaps the key highlight was seeing the eldest pupils engage so well in the Trash to Treasure Project. We genuinely had to force them to go out into the sunshine for breaktime on a couple of days - such was their keenness to get their creations completed.
That said, one swallow does not a Summer make so the real highlight for us has been in being able to fully embed the skills program on a week to week basis throughout the school via our Assemblies. This regular and SLT-led focus on skills has ensured that all our pupils are given the opportunity to build on their current skills.
Keep it simple
Embedding of the awareness of Skills and language around them comes from two main sources. Firstly, we hold a weekly assembly each Monday which highlights a particular skill, teaches a step (or part step) and then sets a challenge based on this skill for the children to deliver in class by the end of the week. Secondly, we have a prominent display board in the main hall which references these skills and celebrates work done around the development of the skills. We have shown the value of the skills by both using 'What's Your Strength' cards and also specific careers-based skills within both assemblies and displays.
Start early, keep going
Our weekly assemblies ensure that every pupil in our school has the chance to systematically develop their skills. Each Monday Assembly a skill is discussed and a skill step (or partial step) taught. The children has time to discuss and apply this in the Assembly. They then has time through the week to come back to the topic in their own classes to produce a deliverable (poster/song/picture/speech etc) for the Friday Celebration Assembly. In additional to this, each class has time in the week to be able to access skill steps of their own choosing. This blended approach is designed to ensure our pupils develop a broad understanding of the essential skills but are also able to focus in on skills that are of particular relevance/interest for their class. This fits perfectly with the individualised learning element of our curriculum. Aside from being give curriculum information, our skills learning has not yet been rolled out to parents. The use of Homezone to set a whole school homework is proposed to start next academic year (September 2025).
Measure it
In terms of measurement, the Skills Lead works with teaching staff to identify where each pupil sits on the skill scale. The assessment from this comes from teacher/Skills Lead judgment relating to engagement in taught sessions/assemblies in addition to observations made outside of these taught sessions. Our Skills Lead has added the first three steps of the 8 skills onto our Tapestry Assessment portal. This allows any member of staff to log an activity in relation to a particular child or group to highlight progress of practice of a skill. For a small amount of our eldest (year 6) pupils, an element of self-assessment can feed into this process. This insight is useful in highlighting the time needed by some of our pupils in order to fully become confident with a particular step.
Focus tightly
As noted above, the blend of assembly based teaching and the opportunity for classes to develop skills of interest further has given every child the chance to build their skills via direct, teacher-led instruction. We have also taken part in a Skills Builder project (Trash to Treasure) during which two of our eldest classes joined the whole-Horizon (our larger group of school) week where pupils researched games and then designed and built their own games from recycled materials. The classes involved engaged really well in this series of taught lessons - which was conducted over a week. It is therefore something that we, as a school, are certainly interested in taking further.
Keep practising
As above, the recent use of a Skills Builder project allowed our eldest pupils to use their skills in a practical (and fun) way. On a more 'every day' level, the regular (weekly) Skills Assembly focus ensures that pupils are actively encouraged to use their skills in producing something to bring to to Friday Celebration Assembly at the end of the week. Our Skills Leader also runs a Forest School session for each class throughout the week. This is an excellent opportunity for children to apply their skills (in particular, communication and teamwork) to real world situations outside of the classroom.
Bring it to life
In addition to the project and forest school opportunities mentioned above, we make specific use of 'What's Your Strength?' cards and careers specific skills profiles to help our pupils make the link between the skills they are developing with us and the potential work-based options that could give them in later life. We also work with local employers to give our pupils experience of speaking with and hearing from people who do a range of jobs. This academic year, we have taken part in sessions with TfL, the Police, the Fire department and also the Ambulance service. We have also got lined up (later this month) a session run by a local careers charity in which volunteer employers come to school and our pupils ask them questions to try and guess what job they do. We are also in the process of creating a series of similar events in which our parents can come and speak to the pupils about jobs that they do.
What's next
The key element we wish to build on is to increase the level of both local business and parent engagement in order to make our skills offering as practical and 'real world' as possible. As mentioned, we are in the process of setting up both Skills homework sessions and careers themed parents Q&As. We also aim to deepen our connection with the local careers charity to ensure that our pupils get to experience a greater number of careers conversations. In each case, we will follow up these visits with further tasks and visuals to help our pupils recall key elements.
As mentioned above, we also plan to engage in additional project work via Skills Builder as we enjoyed the energy and motivation that our pupils brought to that particular week.
