By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyse site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information.
West Lancashire Community High School is a specialist learning environment. Our core mission is to prepare every student for a successful, autonomous transition into adult life and the workforce.
We initially partnered with the Skills Builder Accelerator in 2021 with the goal of embedding the essential skills across all that we do. We want our learners to understand the transferability of these skills for their futures, unlocking their classroom learning and preparing them to engage positively and successfully with the outside world. For our students, building capabilities like resilience, communication, and self-regulation is deeply intertwined with personal independence. The Universal Framework allows us to weave these core competencies directly into our specialised curriculum and daily routines.
By creating a common vocabulary, the programme has empowered our students to confidently articulate their strengths and elevate their future aspirations, making sure that they are equipped to actively participate in society and confidently navigate their next steps.
Overall impact
The consistent use of this shared language has enabled our learners to truly understand what these skills are, how they can make progress in them, and how they relate to the wider world we are preparing them for. This structured approach allows our learners to visualise their own progress, enabling them to experience tangible success and growing self-confidence. A standout highlight has been the success of our off-site community café and we look forward to continuing to develop this to provide learners with real-life opportunities to learn and grow.
Keep it simple
The essential skills are fully woven into the fabric of West Lancs. They are embedded across daily classroom practice and remain a continual priority within our School Improvement Plan. Visually, our environment champions this focus through an interactive corridor mural, classroom icon displays, and a café "Wonder Wall" that directly links photos of student jobs to specific skills. We reinforce the value of the skills by celebrating learners with Skills Builder certificates and delivering targeted staff training to ensure all teachers and TAs provide highly impactful teaching and learning opportunities.
Parental engagement is a two-way partnership; live skill progress updates are shared via the Evidence for Learning (EfL) platform and explicitly discussed during parent-teacher consultations to maximise reinforcement at home. Furthermore, the framework is introduced to prospective families during school tours and integrated into Key Stage 5 transition packs.
The essential skills have become a fundamental pillar of our school and the wider community, and we proudly share our practice with other settings to support their development.
Start early, keep going
At West Lancs, our learners develop their essential skills every day, in every classroom activity, encounter and enrichment activity. We have embedded the Universal Framework across all that we do.
From their first day with us through to their final year, all students benefit from regular, strategically planned touchpoints designed to build and practice these essential skills. This consistent, school-wide immersion ensures a seamless progression of skills that adapts to our learners' evolving needs as they progress. By keeping the framework central to learner routines, we provide a strong foundation that encourages families to reinforce these habits and vocabulary at home, making skill development a lifelong journey.
Measure it
To monitor learner progress in the essential skills, we use the Evidence for Learning (EfL) platform. This allows us to capture live evidence of learner progress and staff also use the Skills Builder Hub to inform daily teaching priorities. Our specialised branch maps, aligned with the steps of the Universal Framework, help us to track individual pupil progress, with this data directly informing the setting of EHCP targets.
As well as this, students take ownership of their own growth through Vocational Profiles, which provide opportunities for learners to self-reflect against the skills and steps and add evidence of skill development to their skill passports.
Focus tightly
At West Lancs, opportunities for discrete teaching are integrated across every element of school life. Specific skill outcomes are intentionally embedded into every learning experience across the curriculum. To support students in achieving these outcomes, staff use resources from the Hub. Teachers adapt these tools to create tailored learning pathways, using short lessons, structured workbooks, skill passports, and experiential projects. By providing this direct, explicit instruction using adapted activities, we ensure that the framework is fully accessible, allowing all learners to understand and master specific skill steps in a meaningful context.
Keep practising
West Lancs excels at providing regular opportunities for learners to practice their essential skills by embedding the framework across all areas of learning. The essential skills are written into our medium-term plans, ensuring that staff consistently use step-level objectives within all daily learning experiences. To reinforce this practice, we use Extended Projects that tie directly into our core curriculum content. As well as project-based learning, students have opportunities to practice their skills through extracurricular activities including the Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) award scheme, where core skill competencies have been directly integrated into our DofE passports.
Bring it to life
West Lancs brings the essential skills to life by embedding the framework into immersive, real-world employer encounters and career-related learning. Key events like Careers Week, WOW Days, and employer-led workshops allow students to apply their skills directly alongside industry professionals. A standout success is our off-site community café, which is run by Key Stage 5 students for the general public. Skill steps are displayed so learners can actively reflect on their progress throughout and talk about this progress with customers.
Furthermore, we deliver a robust work experience (WEX) programme across Key Stages 4 and 5. Through termly WEX reviews, daily reflection diaries, and specialised Vocational Profiles, students collaborate directly with employers to evaluate their strengths. This is further enhanced by the "What's your strength?" resource, which supports meaningful learner discussions during mock interviews and encounter sessions. By bridging the gap between education and employment, we ensure our students fully grasp how these essential skills unlock their independence in wider life.
What's next
Building on our successes next year, West Lancs is committed to expanding our regional outreach work by sharing our learnings to support and inspire others. Internally, our priority is to keep the essential skills deeply embedded as a core pillar of daily practice across all key stages, maintaining the high visibility of the framework in every lesson. To enrich this application, we plan to further develop our use of immersive Extended Projects across the curriculum.
