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The Cedar School is a special school in Southampton. Our students’ primary needs are medical and physical. We have 10 classes that cover EYFS, KS1, KS2, KS3 and KS4. For our year on the accelerator programme, we focused on teaching the Essential Skills to our the students in our secondary department. We have a large variety of need across this department including PMLD, neurodiversity, physical, medical, degenerative illness and children with complex disabilities.
Overall impact
In the secondary department we had a strong commitment to supporting our students to develop these skills. We have seen children grow in confidence in their own abilities and recognise that they have something to offer to their class, school and the outside world.
Through teaching the skills one child has learnt how to problems solve when there are disagreements with their peers, another who took a leadership role in building new beds for the allotment and an increase in communication skills.
Keep it simple
We began by introducing the skills during our Careers weeks to all children in years 7 to 11. We expanded this to applying the across the curriculum. Each half term we focused on two skills and each teacher included them in their lesson plans. The skills have been explicitly taught in all subjects, as well as Discover Days and through whole school assemblies. By including them in whole school assemblies the primary children are also being exposed to these skills.
Start early, keep going
All students in the secondary department have participated in Skills Builder in the 2025-2026 academic year. The hope is to roll this out to the whole school in the future. The Skills intertwine with our Life Skills curriculum, enhancing provision and embedding skills for the students’ life beyond school now and for the future.
Measure it
We have used the Skills builder Hub assessment system. This works well alongside our formative assessment. We have been able to see the development of each student over the year. Using the hub has evidenced the skills we have witnessed and has provided a solid data trail for us to build on.
Focus tightly
During the year we have had a close focus on building these skills with our learners. As mentioned above the skills have been taught across the curriculum. The students are applying the skills across different contexts including lessons, social clubs, assemblies, trips and work experience.
A key part of the journey for us has been celebrating success. Each week a student from each class is selected to receive a Skills Builder certificate to celebrate the development of skills. The certificates are presented in the Warm Glow assembly and a photo of the student is placed on the Skills Builder stars notice board.
Keep practising
Noticing students applying the skills has helped us to embed them. Saying in a creative lesson “that was good problem solving” or after a group input “you really showed me you were listening” has built confidence, as well as supporting students to recognise how they are applying the skills.
For some of our more complex learners practicing skills has led them to seeking opportunities to interact and developing their communication skills.
Bring it to life
Our learners have had numerous opportunities to apply the skills. Planning and purchasing items for a new year 11 outside area, reading to their friends, going on work experience, planning trips, supporting the younger children and taking part in a Dragons Den style event at St Mary’s football stadium.
Our Christmas extravaganza gives our secondary students the opportunity to take part in an enterprise project. The students plan, make items to sell, sell the items from a stall and are taught about cost and profit. The students then keep any profit to buy items for their classroom. The enterprise project sees the students taking on a variety of roles and applying all of the skills.
What's next
The aim is to embed these skills across the curriculum. We have already linked skills directly to our Cedar Values. It is important for us to not add to teacher and support staff workload, whilst still building these skills for out students. Each skill can be easily included in the different curriculum areas. Our aim is to equip the students at Cedar with the skills that will enable them to achieve their potential.
