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Horizon Campus caters for students from 16 to 25 years with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). At the heart of everything we do is our wider school vision of creating a world where everyone can flourish. In line with the school?s mission of breaking down barriers for children and young adults in Enfield with special educational needs, we take your young person further on their educational journey helping them to develop skills for life and embrace independence as they prepare for their next steps, skills builder has allowed this growth across our curriculum and everything we offer. We are driven by a desire to achieve meaningful outcomes and make a difference. We have a proven track record of changing lives, pioneering positive change in our local community and doing our bit to address the gaps and inequalities faced by young people with additional needs.
Overall impact
The programme has allowed us to assess learners on key areas of their life skills via Skills Builder. It has allowed us to bring the curriculum to life.
Keep it simple
Skills builder has been a big part of our daily routine over at West Lea Horizon. We have a timetable form time which means that Skills Builder activities are set every week and staff choose to either use the activities online or to adapt to activities to meet the needs of the learners ,we also use Skills Builder as part of our assessment process in all activities, especially within the curriculum and life and work curriculum, careers PSHE and especially our work experience. All learners at Key Stage Five take part in work experience either via a supported group placement or whether it be an individualised work experience placement. The Skills Builder framework and reflective log allows us to assess our learners accordingly. The Skills Builder framework has become a crucial part and it means that all staff are using the same language when they are speaking to our learners which is important, because it means the language is consistent and concise.
Start early, keep going
Horizon is a post 16 provision that has students taking functional skill activities all the way to pre-interns and internship, and it's important to note that skills builder is being used across the whole of the Horizon campus and is a crucial part of our everyday life. We encourage all staff to use it, whether they are teaching staff, whether they are admin staff so that when they are dealing with learners, it means that the dialogue amongst the learners and the staff is always consistent, it has really allowed us to develop the curriculum and develop the way we work as a campus and make sure that everybody works together.
Measure it
Due to the nature of our curriculum, we are continually assessing the impact of Skills Builder and how are learners are developing. We have also used the Skills Builder framework as part of the Evidence For Learning feedback we give all of our intern learners. Work Experience starts for all learners straight away so it is a great opportunity for us to assess learners from the beginning and continue this all the way to the end of their journey with us at Horizon. Staff are given focused CPD time to ensure they are able to moderate the students learning and also to compare data and see where learners are at. Data is collected regularly throughout the academic year.
Focus tightly
As mentioned, students have a focused weekly session on Skills Builder and sometimes use more than one form time to do this if it is needed. We have also included it within our planning to enable staff and learners to see how they are always focusing on these essential skills in their everyday practise.
Keep practising
Also the activities have been extremely helpful in allowing our learners to really develop those skills. We also use Skills Builder to develop our enrichment program and what we do out of the classroom and we're talking about teamwork when we are going out for mock interviews when we are going to places like KPMG. It has been a crucial part of what we do and we've also done it by doing different activities when we've done enrichment activities. So for example, students did the London challenge which was that they had to go to specific landmark in London had to leave from a specific station and they had to work as a group and they had to communicate in order to get there, although staff are there to support them. Ultimately, the learners lead the whole expedition and staff did not we're not allowed to intervene at all times.
Bring it to life
As our ethos is focused on preparing our learners for the world of work and developing their skill setting, Skills Builder has allowed us to do this in a way where we are able to also assess them on these skills. Our form time activities have both a dedicated time to Skills Builder as mentioned above but also all of the activities set during this time also allow our learners to develop their skills. The core curricular around life and work skills and confidence building also does this. Our enrichment activities are lead by both in house staff but also welcomed outside agencies and this time is dedicated to developing these skills as individuals but also within groups settings depending on the activities. Due to the Work Experience programme and the Pre-Internship and Internship the skills are always put into practice via the world of work with the long-term goal of employment for our learners.
What's next
As Horizon continues to grow to ensure we continue embedding Skills Builder within all areas of the school and ensuring training staff is at the forefront of our priorities. We now need to become more consistent when recording data, and in the next academic year we have created designated time during assessment times to ensure this is done.
