From the start of their school career our learners are exploring and practising the essential skills that will support their learning. In lower school lessons routinely practise the Skills Builder skills, tagging these on our online evidence system across the full range of curriculum topics. The skills support both academic learning and development of social skills. In key stage 3, classes have a weekly 1 hour careers lesson where essential skills are discussed and developed using a mixture of lessons on specific skills and project based work where learners can practise applying the essential skills. We have used a different Skills Builder topic each term and structured our lessons to include guided and independent work both individually and in teams, to leave space to make mistakes, reflect and solve problems. For example our Trash to Treasure topic involved some classes designing and making board games in teams then creating a Dragon’s Den style presentation to deliver to school leaders. Our oldest learners, in key stage 4, continue to develop and apply their essential skills across the curriculum. They work more independently towards ASDAN qualifications including employability skills, they develop their teamwork and leadership skills via enterprise and other project work. By the end of key stage 4 our learners are equipped with the skills they need to take their next steps.

Our staff use formative assessment to monitor learners progress across a range of targets and these include the Skills Builder essential skills. We record evidence for learning on an online system, this includes tags for the essential skills that have been achieved in the lesson. For written work, our marking policy shows the level of support that has been required and a self-assessment from the learner. This information, along with classroom observation of individuals, enables staff to inform the next steps in developing essential skills. For example, one class has a focus on listening skills having observed that this was an area of weakness right across the curriculum. Our careers leader carries out regular termly monitoring of careers learning and this includes essential skills. Following monitoring, an action plan is developed and feedback given to class teams. This includes sharing of good practice and ideas to support our teaching staff. Monitoring also provides an overall picture of how our learners' skills are developing as they progress through school. This informs our medium term plans and shows the benefits for our learners. Our careers programme is relatively new, and monitoring allows us to identify areas of good practice as well as identifying areas where we can improve in the future. We assess our overall programme against the eight Gatsby benchmarks using compass+.

We teach essential skills in a variety of ways. This starts with teaching listening, sharing and taking turns as part of learning activities in our early years and foundation stage classes, providing opportunities for creative play and problem solving. Communication is a challenge for some of our learners and we work with them on speaking as well as alternative methods of communication. We support our learners to develop resilience to stay positive in the face of changes and unexpected events. As our learners move through the school, they continue to practise and develop their essential skills. Our online evidence system shows that most classes are being taught the essential skills. By key stage 3 they are working on Skills Builder topics to apply their skills. Most classes use the framework to develop their own lessons meeting the bespoke needs of the learners. Some classes have used parts of the skills builder lessons, for example a virtual design studio visit in our ‘Dream Spaces’ topic or relevant whiteboard games. Many of our staff include relevant Skills Builder skills in their lesson planning. This provides a focus for explicit teaching of skills and connects the skills with the wider curriculum. Our staff are experts at adapting material to be appropriate for the wide range of needs, even within one class. Our early focus is on the most basic skills that our learners need to access the curriculum. We start to introduce the idea of aiming high with our expectations that all learners should do their best and by exploring the wider world via careers and jobs. As they continue to develop, we introduce more advanced skills, such as leadership, always working at an appropriate level for each individual.

Our staff highlight essential skills in all subjects across the curriculum. This is done in a variety of ways. For example, praise (‘Good listening’), referring to a display of symbols to reflect on which skills have been used in a lesson or in the lesson learning objective. We give our learners time and space to practise their essential skills, this might include processing and thinking time before answering a question or supported teamwork as a step towards independence. Our staff are encouraged to include essential skills in their individual lesson plans. This can provide a focus for the lesson and clarity to learners. We include essential skills in our long term plans for each subject to support staff to include skills as they deliver each topic and learners use and explore these in written work. We offer our learners a range of extra curricular activities and curriculum enhancements. We have a partnership with the Warrington Wolves rugby team who deliver our curriculum PE and provide extra - curricular activities which provide opportunities for team sports, with associated listening, following instructions and aiming high. We also invite experts in individual sports, such as cricket or karate to provide opportunities to practice skills. We also offer creative extra - curricular activities such as art club and craft club, practising listening, creativity and aiming high. Finally, some of our students take part in activities outside school which use their essential skills, these include rugby and football teams, dance and creative arts groups.

Our learners have opportunities to experience the world outside the classroom. We have a wide range of visitors to school delivering appropriate employer experiences. For example, this year we have had visits from the fire service, a paramedic, a circus performer, a palaeontologist, the department of work and pensions and ex-pupils. These opportunities enable our learners to practise listening, speaking to unfamiliar people, supporting their knowledge of the world and aspirations, as well as carrying out activities to practise their creativity and problem solving. Our learners are regularly out in the community on trips. Examples include shopping at a supermarket, visiting a local farm, cafe visits, sports experiences and museum trips. These use a range of essential skills, a recent key stage 3 trip to a local museum involved learners looking at town maps of different ages and deciding how the town had developed over time. We routinely discuss the essential skills with our learners, connecting these to their future lives. Our learners use challenges related to real life, for example enterprise projects and team projects. Additionally, we connect our skills builder topics in key stage 3 to a relevant focus industry, discussing the wide range of roles and skills in construction in our ‘Dream Spaces’ topic.