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Hillborough is a mixed community junior school for children aged 7–11 in the Farley Ward of Luton, serving a diverse urban community, with higher-than-average proportions of free school meals, EAL and SEND. Its enduring ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted rating, consistent top-ranking performance and commitment to providing a well-rounded education prepares pupils not only academically but also for life beyond the classroom. Over recent years, the school has made the development of essential skills a key part of the curriculum. Prior to engaging with Skills Builder, the school ran a variety of enrichment programmes and careers-focused activities aimed at building core capabilities. Hillborough became involved with Skills Builder to provide a consistent, structured approach to skills education across all year groups. The Universal Framework provided a common language and progression model that could be embedded across subjects and key stages. The staff have used the resources to support lesson planning and assessment and the pupils are confident in identifying and reflecting on their skill development.
Overall impact
The Skills Builder programme has had a wide-reaching impact. For pupils, it has provided a clear structure to develop and talk about essential skills. They are now more aware of their own strengths and can explain how these skills help them both in school and in everyday life. They are more confident, especially during group tasks and discussions. Staff have benefited from having a shared language and high-quality resources that make it easier to plan, teach and assess skill development. The Skills Builder Hub and assessment tools have been particularly helpful in tracking progress and setting clear goals for learners. Teachers feel better equipped to integrate skill-building across the curriculum in a consistent and meaningful way. The partnerships with local businesses and visitors have been strengthened, with guests frequently commenting on the children’s ability to speak clearly about the skills they are using.
One of the standout moments was the whole-school Careers Day, where pupils worked together to solve real-life problems. The upper school was given access to quiz 20+ employers about their respective jobs and younger pupils were provided with opportunities to use resources newly developed on the Skills Builder hub. The week demonstrated how much they had grown in using their skills creatively and collaboratively.
Keep it simple
The school has fully embedded the Skills Builder framework into its teaching and learning practices, ensuring essential skills are a core part of curriculum planning across all year groups. Teachers consistently use the language of these skills in lesson objectives, classroom discussions, and assemblies, which often celebrate pupils’ achievements in applying them. Staff meetings regularly include training and discussion on embedding essential skills in academic, pastoral, and personal development. This emphasis begins at recruitment, is reflected in staff appraisals, and extends to parent communications through meetings, newsletters, and the school website, encouraging families to use the same language at home.
Pupils’ efforts in developing skills are frequently recognised through class rewards, certificates, house points, and displays. For example, students are praised for problem solving in maths, showing leadership in group activities, or demonstrating effective communication in presentations. Stickers might be given for staying positive through challenges or listening well in peer discussions. This consistent approach is supported by all staff, including lunchtime supervisors and support staff, reinforcing the importance of essential skills beyond the classroom.
Visual cues are used throughout the school to keep essential skills at the forefront. Every classroom has a dedicated skills display wall with Skills Builder icons, definitions, and the current 'Skill of the Half-Term.' Teachers actively refer to these visuals during lessons to support pupils' understanding and application of skills. Shared spaces like the library, hall, and corridors feature posters that further reinforce the message. A plaque at the main entrance and digital displays on virtual platforms clearly identify the school as a Skills Builder school, creating a consistent, school-wide culture that values and promotes essential skills development in all areas of learning and life.
Start early, keep going
We kick start each academic year with a school wide Skills Builder challenge day where we link a purposeful writing task to the experience. All year groups have regular, planned opportunities to learn and practise the essential skills through both dedicated lessons every Monday afternoon and integration across the curriculum. Skills are firmly embedded in Curriculum planning. For example, pupils specifically develop teamwork and leadership skills during group science investigations. In English, speaking skills are strengthened through presentations and debates, and PSHE lessons include focused work on staying positive and aiming high. These activities are designed to ensure progression in skill development across all year groups. Our enrichment programme, delivered on a Friday afternoon is based around the concept of applying the steps from the eight essential skills.
The school is also piloting the Primary School Careers Mark, which has Skills Builder at its centre, further embedding the essential skills into pupils’ understanding of the world of work and their future aspirations. We have introduced an annual Careers’ Day for every year group, utilising the career resources on the hub, culminating in a work experience day and writing a CV.
Measure it
On designated occasions, staff observe pupils during group activities, class discussions and independent tasks, recognising how they apply skills to inform next steps. For example, after a STEM project, teachers assessed how well pupils collaborated and used creative thinking to overcome challenges. In other tasks, pupils may receive feedback on how effectively they demonstrated leadership or speaking skills when presenting their ideas. These methods utilise self and peer assessment alongside teacher assessment tools. This formative approach allows staff to tailor their teaching, revisit specific skills as needed and ensure all pupils make meaningful progress in their skill development.
We make good use of the assessment tools on the hub. Each half term, teachers baseline assess their class based on the focus skill and reassess at the end of the focus. The hub reports are collated by the headteacher to provide information about the usage of the resources to ensure all pupils are gaining the utmost benefit from the programme.
Progress in skills development is reported to parents at termly parent evenings and in the end of year school report.
Focus tightly
Teachers engage in focused and explicit teaching of essential skills through both discrete sessions and cross-curricular learning. Each week, designated timetable time is set aside for the discrete teaching of specific skills using the Skills Builder framework. Teachers model and break down each skill into manageable steps, providing opportunities for pupils to practise and reflect on their progress. Assemblies are also used to explicitly teach and reinforce the essential skills, often using real-life examples and celebrating pupils who have demonstrated them well. This consistent and structured approach ensures that pupils clearly understand each skill and how to apply it in different areas of school life.
Timetables and planning documents show that teachers dedicate regular time to the explicit teaching of essential skills. Discrete Skills Builder sessions are timetabled weekly, and the teaching of essential skills is built into curriculum medium-term planning across all subjects. Each year group focuses on age-appropriate skill steps, based on the assessment data for each class- for example, "Listening carefully to others" in Year 3 or "Leading a group to complete a task" in Year 6- ensuring progression over time. Teachers plan differentiated activities to meet the needs of all learners, including SEN pupils, with examples such as using teamwork in a group science investigation or problem solving during a maths challenge. This consistent and structured approach ensures the essential skills are taught purposefully and embedded across the curriculum.
Keep practising
Essential skills are systematically embedded into the school’s medium-term curriculum planning, with teachers explicitly mapping them to subject objectives using the Skills Builder Framework. This ensures pupils regularly practise and apply essential skills across subjects in meaningful, real-world contexts. For instance, in Year 5 science, students demonstrate Aiming High and Staying Positive while testing parachute designs, while in English, Speaking and Creativity are developed through persuasive writing and presentations linked to PSHE themes such as equality and wellbeing.
A cross-curricular and consistent approach means essential skills are embedded purposefully throughout the wider curriculum. In a Year 6 enterprise project, Leadership and Teamwork are key focuses as pupils design, market, and sell products collaboratively. The school’s Enrichment and Careers Programme is also rooted in the Skills Builder framework, offering pupils opportunities to develop essential skills in aspirational, real-world contexts, helping them see their relevance beyond school.
For SEND pupils, tailored pathways prioritise life skills development, with Skills Builder forming the foundation. Specific interventions, such as LEGO-based therapy, focus on teaching Teamwork, Speaking, and Listening in small group settings.
Extra-curricular activities are also designed to reinforce essential skills. In Debate Club, pupils strengthen Speaking and Listening by constructing and responding to arguments. The School and Eco Councils promote Problem Solving and Leadership through student-led initiatives. Sports clubs such as football and netball emphasise Teamwork, Aiming High, and Staying Positive, supporting resilience and collaboration.
As a platinum Artsmark school, Creativity is central to the curriculum. All pupils participate in annual performances, with drama, art, and music clubs further enhancing the development of creative skills across the school community.
Bring it to life
All pupils have access to real-life experiences where they can apply and develop their Skills Builder essential skills in meaningful contexts. A key highlight is the annual Careers Day, where over 20 employers from a wide range of sectors visit the school to deliver interactive sessions, allowing pupils to practise Listening, Speaking, and Aiming High through direct engagement with professionals. Project days and off-site visits, encourage Problem Solving, Creativity and Teamwork as pupils work in groups to design solutions to real-world problems. The art and DT focus for Year 6 is ‘puppets’ where they work alongside professionals from the Young People’s Puppet Theatre to create a puppet show from scratch (designing and making the puppets, writing the script, building the scenery, directing and performing the show). Year 4 take part in the annual create day which enables them to apply skills learnt. These planned experiences are embedded into the school calendar and curriculum to ensure every child can practise and see the relevance of essential skills beyond the classroom. We are committed to providing learning opportunities away from the school environment and offer a number of school trips and residential activities for pupils to apply skills taught in a real life context.
What's next
Develop ‘Skills Champions’ from each class to identify and reward when they see skills taught and/or applied. Develop lunchtime playground activities linked to the essential skills More SEND interventions to explicitly link to the essential skills Become a Luton hub of excellence for Skills Builder- others to come and see the programme in action and to provide outreach work to help other schools to introduce and/or embed Use Teachmeet to share the tool
