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Our pupils often arrive with significant gaps in both academic learning and key life skills, and many have previously had disrupted educational experiences.
We wanted to ensure that alongside academic progress, our pupils developed the essential life skills needed to become confident, independent young adults. While we already focused on areas like social interaction and emotional regulation through our curriculum and EHCP targets, we recognised that pupils were not always able to identify or articulate these skills — or transfer them between settings.
The Skills Builder Accelerator Programme gave us a clear, structured, and measurable framework to embed essential skills consistently across the school. We were particularly drawn to the clarity of the eight essential skills, the visual and accessible resources, and the strong alignment with our Preparation for Adulthood (PfA) goals.
By joining the Accelerator, we aimed to:
Build a shared language around skills that staff and students could use across all lessons
Support EHCP outcomes through step-by-step progression
Equip students with practical, transferable skills that prepare them for real-world situations, from everyday interactions to future employment
Provide teachers with high-quality planning tools, CPD, and assessment structures
Since joining the programme, Skills Builder has helped create consistency, purpose, and visibility around skill development throughout our curriculum — and has had a noticeable impact on student engagement, confidence, and communication.
Overall impact
The Skills Builder Accelerator Programme has had a significant and positive impact across our school — for teachers, students, and the wider community. It has provided a clear structure and shared language for developing essential skills that were previously difficult to teach explicitly and even harder to assess.
For teachers, the Framework has:
Offered a simple, consistent way to embed life skills into daily teaching.
Supported planning for communication-based EHCP outcomes.
Increased confidence in delivering personal development lessons and linking essential skills across the curriculum.
For students, it has:
Created a sense of ownership and awareness of their own progress in areas like Speaking, Listening, and Teamwork.
Improved self-esteem and confidence, especially through practical projects like the Bushbury Café, where students experienced success and pride in real-world tasks.
Supported social and emotional development by helping students reflect on their behaviour and communication in a structured way.
For the wider community, it has:
Allowed us to begin sharing the language of essential skills with parents through EHCP reviews and learning journals.
Opened conversations about preparing for adulthood in ways that are clear and measurable.
Created meaningful links between classroom learning and the real world.
Keep it simple
As a school supporting pupils with Autism Spectrum Condition and associated Speech, Language and Communication Needs, many of our students are in a state of transition – whether adjusting to a new school environment, building relationships, or preparing for future pathways. As such, communication is a core area of focus, and Speaking and Listening targets feature on the majority of EHCPs.
We have embedded the Skills Builder skill of Speaking across lessons, particularly through:
Planned speaking and listening opportunities in group tasks, role play, and reflective activities.
Use of the Skills Builder icons in lessons to help students visually link tasks to communication skills.
Referring consistently to the language of the Universal Framework to break down communication skills into achievable, step-by-step goals.
Highlighting and modelling effective communication in daily routines, such as greetings, requests, and peer interactions.
Staff have received training on using the shared language of the Framework, and this consistency has supported students in recognising what good communication looks and sounds like — both in class and in social settings.
By focusing on communication as a valued and visible skill across the curriculum, we are supporting both EHCP outcomes and long-term preparation for adulthood.
Start early, keep going
At our school, pupils join us at different points in their educational journey and often arrive with gaps in their communication and interpersonal skills. To address this, we’ve made sure that essential skill development is introduced early and embedded consistently, regardless of a student’s age or academic level.
We deliver dedicated Preparation for Adulthood (PfA) sessions each week across all key stages, with at least one lesson per week focusing on a specific essential skill. For example, younger students might explore Listening through structured play and turn-taking activities, while older pupils practise Problem Solving and Speaking through real-life projects like running the Bushbury Café.
To maintain momentum:
We revisit and build upon the eight essential skills throughout the year, using a spiral approach.
Skills Builder language and visuals are used in all classrooms to support repetition, recognition, and reflection.
Skills are revisited not just in PfA sessions, but across subjects like English, PSHE, and Science to help embed them in everyday learning.
We have also started involving parents by:
Linking essential skills to EHCP targets, especially around communication and independence.
Trialling ways to share skill development with parents via photos, student work, and home learning suggestions.
Measure it
We assess students’ essential skills using a combination of Skills Builder tools, teacher observations, and progress towards EHCP outcomes, particularly in areas such as Speaking, Listening, and Teamwork, which are common targets for our pupils with ASC and speech, language, and communication needs.
Our main approaches include:
Using the Skills Builder Universal Framework to set clear, step-by-step skill targets for individual pupils, especially those working below age-related expectations.
Teacher-led assessment and reflection, often recorded during Preparation for Adulthood (PfA) lessons and project-based learning, where students demonstrate their use of skills like Problem Solving and Aiming High.
Student self-assessment and peer feedback during practical tasks, supported by visual prompts and simplified language to aid understanding.
EHCP reviews and personal learning plans that link essential skills directly to long-term developmental targets.
This insight has been extremely helpful in:
Identifying specific skill gaps, such as struggling to take turns in conversations or explain ideas clearly.
Celebrating progress in a meaningful and motivating way for students.
Supporting personalised planning — enabling staff to adapt tasks and language to match individual students’ skill levels.
Providing clear evidence of progress for parents, carers, and external professionals.
Focus tightly
To ensure our students have regular opportunities to build their essential skills, we deliver dedicated weekly Preparation for Adulthood (PfA) lessons, where essential skills are taught explicitly using Skills Builder short lessons, resources, and visuals.
Each half term, we focus on a small number of key skills (e.g. Speaking and Listening), giving students repeated opportunities to practise them through:
Direct instruction using Skills Builder short lessons from the Hub.
Modelling and guided practice, where staff break down the skill into small, manageable steps using the Universal Framework.
Structured group activities, such as role play, collaborative tasks, and project work where the skill focus is clearly explained in advance.
Keep practising
We give our students regular and varied opportunities to practise their essential skills across the curriculum, through real-life projects, hands-on tasks, and structured activities. Repetition and routine are key for our learners, particularly those with ASC and communication needs, so we ensure that the eight essential skills are revisited and reinforced throughout the week.
Key approaches include:
Project-Based Learning: Our Bushbury Café project allowed students to practise Speaking, Listening, Teamwork, and Problem Solving by planning menus, purchasing ingredients, preparing food, and serving staff and peers. This real-life context made the skills meaningful and helped students build confidence in a supported environment.
Curriculum Integration: Teachers across subjects such as English, Science, and PSHE highlight essential skills within lessons. For example, in Science students work in pairs to complete experiments, building Teamwork and Staying Positive when results don’t go as expected.
Weekly Preparation for Adulthood (PfA) sessions: These are explicitly planned around the Skills Builder framework and often include short lessons, group challenges, and reflective activities focused on a specific skill.
Bring it to life
We help students understand how essential skills are used in wider life by creating real-world learning experiences where they can apply and reflect on those skills in practical, meaningful contexts. This is especially important for our pupils with ASC and SEMH needs, who often benefit from structured, visual, and tangible examples of how skills transfer beyond the classroom.
One of our most successful real-life projects was the Bushbury Café, where students:
Planned a menu and budget
Visited local shops to purchase ingredients
Prepared and presented food
Took on roles such as servers, greeters, and cashiers
This project gave students first-hand experience of how Speaking, Listening, Problem Solving, and Teamwork are vital in everyday life — from working with others, to communicating with unfamiliar adults, and managing responsibilities. Students could clearly link their learning to real job roles and social situations, and many said it helped them feel more independent and capable.
We also bring skills to life by:
Using project-based learning to simulate workplace-style tasks, such as enterprise days and team challenges.
Linking essential skills to future pathways through conversations in PfA lessons, where students explore how skills like Aiming High and Leadership connect to their personal aspirations.
Inviting visitors or staff with different roles to speak to pupils about how they use these skills in their jobs, helping students see a clear connection between s
What's next
Building on the success of our first year with the Skills Builder Accelerator Programme, our next steps focus on deepening consistency, involving more of the school community, and strengthening links to real-world opportunities.
Our priorities for the coming year are:
Further embedding essential skills across the curriculum: While we’ve had strong success in PfA and project-based work, our next step is to ensure the Skills Builder language and structure is used more consistently across all subject areas, particularly in Maths, English, and Science.
Expanding staff confidence and training: We plan to offer refresher training and share best practice among staff, especially for newer colleagues. We’d like to establish skill focus boards in classrooms and promote use of the short lessons in all key stages.
Increasing parental engagement: So far, parent involvement has mainly been through EHCP discussions. Next year, we aim to share regular updates with parents using photos, reflections
