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Sycamore Short Stay School is a Primary and Secondary alternative provision, which forms a unique setting made up of KS1&2 (maximum of 16 pupils at any time) and KS3 (maximum of 24 pupils at any time). All of our pupils have been excluded, or are at risk of exclusion, from a mainstream school. We have a transient population; pupils can be on roll from 6 weeks up to 2 years. Over one academic year, we may see 50 to 80 pupils.
Many of our pupils arrive with low self-esteem, resistance to learning, and are often disillusioned with the school experiences they have received. Our whole school ethos is based upon creating a welcoming and supportive environment that offers every child/young person a fresh start - regardless of their previous educational experiences. We hope to instil inspiration, aspiration and resilience into all of our pupils; allowing them to embrace lifelong learning and make a positive impact within the wider community. We believe everyone can achieve whatever they want to - we aim to build strong positive relationships with all pupils and parents/carers in order to inspire personal transformation. We wanted to join the Skills Builder Accelerator programme in order to support us in embedding a common language around the skills pupils need in order to be successful in their future.
Dudley’s NEET population is almost 20%; we hope that encouraging pupils to consider their skills and talents as more than just academic results will have an impact on their chances of becoming part of the NEET population.
Overall impact
The Skills Builder programme has had a huge impact at Sycamore; it is a visible thread that runs through everything we do. From initial inductions, the school building, pupil progress reviews, letters to parents and the taught curriculum, Skills Builder is made known to all. The biggest impact has been the use of the language from the framework – pupils are now recognising their achievements and using terminology to accurately define their successes. Staff are also familiar with the framework and have commented on the improvement in pupil work following ‘aiming high’ lessons, as well as increased results in the ‘Pupil Attitude to School and Self’ survey when pupils move to their next destination.
Keep it simple
Essential skills are embedded throughout the teaching and learning at Sycamore. Ongoing half-termly internal training has focused on using the hub, as well as specific skills and how they are transferable and differentiated across the curriculum. Staff use the language explicitly with pupils when measuring individualised targets, feedback in marking and during parent/carer consultations. Letters are sent home with updates regarding the review of pupil progress, specifically referencing Skills Builder steps, and this information is also published on our school website. This review incorporates all staff meeting to baseline assess pupils against the steps and then review progress every 6 weeks.
School newsletters are published half-termly, with Skills Builder/Careers as a priority focus. This has informed parents of the links to the programme with the educational experience children have had.
Our school behaviour and rewards system has been developed to recognise the effort pupils have put into practising their essential skills with money added to their ‘wage slip’. Pupils are reminded of the essential skills through displays in every classroom and on corridors entering the learning space.
Start early, keep going
As a setting covering KS1, KS2 and KS3, planned activities to enhance pupil understanding and application of the skills are differentiated. For instance, visitors from ‘Little Lifesavers’ and ‘St John Ambulance’ incorporated discussions around leadership and teamwork as appropriate for the relevant age and stage of pupils. When the Violence Reduction Partnership came to school, they encouraged pupils to reflect on what doing well looks like for them – raising pupil self-aspirations - through discussions regarding gang culture with KS3 and stranger danger with younger pupils. Pupils are actively encouraged to see how the essential skills can help them thrive in their wider lives.
All staff have used the Skills Builder Hub to access resources and use these to support the development in all areas of the curriculum, as well as through discrete teaching of the skills as planned and timetabled sessions. Our curriculum map highlights how extra-curricular activities link with our cultural focus and the skill focus for each week.
Pupils are celebrated for progress against the framework with regular parent/carer events and in our school newsletter.
Measure it
Our school values are safe, respect and learn. All pupils have targets focusing on these values that are individual to them based on their displayed behaviours. The ‘learn’ aspect is directly linked to the robust assessment of pupils against the skills builder framework. These targets are judged in every lesson and session, and reviewed every 6 weeks by all staff.
We have developed our benchmarking tool where pupils are assessed as ‘always’, ‘mostly’, ‘sometimes’, ‘occasionally’ or ‘never’ meeting the steps within each skill. This benchmarking tool feeds into our end-of-term reports to parents and colourfully presents the progress that pupils have made.
All staff are involved in the assessment of pupils against the skills builder framework to ensure consistency. These meetings further provide an opportunity for staff to use the language of the framework where specific examples of pupil progress are shared.
After each review, a letter is sent to parents to share the progress their child has made against the steps and how their new ‘learn’ target links to the framework.
Focus tightly
Through the use of our bespoke benchmarking and assessment tool, staff have data readily available to enable accurate and effective differentiation targeting pupils’ next steps in dedicated discrete skills builder lessons. These lessons take place weekly in KS1 and KS2, and twice weekly at KS3.
To further develop our pupils’ teamwork and leadership ambitions, a third session focusing specifically on these areas has been introduced. This is as a result of analysing the progress pupils have made in each of the skill areas.
All pupils have individualised targets reviewed in each lesson; at least one of these targets is an explicit link to the pupils’ target step in their weakest area. This encourages pupils to focus on one thing to improve, and for staff to identify moments of excellence for pupils which can be celebrated.
Keep practising
The language of the skills builder framework is consistently used by all staff across the curriculum. We have developed ‘subject link skills’ for example, English has been linked with speaking and listening; Maths has been linked with problem-solving and staying positive; PE has been linked with teamwork and leadership. This has enabled staff to become experts in different skill areas, but also to enable pupils to continually practice the essential skills and see how they can be applied to real-life scenarios.
Pupils practice essential skills in lessons, but also through drop-down days where we have focused on careers, budgeting and aspirations.
Extra-curricular activities are always well-planned for pupils to practice essential skills. This includes day trips where pupils practised speaking, listening and creativity at Dudley Zoo as well as overnight residentials which focus on leadership, teamwork, aiming high and staying positive.
Bring it to life
Employer encounters, including visits and trips, are planned for all pupils to develop their skills. These encounters have included the Black Country Living Museum, Dudley Zoo, Dudley Library and Dudley Canal and Caverns Trust to name but a few. Staff liaise with local employers to ensure visits link with the skills, and workshops take place around visits to raise pupil awareness of the skill in different settings.
We have introduced termly careers weeks where pupils look at specific employers or situations and how the essential skills are used in that area. This included a drop-down day where pupils tackled budgeting problems (problem-solving), enterprise (creativity), hopes, dreams and aspirations (aiming high and staying positive).
Our recent visit from the West Midlands Fire Service enabled pupils to ask questions about teamwork and leadership, as well as being able to practice listening and speaking. Staff briefed the Fire Service on the skills builder programme before the visit. Briefing visitors encourages the use of a common language to enable pupils to get the most from the experience, but also for visitors to link the skills to their role and similar career paths.
What's next
As we continue to embed the programme across school, we are going to be looking at how the language of the skills builder universal framework can be further promoted in feedback to pupils through updating our ‘feedback and marking policy’.
We also see a benefit in demonstrating that the same activity can be an opportunity to practice multiple essential skills. For the next academic year as we plan our experiences and SMSC offer, we will be ensuring that pupils are aware of all the opportunities they have to practice a variety of essential skills.
