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Easington Colliery Primary School is a large primary setting situated in County Durham. The school supports a high proportion of pupils eligible for Pupil Premium funding, alongside children with diverse special educational needs. Many pupils face significant socio-economic barriers. School leaders are deeply committed to nurturing pupils' personal development, raising aspirations, and equipping them with key competencies to thrive academically and in wider life. To establish a structured and consistent approach to personal growth and employability, Easington Colliery Primary School embedded the Skills Builder Universal Framework 2.0 across its setting. Joining the Accelerator programme enabled the school to empower staff, enrich the curriculum, and build a cohesive culture where every child can recognise and develop their essential skills.
Overall impact
Implementing the Skills Builder Universal Framework 2.0 transformed the learning culture across Easington Colliery Primary School. Pupils have demonstrated marked growth in self-belief, articulation, and problem-solving abilities. Explicitly focusing on the eight essential skills led to clear improvements in classroom engagement and peer collaboration. Children who previously struggled to express themselves gained the vocabulary needed to communicate effectively and reflect on their personal development. Staff have gained confidence in teaching and assessing essential skills alongside academic objectives. The framework provided a unified approach to personal development, ensuring the whole school community worked cohesively to help all pupils unlock their full potential regardless of their background.
Keep it simple
Easington Colliery Primary School ensures that essential skills are an everyday part of school life. Visual displays feature in every classroom and communal areas, including a dedicated careers display board highlighting the Skills Builder icons. Staff consistently display printed icons, which encouraged older children to actively reference them during lessons. Teachers use standardised skill-linked language when giving verbal praise, particularly with younger year groups.
Every classroom features skill icons placed above interactive whiteboards, and Reception classrooms had icons readily visible. External visitors were fully briefed on essential skills prior to delivering sessions. Whole-school and class assemblies regularly reference essential skills, with dedicated assemblies focusing on individual skills every half-term. The school also communicated skill-building updates through newsletters and the school website to build engagement with parents and carers.
Start early, keep going
Essential skills have been introduced from the moment children joined the school, covering approximately 500 pupils from Nursery (age 3) through to Year 6. In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), staff received a specific skill focus for each half-term and planned targeted activities, drip-feeding concepts over several weeks to embed consistent skill language. As pupils progressed through Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, teachers systematically built upon early concepts, introducing more complex skill steps. At the start of each half-term, classes introduced a new focus skill while maintaining a consistent emphasis on Teamwork across other curriculum areas. This progressive journey ensured that essential skills were continually revisited and deepened as pupils moved through the school.
Measure it
To evaluate pupil progress, staff use the assessment tools available on the Skills Builder Hub. Teachers completed baseline assessments for their cohorts to identify current skill levels and establish clear areas for growth. Time was allocated during staff training sessions to complete Hub assessments accurately and track progress from the beginning to the end of each focus period. This formal tracking informed teacher planning and identified next steps, particularly for key skills such as Teamwork and Problem Solving. Beyond formal Hub tracking, ongoing formative assessment occurred through daily reflection, classroom vocabulary, and skill-step referencing by both staff and pupils.
Focus tightly
Easington Colliery Primary School dedicates targeted time to explicitly teach essential skills. Direct skill instruction takes place during focused, half-day PSHE drop-down sessions on the first day back of each half-term. During these sessions, teachers adapted resources and short planned lessons from the Hub to deliver high-quality direct instruction pitched at an appropriate, differentiated level for each year group. The explicit teaching ensured pupils understood the specific skill steps before practising them across the wider curriculum throughout the remainder of the half-term.
Keep practising
Pupils are provided with regular opportunities to practise their essential skills across all areas of the curriculum. Teachers explicitly referenced skill icons in medium-term plans, lesson presentations, and floor books, enabling pupils to identify essential skills within their daily learning. Pupils applied communication and planning skills by rehearsing and delivering assemblies to peers, parents, and carers.
After-school clubs led by internal staff incorporated explicit skill references into their activities. Furthermore, pupils engage in wider curriculum projects such as litter picking, visiting local assisted living homes, and attending middle school transition events, all of which provided practical opportunities to apply their skills.
Bring it to life
The school links essential skills directly to real-world experiences, employer encounters, and practical projects. External visitors, including representatives from BAM Construction, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and local solar panel workshops, incorporated Skills Builder terminology into their sessions.
Year 2 pupils engaged in interactive workshops, while Year 6 pupils participated in an apprenticeship enterprise project and ran a school tuck shop, applying Teamwork, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Speaking. Pupils also developed skills through roles in the school production, such as set design and marketing. To encourage personal reflection, each pupil maintained an individual skills book to record and evaluate their skill application across school events, workshops, and extracurricular activities.
What's next
In the upcoming academic year, Easington Colliery Primary School plans to make explicit links between essential skills and future careers across all subjects to further elevate the profile of career pathways. The school intends to implement a structured end-of-year transition project for every year group, culminating in a dedicated skills day. School leaders also plan to refine the student reward system by introducing skill-linked stickers to encourage ongoing discussions around essential skills. Additionally, staff aim to increase parental engagement by expanding the use of skill-building resources during parent meetings and home communications.
