As we are a all through school, Careers/PSHE is covered in the younger years by different staff. From a secondary point of view the careers program I am building tries to cover the essential skills through the lessons I create, the guest speakers and workshops we deliver and the visits outside we make. All staff and subject areas are aware of the essential skills and try to build them into their lessons. At this stage parents have not been involved but this is something we will look at moving forward.

We have used the assessment tool for each skill covered to help measure progress in the lessons. We have also been encouraging students to use the skills learned in their academic lessons and in events such as the challenge day, their Duke of Edinburgh Award and in workshops/class presentations.

Opportunities are hopfully given in all lessons and activities across the curriculum. As a non teacher who only delivers PSHE, I ensure that all the skills are mentioned and encouraged in my PSHE lesson. I know the skills are used in activities such as PE, Dof E and our Combined Cadet Force and this is all done via direct instruction. I use the resources on the Hub for activities and build them into the PSHE/Careers curriculum where possible too.

Our students get every opportunity to practice their essential skills, although our focus this year has been mainly on Year 9. The essential skills are part of our personal development program which all Year 7-13 are part of. As mentioned previously, the Accelerator work is completed by Year 9 in PSHE lessons. However away from the classroom these essentail skills are evident in the work done for the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Our school is proud of our sporting achievements where our teams in football, rugby, hockey, netball and rounders use many of the essential skills, but mainly leadership and teamwork. Our school also runs the Combined Cadet Force so from Year 9 upwards all students are part of the Army, Navy or RAF which is a brilliant chance to practice the skills. We also have after school day boarding where the students do arts, craft, forest school, cookery, sports and work on community projects.

Wider life examples are mainly shown through our careers education. All year groups have at least 1 employer talk each term when they get to hear from people in a variety of industry's how important the essential skills are. Every year group completes a lesson on employability skills in PSHE and the essential skills are discussed during careers interviews.We have careers workshops for 6th Form and hopefully, now covid restrictions are subsiding, we will be able to make more work place visits in the future.