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Bushbury is a specialist school in Wolverhampton for children and young people aged 7 to 19 with autism, speech, language and communication needs, and a range of complex learning profiles. Our learners often require a highly personalised curriculum that supports not only academic progress, but also communication, independence, confidence, emotional regulation, relationships and preparation for adulthood.
We became involved with the Skills Builder Accelerator because we wanted a clear, consistent and accessible framework for developing essential skills across the whole school. Many of our pupils demonstrate important skills every day, but these can sometimes be hidden within routines, communication, regulation, practical tasks or educational visits. Skills Builder has helped us make those skills visible, teachable and easier to celebrate.
As a school, we wanted essential skills to become part of everyday learning, rather than a separate programme. The framework gave us a common language that staff could use across lessons, personal development, careers, enrichment and wider school life. It also helped us structure opportunities for pupils to practise skills in meaningful real-world contexts, including educational trips, community experiences and preparation for future destinations.
For Bushbury, Skills Builder supports our wider aim of helping every pupil recognise their strengths, build confidence and develop the skills they need for life beyond school. The Accelerator has enabled us to develop a more immersive and personalised approach, ensuring essential skills are embedded in curriculum planning, classroom language, reflection activities and preparation for adulthood.
Overall impact
The overall impact of the Skills Builder Accelerator at Bushbury has been significant. For teachers, it has provided a clear and consistent framework for identifying, teaching and celebrating essential skills across the curriculum and wider school day. Staff are increasingly able to recognise where skills are already being developed and use the language of the Universal Framework to make this explicit for pupils.
For students, the programme has helped make progress more visible. In a specialist setting, success is often seen in small but important steps: communicating a choice, listening to an instruction, managing a change, working with a peer, solving a problem or reflecting on an experience. Skills Builder has helped pupils understand and celebrate these moments as real skill development.
For the wider school community, the Accelerator has strengthened the link between curriculum, personal development, careers, enrichment and preparation for adulthood. It has given us a shared language for discussing confidence, independence and future readiness with staff, pupils and families.
Particular highlights have included the creation of our “Future Me” booklets, the use of essential skills to plan and review educational visits, and the way Skills Builder has become woven into classroom language and wider school experiences. Achieving the Skills Builder Silver Award is a proud milestone for Bushbury and reflects the commitment of staff to building a bespoke, meaningful and accessible skills curriculum for our learners.
Keep it simple
At Bushbury, we have focused on making the essential skills simple, visible and part of everyday school language. As a specialist setting, we know that consistency, repetition and clear language are vital for our learners, so we have worked to ensure that Skills Builder is not seen as a separate programme, but as part of the way we talk about learning, independence and preparation for adulthood.
Staff use the language of the Universal Framework within lessons, personal development activities, careers learning, enrichment and educational visits. Pupils are supported to recognise skills such as listening, speaking, teamwork, problem solving, creativity, staying positive, aiming high and leadership in real situations across the school day.
We have also used Skills Builder language when planning and reviewing trips, helping pupils understand which skills they will need before they go, how they used them during the visit, and what they learned afterwards.
The skills are valued through classroom discussion, pupil reflection, staff feedback and celebration of progress. This has helped make essential skills more visible for pupils, staff and families, particularly where progress may be seen through confidence, communication, regulation or independence.
Start early, keep going
At Bushbury, we have worked to ensure that learners across all ages and pathways have opportunities to build essential skills in ways that are meaningful and appropriate to their needs. As our pupils have different communication, cognitive, social and independence profiles, we have adapted the Skills Builder approach rather than applying a single model for all.
For some pupils, essential skills are developed through highly supported activities, visual resources, communication work, sensory regulation, routines and repeated practice. For others, skills are explored more explicitly through discussion, reflection, careers learning, personal development and preparation for future destinations.
Skills Builder is being embedded across the curriculum and wider school day so that pupils continue to revisit the skills over time. This includes lessons, enrichment, educational visits, community experiences and preparation for adulthood activities. The aim is for pupils to encounter the same essential skills repeatedly, in different contexts and with different levels of support.
Parents and carers are beginning to be involved through the language of progress, celebration and preparation for adulthood. By making essential skills more visible, we can better share the small but significant steps pupils make in confidence, communication, independence and readiness for life beyond school.
Measure it
At Bushbury, we measure essential skills progress through a range of approaches that reflect the needs of our learners. We use the Skills Builder Universal Framework to identify the skills pupils are developing and to support staff in recognising what progress can look like at different stages.
Assessment is gathered through classroom observation, pupil reflection, staff feedback, evidence from personal development activities, careers learning, enrichment and educational visits. For some pupils, progress may be shown through a written or verbal reflection. For others, it may be captured through photographs, visual responses, communication choices, increased independence, improved regulation or successful participation in a real-life activity.
Educational visits have been particularly useful for measuring progress. Before a visit, pupils consider which skills they will need. During the visit, staff observe how pupils use those skills. Afterwards, pupils are supported to reflect on what went well and what they might develop next.
This insight has helped staff plan more purposeful opportunities, celebrate small but significant steps, and make essential skills progress more visible to pupils, families and staff.
Focus tightly
At Bushbury, we give pupils regular opportunities to build essential skills through focused, direct instruction within lessons, personal development, careers learning and enrichment. Staff are encouraged to identify the specific skill focus within an activity, rather than trying to cover all skills at once. This helps pupils understand which skill they are practising, why it matters, and how it can be used in different situations.
The Skills Builder Universal Framework supports staff in breaking skills down into clear, teachable steps. This is particularly important in our specialist setting, where learners need explicit teaching, modelling, repetition and opportunities to practise skills in meaningful contexts.
We use visual resources, lesson prompts, reflection activities, “Future Me” booklets, careers planning tools and educational visit planning sheets to support direct instruction. For example, before a trip, pupils may be taught how listening, teamwork or staying positive will help them manage the experience successfully.
This focused approach has helped staff plan more purposeful learning and has supported pupils to recognise the essential skills they are developing across the school day.
Keep practising
At Bushbury, pupils are given regular opportunities to practise essential skills across the curriculum and wider school day. We have worked to embed Skills Builder into lessons, personal development, careers learning, enrichment, routines and educational visits so that pupils experience the skills in a range of meaningful contexts.
Essential skills are practised through classroom activities, group work, communication tasks, problem-solving challenges, practical learning and preparation for adulthood activities. Staff use the language of Skills Builder to help pupils recognise when they are listening, speaking, working as part of a team, staying positive, aiming high, using creativity, solving problems or showing leadership.
Educational visits and community experiences are an important part of our approach. Pupils practise skills before, during and after trips: preparing for what they may need to do, applying skills in real situations, and reflecting afterwards on what went well.
We also use enrichment and careers activities to give pupils opportunities to connect essential skills with future life. This repeated practice helps pupils build confidence, independence and readiness for adulthood in ways that are purposeful, accessible and relevant.
Bring it to life
At Bushbury, we help pupils understand that essential skills are not just for school, but for life beyond the classroom. Skills Builder is closely linked to our preparation for adulthood, personal development, careers and enrichment work, so pupils can see how skills support independence, relationships, community access and future destinations.
We use real-life experiences to bring the skills to life. Educational visits, community activities, careers learning and practical tasks are planned using essential skills language so pupils can recognise how they might use listening, speaking, teamwork, problem solving, staying positive, aiming high, creativity and leadership in everyday situations.
For example, before a visit pupils may explore which skills will help them travel safely, communicate with others, manage change or work with peers. During the visit, staff support pupils to apply those skills in a real environment. Afterwards, pupils reflect on what they used successfully and what they may need to practise next.
We also link essential skills to future pathways through “Future Me” booklets, careers activities and preparation for adulthood work. This helps pupils understand how the skills they are developing now can support confidence, independence and future success.
What's next
Our next step is to build on the success of the Skills Builder Silver Award by embedding essential skills even more consistently across the whole school. We want Skills Builder to become a natural part of curriculum planning, personal development, careers, enrichment and preparation for adulthood.
A key priority is to strengthen how we capture progress, using simple pupil reflection tools, staff observations and evidence from lessons, visits and community experiences. This will help us show the small but important steps pupils make in confidence, communication, independence and readiness for future life.
We also plan to continue adapting resources for our different learner pathways, ensuring the framework remains accessible for pupils with a wide range of communication, sensory and learning needs.
Finally, we want to increase parental engagement so families understand the essential skills language and can see how these skills support life beyond school.
