Stories from Accelerator: West 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 West London

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

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…

Cranford Primary School is a mixed school, from Nursery through to Year 6. The children at Cranford Primary School come from many different cultural backgrounds; speak different languages and have different religions.

‍“We became involved with Skills Builder Accelerator so that we could prepare the children in our care with the skills needed for their future: in their future education; their future careers and their future lives. It is evident, from watching the children play in the playground and observing the children in their lessons that they are continuing to build upon these essential skills of life. At this time, in particular, the programme has been vital to children's, as well as teachers and the wider community's, ability to remain focused and resilient.”

The Kingston Academy opened in 2015 and I joined the school in September 2020 in the capacity of Careers Lead. I wanted to begin to embed a comprehensive and clear framework to support the understanding of skills across the school, with particular on focus on Key Stage 4 & 5.

‍“It has been great to see students understand that they can learn skills and how they can do this through the materials available. In addition, the Framework helps students to understand why each skill is important in school, education and employment.”

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Wolf Fields Primary School is based in Ealing. The school secured the highest overall pupil progress results in the London Borough of Ealing in 2019, alongside above national average results in all areas.

“Having seen the value of Skills Builder, we wanted to ensure that it was fully embedded across our school as it is part of our Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) curriculum. The skills have been particularly important during periods of remote learning. The training provided by the Skills Builder Accelerator programme has been very useful to support teachers in knowing what is available and then supporting them to select the most appropriate resources for their class.”

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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.