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Lift Beacon High is a co-educational secondary school located in Holloway, within the London Borough of Islington. The school motto is to “believe, belong, become”, and to further enhance social, emotional, and employability outcomes for vulnerable learners, the school piloted the Skills Builder Accelerator programme within their alternative provision setting. Essential skills are embedded into interventions for targeted learners and those at risk of NEET, to build core Communication, Leadership, and Teamwork skills to support successful transitions into Key Stage 4, post-16 pathways, and back into mainstream learning environments.
Overall impact
Implementing the Skills Builder Universal Framework has established a structured, tangible approach to personal development within the school's intervention provision. The Framework provides a common, accessible language that helps boost learner agency, employability, and resilience. Staff have noted improved learner engagement during dedicated skill sessions, with learners becoming increasingly adept at recognising and applying essential skills in daily life.
Keep it simple
The school embedded essential skills into daily practice by integrating Framework vocabulary and skill displays across key intervention sessions and learning spaces. Teachers working with targeted groups of learners incorporate skill-based language into praise and rewards to recognise learner effort and celebrate achievement.
Start early, keep going
The Lift Beacon High Skills Builder programme is delivered through an intervention to engage targeted groups of learners from each year group from Year 7 through Year 10. These structured groups focused tightly on driving learner engagement and achievement, using essential skills to help establish a continuous progression model designed to prepare learners for the demands of GCSEs and post-16 transitions.
Measure it
To track progress effectively, learners complete a self-assessment on Skills Builder Benchmark on the focus skill, and ongoing progress is logged on an adapted Skill Passport. This learner self-assessment directly informs teaching strategies and helps staff select and curate resources from the Skills Builder Hub and tailor them to learner needs.
Focus tightly
Explicit skill teaching is delivered through a dedicated session each week, focussing primarily on the Communication skills, alongside Leadership and Teamwork. Staff use short lessons from the Skills Builder Hub to teach and build essential skills at an age-appropriate level, with input from learner self assessments and reflections. This structured approach ensured that learners systematically develop foundational steps before applying their skills to broader contexts.
Keep practising
Teaching strategies in the dedicated interventions sessions emphasise and develop independent learning, with staff offering in-class support to help learners apply Framework steps across different subject tasks. This approach encourages learners to transfer their Communication and Problem Solving skills across the wider curriculum.
Bring it to life
Staff provide one-to-one guidance on how learners could use the skills during critical transition points, such as goal-setting for GCSEs and post-16 options. Learners participate in educational visits to local employers where they observe essential skills in action; interviewing workplace staff, and practising professional communication in real-world environments. Lift Beacon High also participates in the Empower Project for learners at risk of NEET, which is aligned to the Universal Framework in collaboration with Islington Council.
What's next
In addition to the strong skill-building work that has taken place at Lift Beacon High this year, the school also plays a crucial role as a secondary school in the local Islington Skills Builder Project. Plans are in place to roll out the programme to all Year 7 learners; using a Challenge Day to help welcome and integrate them into their new school.
