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Chaigeley School is based in the North West, and caters for students with Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs across Key Stages 2, 3 and 4. The school provides a high-quality, broad, and inclusive curriculum within a welcoming, nurturing, and safe environment designed to help pupils develop while building resilience and confidence. Guided by its overarching vision to prepare and empower young people with the essential skills required to live independent lives, become valued members of the community, and achieve their full potential, the school embeds life skills and vocational opportunities across its provisions.
Overall impact
Essential skills have been used to support the school’s vision to “prepare and empower our young people with all the skills they need to live independent lives, become valued members of the community and achieve their full potential.” Since beginning the programme in September 2025, the school has successfully established a shared language for essential skills across staff and pupils, building a strong baseline for explicit skill development and boosting overall student engagement.
Keep it simple
We have aligned essential skills directly with our overall strategy to underpin careers and values. Staff training was delivered in December to introduce teachers to the Skills Builder Hub, resources, and assessment tools. Skill icons were integrated into daily learning by displaying them on classroom whiteboards, adding them to lesson presentations, and placing skill posters in hallways. Essential skills were introduced to pupils through assemblies and linked to the school tuck shop reward system, where pupils earned points for demonstrating skill development.
Start early, keep going
We chose to adopt a phased roll-out, initially targeting Key Stage 4 students across three classes, explicitly focusing on foundational Listening and Speaking skills. The next steps are to gradually expand this approach down through Key Stage 3 and Primary, introducing skills in structured blocks of three at each academic stage to ensure continuous progression.
Measure it
To establish a clear baseline and track progress, Key Stage 4 students logged into Benchmark to complete self-assessments, allowing them to recognise their own learning and retain key tools for life after school. Concurrently, teachers used the Hub assessment platform to conduct formative assessments, enabling staff to identify individual student strengths and pitch instruction accurately. This dual approach ensured both teacher oversight and student reflection were embedded into the measurement process.
Focus tightly
Teachers delivered targeted, explicit skill instruction by dedicating a weekly 20-minute slot every Monday afternoon. Staff initially focused on Listening and Speaking, tailoring and differentiating resources from the Hub to suit individual and group needs.
Keep practising
To reinforce learning across the wider curriculum, staff updated their lesson presentation templates. Teachers added dedicated "future skills" sections to PowerPoints across various subject areas, selecting the specific Skills Builder icons being used or developed in each lesson. This enabled students to regularly practise and recognise essential skills in different context areas
Bring it to life
Chaigeley School provides a diverse range of meaningful opportunities for students to actively engage with professional workplace environments. By connecting these practical experiences to the essential skills, learners are able to directly apply their skills in real-world settings. This bridge between academic learning and practical application has significantly enhanced the depth of their understanding, fostering greater independence, and building high levels of adaptability across various contexts.
What's next
We are looking forward to building on a successful year by continuing on an Accelerator+ programme. We would like to expand the use of the Universal Framework across more classrooms and subject areas, and work towards meeting the Silver Award criteria.
