We have become a 'Skills Builder' school.

The Skills Builder Universal Framework is the world’s leading tool for measuring and building essential skills. It breaks the 8 essential skills down into a sequence of steps, starting with absolute beginner through to mastery.

It's completely open source, and backed by years of research.  Developed with leading businesses, academics and educators, it consolidates the array of different frameworks into something comprehensive and practical.

Essential skills are highly transferrable, they support us to do any job, anywhere. They are speaking, listening, problem-solving, creativity, aiming high, staying positive, teamwork and leadership. 

Those with stronger essential skills have been shown to enjoy greater life satisfaction and can earn up to 12% more than their peers.

On a national level, having a more skilled workforce can also result in greater productivity, and can ultimately contribute to a stronger economy overall.

The crucial teaching and learning strands running through these are plotted out throughout our school progression so that children are able to build upon previous years.

As part of this, we engage with local businesses and parents who visit the school to discuss their jobs and the skills required for life in the future workplace. We engage in online seminars and links with a diverse range of professions that represent all different types of people, to hopefully inspire children to be whoever and whatever they want to be. 

In addition to this, we also engage with local businesses throughout the year, linking them with our learning journeys. For example, we have links with a local diary farmer, Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Cannon Hall Farm, Warburtons, local construction companies, Walkers Garden Centre for landscape design, police, local artists, dancers and performers, nurses, builders, photographers. In this way, our children are able to examine how links are made in real life occupations. 

The children also enhance this area of the curriculum by having whole school events day in the autumn term, where they engage in an immersive experience linking with real-life scenarios. Some events we have run in the past have been 'The Moon-base Challenge' and ' The Celebration Card Challenge'. We also hold a week in summer where the challenges are extended, and again hold real-world elements to them. We also encourage intergenerational learning with our families within this. Last year, we collaborated with STEMM Wise on a project for year 5 and year 6 children which also enabled children to use their skills with their parents, learning alongside one another and developing skills for the world of work and learning in engineering, technology and sciences.