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Youth Challenge Academy is a secondary alternative provision proudly serving young people from Bolton and surrounding towns, catering for secondary aged pupils who have been permanently excluded from mainstream education. We pride ourselves on being a welcoming and supportive environment that offers a fresh start for all students, regardless of their previous educational experience. We believe in unconditional positive regard and strive to build lasting positive relationships in order to inspire personal transformation. Our curriculum is designed to address barriers to learning, enabling students to re-access mainstream education where appropriate, and to shape students into happy, healthy adults who contribute positively to society.
Skills builder thoroughly complements our careers curriculum which is also weaved throughout each of our curriculum subjects. Skills builder is delivered and referred to frequently in every subject offered and is the perfect programme that complements our whole offer, supporting our ability to give pupils the necessary tools, knowledge and time to improve their skills enabling them to thrive post-16, beyond our school and within the working world.
The Accelerator+ programme has continued to support us to thoroughly embed Skills Builder through the very core of our offer as we continue to sustain and maintain our gold award. Through the programme, our pupils not only know the importance of the key essential skills, but are able to see the relevance of them in each of our subjects, which ultimately supports them beyond education. The visual representation of the icons and access to the comprehensive library of resources continues to strengthen our offer to all of our pupils. Pupils are now confidently able to use the common language to discuss the essential skills and are able to highlight moments when they have exhibited them either in lessons or when experiencing ‘real-world’ situations with employers and businesses.
Overall impact
The Accelerator programme is fantastic for the whole staff team and for all pupils. The support received from the education associate is also fantastic and really informative. The combination of the programme and the Advisor makes embedding Skills Builder into school so much easier. The access to resources enhances lessons and pupils accessibility to further understand and to develop their key skills.
Keep it simple
Skills builder is an integral part of Youth Challenge's whole school strategy and the essential skills are not only visible in every classroom, around school and on display boards, but also fully embedded into every curriculum subject. Skills builder focused lessons help us to develop the skills further and this is being explicitly taught in several key subjects on a regular basis. Visibility and visual reminders of skills builder is really important to us. This is achieved with icons being displayed and used in every classroom on a daily basis, and displays being created throughout the school. We also use skills stickers in pupils’ books to identify when skills have been practiced, developed and recognised. Skills builder also has a dedicated section on the website which allows staff, parents and pupils to access the online resources with ease. A common language is fostered throughout the school, which is regularly reflected upon and further developed through pupil opportunities, assessments and staff CDP
Start early, keep going
All pupils from Y7 - Y11 access regular skills builder lessons via the career’s curriculum, sports curriculum and the ECM curriculum, all of which allow pupils to work as groups or as individuals to gain knowledge, to develop and to improve their understanding of the key essential skills. They are also exposed to the essential skills in all curriculum subjects every lesson, when teachers visually inform them of the skills that they will be practicing during their planned lessons with the skills icons displayed on their classroom walls / interactive boards. This ensures that pupils are constantly immersed in opportunities to improve them. For a number of pupils who access 1:1 key working, they also have the opportunity to work on their bespoke skills builder passports, enabling them to focus on individual skills at to improve them at their own pace. These experiences are logged within their books, via the hub or benchmark.
Measure it
During lessons, the skills are always present. Large icons are used at the front of each classroom to inform pupils about the skills that they will be working on during that particular lesson. Stickers are used throughout the marking process to highlight progress in the skills and these are displayed in the pupil’s books. Within the career’s lessons, each half term, we focus upon one of the key skills and a lesson is taught to improve the pupil’s knowledge and understanding. Formative assessment techniques are used to ensure pupils are accessing the right steps. The whole staff team informally tracks progress through the use of rewards when skills are exhibited throughout the school day. Group progress is captured on the hub and students are baselined with regular progress checks being completed. Pupils are also encouraged to self-reflect using skills builder benchmark as and when possible.
Focus tightly
All students access careers lessons so have many opportunities to be explicitly taught the essential skills via the skills builder resources and by taking part in the lessons and activities that are written as part of the formal curriculum. This allows us to complete more bespoke sessions which are differentiated for pupils at different stages. Students access explicit lessons at least twice a term, sometimes more. Students also concentrate on improving their own skills with the support of 1:1 key workers who work through different skills at the individual child's pace. In PE at KS4 the skills have been embedded into the curriculum and explicit teaching of the skills happens here also. The skills are also assessed in PE to show progress. Progress shown within the skills is then rewarded with raffle tickets which account for prizes at the end each week.
Keep practising
Our ECM curriculum (Every Child Matters) directly links skill builder into the activities that are delivered during our offsite activities and utilises them in 'real world' situations and this is evident through the curriculum planning. Within the wider curriculum offer, all staff refer to the skills in all lessons and use the steps to give them opportunities to practice and to strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the skills. Our comprehensive vocational curriculum immerses pupils in 'real life' situations that show them the relevance of the skills and supports them in putting them in practice and gives them a multitude of opportunities to develop and improve them often. Pupils attending work experience complete weekly paperwork that refers directly to the skills and how they have exhibited, developed and practiced them throughout their work placement. Careers events take place regularly across the academic year both on site and off site where pupils meet employers and professionals who discuss the key transferable skills and how they are used in their work setting. This allows the pupils to see them in action and puts them in context of the world of work.
Bring it to life
At Youth Challenge we host numerous employer encounter events, and arrange visits to a large number of offsite opportunities that encourage the use of the key essential skills giving pupils several opportunities to develop and to improve them. When meeting employers, we ensure that the employers have been given a skills brief and they are encouraged to talk about the key skills, relating them to their own employment. Work experience opportunities can appear very different at Youth Challenge from a mainstream setting. Pupils attend work experience when they are 'work ready' and placements can be for longer periods of time. While attending the work experience placement, pupils and employers’ complete regular reviews which also incorporates conversations about skills builder and how the pupil has exhibited these within their role throughout their placement. We also take part in work place safaris for pupils who are not ready for long term placements as part of our partnership with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) so that 100% of the pupils who attend Youth Challenge are given the opportunity to explore skills being used in work place settings.
What's next
Our next steps will be to continue to embed Skills builder into our school and to ensure that pupils have more opportunities to develop and to experience the skills regularly. We will also continue to extend our support to parents to ensure that they feel confident in supporting their children's progress outside of school.
