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Brentwood School is specialist high school and sixth form for young people with SLD, PMLD, autism and complex needs. We are a caring, friendly organisation that believes that every student will have the opportunity to develop and thrive. Brentwood is a happy, safe and inclusive school and college where students are valued and feel a sense of belonging. It is a place where students’ needs are met with care, empathy and understanding. Our vision is for all our students to gain the social, emotional and academic skills to facilitate optimum independence and happiness, and to reach their full potential as valued members of the community.
Overall impact
Overall, the impact of the programme has been extremely positive. Students are becoming familiar with the language of work and are developing the confidence to recognise and articulate the skills they use in different contexts. By breaking essential skills down into manageable, teachable steps, the programme makes them more accessible and easier to develop. Teachers are also able to adapt activities and resources to meet a wide range of learning needs and abilities, ensuring that all students can engage meaningfully with the programme.
Keep it simple
The language of essential skills is used all across the school - all our educators use the skill names and steps. Skill logos are displayed in a variety of school areas, and school events regularly reference skills. Alongside the essential skills posters, we display symbols to help our students to understand what the skill it. At the entrance to school, there is a display that introduces the essential skills and describes what each one represents. The display includes photographs of students demonstrating the skills through a range of practical and real-life learning activities. This enables students to make meaningful connections between the skills and their own experiences. We display bespoke career cards made by our education associate. We conduct regular staff surveys about the impact of the programme, and everyone is always positive!
Start early, keep going
All students at Brentwood have the opportunity to develop their essential skills - all classes have dedicated time for teaching, adapted to their needs. Careers lessons are timetabled for every student. Lessons and activities are adapted to our students’ learning needs and styles.
Measure it
Essential skills are included in every student’s personal learning goals - everyone has a work or careers related target linked to their essential skills. Teachers use steps from the framework to set targets for students. We are also piloting an assessment passport, where teachers can add evidence to each of the skill steps.
Focus tightly
All students have regular opportunities to develop their essential skills through direct teaching. This year, we have used projects like Trash to Treasure, and challenges like Crime Scene Challenge to teach essential skills in a practical way. All the students enjoyed the challenge of creating a toy made from recyclable materials. The school held an exhibition of work so classes could see everyone’s creations.
Keep practising
Essential skills are built in across the curriculum; skills are included on our learning walks, and in all curriculum planning documents. At the end of each learning session, teachers include a skills reflection slide. In enrichment, we use posters with skills to highlight what skills can be developed in that club - for example, Creativity in Dance Club.
Bring it to life
At Brentwood, we run two enterprise projects in the year. This provides further opportunities for students to apply the essential skills. In Autumn 2, classes make a product to sell at the Christmas Fair. At the end of the term, the students sell the products to families and friends. In Summer 2, we have a summer fair and students create a product to sell to raise funds for the school’s charity. We have lots of internal work experience opportunities for students. This year, we’ve included links to essential skills in the cafe, horticulture, hair and beauty and more. We also took part in a careers insight session, which the class really enjoyed. We also run mock interviews, where students can talk about their essential skills in a job application environment.
What's next
Next year we will be continuing with Accelerator+, working with our education associate to create more bespoke approaches for learners with PMLD. We’re also aiming for Flagship in the future, and will continue supporting other specialist schools with their Skills Builder approach.
