At St Mary's, we introduce Skills Builder to our youngest children in Reception and continue to build upon the skills up to Year 6. We have found that the Hub has allowed all children to be able to access lessons and resources due to them being differentiated. Our Reception team have been pleased this year to see how many links they have made to the EYFS framework using our essential skills. We believe that because our children are exposed to the skills at such an early age, their understanding of what each skills means becomes part of their language and learning journey. By the time children are in Key Stage 2 they can add independent reflections to the class Skills Builder floor books, making them personal and unique to their class.

Children are assessed by the class teacher using the Skills Builder Hub resources to support their decisions. Each class is assessed via the Hub half-termly to track skills progress, to celebrate successes and to highlight any skills which the children would benefit from further experience of before moving to their next class. The description of each step has made the process of assessment easier and less time-consuming. In KS2, we like to make sure children are aware of what step they are on for each skill and how they can move forward. Some classes use the 'we are here' or 'this is our starting point' and 'this is where we are aiming to be' approach and these can be found on classroom displays and class Skills Builder floor books.

Each year, every class creates their own long-term map for Skills Builder, teachers have the autonomy to chose when in the year they will focus on certain skills. We have found that allowing teachers the opportunity to plan this for themselves, links between the skills and the curriculum happen naturally, children hear and use the language of the skills, and this has a positive impact on the children's learning and skill application. The resources on the Hub are used in our foundation lessons so that children can see how skills link into everything that we do.

Our children have numerous opportunities to put the essential skills into practice. Every year, we have a project week where children come off our usual timetable and focus on their chosen Skills Builder project. Each key stage chooses an appropriate project, delivers it and then enjoys sharing what the children have learnt, the challenges they've faced and their successes with other classes. We ensure parents are aware of the skills we are focusing on during our project week by posting pictures and stories on our Class Dojos to show parents our achievements and developing skills. In upper key stage 2, our children have taken part in virtual trips. These trips are a great opportunity for pupils to see the skills in a real-life work environment and for them to hear about jobs they haven't heard of before. It was great to see how the children recognised the links made to the essential skills and how they were able to demonstrate their strong skill set to the employers.

Skills Builder is at the core of learning and as our children become more confident, they are able to identify and discuss Skills Builder in real world contexts. This year we have fully integrated the skills into our new school project OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning). Through our sporting and extra-curricular activities, children have been able to further develop their skills and have been able to see how skills are used by athletes, referees and judges. When we have visitors in school, children can identify the skills they've utilised within the lesson, and what skills they may need in their jobs or roles in the future. During the Year 6 residential, teachers and members of the residential staff spoke to the children about how their activities and challenges linked to the skills. The children were then able to reflect on the challenges they had faced and the skills they'd used to overcome them.