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West Rainton Primary School is an inclusive village primary school located in West Rainton, on the outskirts of Durham in North East England. Serving the communities of West Rainton and nearby Leamside. We have implemented Skills Builder to run alongside the careers curriculum, to highlight and develop the skills our pupils need to thrive. The aim of bringing Skills Builder to West Rainton Primary School is to raise student aspirations, develop their confidence in identifying their own skills and strengths and the ability demonstrate them effectively.
Serving 150 pupils from Nursery to Year 6, the school integrated the Skills Builder Universal Framework 2.0 directly into its curriculum to equip pupils with foundational interpersonal and life capabilities. The framework was chosen to provide a structured approach to skill progression, ensuring that every learner gained a shared understanding of core competencies alongside their academic journey
Overall impact
At West Rainton Primary School, embedding the framework has helped to establish a consistent, shared language across the whole school community. Pupils progressively developed core capabilities, demonstrating noticeable growth in their confidence, collaborative working, and expressive abilities. Staff engaged with digital tracking tools to align classroom tasks with explicit skill steps. Furthermore, incorporating essential skills into everyday routines strengthened pupils' readiness for career-focused opportunities and community activities.
Keep it simple
The school has embedded essential skills vocabulary throughout daily operations, including icon displays within classrooms, the dinner hall, and by raising the profile of essential skills regularly in school assemblies. Visual cues such as posters were positioned across learning areas to remind pupils of the target competencies.
A map-style careers display explicitly linked skills posters to various job roles, while individual Career Progression books in every year group connected essential skills to specific career pathways. Staff reinforce terminology through meetings, Relationship and Health Education (RHE) lessons, and regular visual prompts.
To celebrate effort, teachers awarded Dojo points, Housepoints, and certificates for skill development, particularly in speaking and listening while recognising progress during Friday celebration assemblies.
Start early, keep going
Skill development at West Rainton begins in Nursery and continues sequentially through to Year 6. This ensures all 150 pupils participate in the programme. Skill progression is mapped across the entire school year within the whole-school RHE curriculum schedule. This structured progression ensured that learners continuously revisited and built upon their essential skills as they moved through each key stage.
Measure it
Staff use the Skills Builder Hub to conduct digital formative assessments and track progress across year groups. Teachers complete baseline assessments via the Hub's assessment tool. The assessments have enabled staff to track progress and measure impact clearly. The Hub has been a useful tool to identify and deliver lessons that meet the needs of learners, we have used the short lessons as a starting point and developed from there.
Focus tightly
At West Rainton Primary School, we set aside dedicated time within the timetable to deliver explicit, step-by-step Skills Builder lessons. Lessons are delivered via the RHE curriculum, using a two-year rotating cycle to systematically cover key skill steps such as speaking, listening, problem-solving, and leadership. Teachers deliver lessons using Hub resources as well as bespoke sessions adapted to learner needs.
As pupils have developed their confidence and understanding of essential skills, they marked their application of specific skills in their books using symbol icons and stickers. Senior leaders conduct regular book looks to review written work, ensuring that explicit skill teaching is consistently embedded across classes.
Keep practising
Pupils actively applied their skills across wider school contexts and extracurricular offerings, including science club, dance, and steel drum band. Student leaders demonstrate essential skills through various roles: Reading Council members from every year group managed book reviews and library care, while School Council representatives looked after the outdoor learning area, tended to plants, and managed the student suggestion box. Pupils have been able to demonstrate and practice their essential skills throughout the curriculum and also through the roles and responsibilities as representatives. Staff use display prompts showing how skills could be applied across different curriculum areas, such as through using the outdoor learning menu. Additionally, meaningful skill discussions took place before and after external trips, including visits from guest authors and theatre productions, allowing pupils to reflect on their learning.
Bring it to life
Real-world connections are integrated across all year groups through termly career lessons and employer encounters. Year 5 and Year 6 pupils engaged directly with higher education institutions, and visiting workplace role models such as the school caretaker and chef completed five-question essential skill checklists alongside pupils. Local employers and partners, including house developers, NHS representatives, Durham University, and local artists, engaged with classes to demonstrate how skills apply in professional settings. Educational visits, such as trips to local theatre productions, were explicitly mapped to essential skills, while staff completed training to facilitate structured discussions around real-world skill application.
What's next
To build on this foundation next academic year, we intend to continue using classroom icons to further solidify skill language across all learning spaces. We plan to review and introduce dedicated Skills Builder Challenge Days to deepen practical application and allow pupils to further demonstrate and practice their essential skills. The school also aims to implement Learner Passports, enabling pupils to explicitly record and evidence the essential skills they demonstrate during extracurricular activities and leadership roles.
