Stories from Accelerator: South London

February 28, 2022

Applications for the Accelerator are now open. Find out more and apply here, and read on for some great stories from the programme...

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‍Our work in South London

Over the last few years, there’s been some brilliant progress happening in schools and colleges in South London, where we work with around 30 Primaries, Secondaries and Special Schools.

High quality programmes that provide opportunities to boost students’ essential skills are recognised by Skills Builder Awards. Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards are given to those modelling best practice in essential skills education by embedding our six principles:

In 2021, 302 schools and colleges achieved an Award across the UK. 90 of these chose to submit a Case Study. You can explore the full Case Study Showcase here, but here are just a few highlights…

Located in South West London, Shaftesbury Park Primary School is a two-form, UNICEF Rights Respecting school that offers an integrated curriculum in which essential skills are a key part. As a local school with a global perspective, Shaftesbury Park is a school that incorporates the International Primary Curriculum into two distinct streams: Francophone bilingual and Enterprise.

‍“Over the past few years of applying the Skills Builder approach to developing essential skills for our pupils, we have seen a rise in the agency and confidence of our pupils. From lesson observations, learning walks, feedback from teachers, external moderators and most importantly, from the pupils themselves, we have seen a rise in the confidence in our students to express their opinions and reflect accurately on their learning.

"Some highlights in our journey so far include: many pupils citing trips to businesses as their most memorable educational experiences; a group of Year 5 pupils winning the Mayor's Fund for London Award to be given a £1000 grant to improve our school playground; a Year 4 class collaborating with other schools to write a chapter of a published book hosted by the Southbank Centre; and the whole school coming together to debate and debunk climate myths and create a giant banner to inspire others to make changes for good.”

At Pelham Primary School, the aim was to elevate the skills curriculum further and not just think about the skills during trips, project weeks and challenge days.

‍“It is really important to use that our Year 6s leave us for high school as 'Pelhamites' and their strong grounding at the primary level stays with them. We want our children to feel empowered that anyone can improve in any area of the skills curriculum with practice, support and clear next steps in learning.

"I think it's obviously been a difficult 18 months for everyone, but I am really proud of the children and staff at Pelham. Our Skills Builder Challenge day was one of the first things we did as a whole school (Covid-safe) after the lockdown and it felt great to have a project that everyone could work on. I think the Accelerator programme is still having a great impact on our work at Pelham. I think children have enjoyed the virtual assemblies and the short lesson during home learning. We have raised the profile of Skills Builder through more displays, having a skill of the month and linking our achievement awards to the skills. We look forward to working with the wider school community further in the next academic year.”

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About Accelerator

Skills Builder Accelerator is our flagship programme for schools and colleges. We work together with you to develop and implement a complete strategy for teaching essential skills in your institution, including training, support, tools, and resources, resulting in real impact for your students.

Interested? Find out more here, where you can download our prospectus. You can also check your eligibility to apply for a funded programme place here.

Programme places are limited and will be allocated in three rounds.