Skills Builders

This theme focuses on developing the skills of students in areas where there is a need or a desire. Some of these skills may build on those already taught in schools, delivering them in a new way or with a different emphasis. These skills can be academic, practical, or social in nature, but all contribute to the holistic personal development of our students. They are the skills needed for students to pursue their own version of success whatever that may be and are informed by education specialists and employers.

The Skills Builders theme aims to: 

  • Support curriculum by further developing academic skills
  • Prepare students to meet the requirements of future employers
  • Hone vital interpersonal skills
  • Enable students to pursue their passions
  • Give students access to dedicated experts and facilities
  • Provide opportunities to demonstrate skill progression
  • Boost applications for work, university and apprenticeships

Skills Builders gives students access to creative and academic pursuits that they may not be able to access in school, providing the opportunities for them to practice their passions in a meaningful way. Competitions and collaborations are key components of this theme, as they give students the opportunity to demonstrate the skills that they have built throughout the year. This theme includes access to formal and accredited qualifications that students may not be able to access in their own school, allowing them to not only follow a passion, but to also gain a qualification at the end.

Some of the methods we use to achieve the aims of this theme include:

  • Multiple instance and long-term programmes that allow for skill progression over time
  • Embedding high level professional skills such as project management, organisation and leadership
  • Providing access to great facilities and top experts that can boost skill development
  • Devise programmes where skills are assessed throughout, with opportunities for showcase and reward
  • Providing accredited courses that students may otherwise not be able to access

Examples of Skills Builders in action:

Young creative journeys

The young creative journeys provide a framework for students to learn and showcase new skills in the creative field. Whether it be poetry, fashion, film or any other artistic pursuit the process follows a formula. We begin with an inspiration event, to get the students excited for the journey ahead, They get to meet inspirational experts and an opportunity to work with other schools. This is followed by a series of workshops focused on building the skills needed to create something amazing, which are facilitated by our external facilitators and our teachers. The final step of the journey is the showcase, where our students get a chance to show off their work to the public. By the end of the journey, the students have had an unforgettable experience and gained the skills needed to pursue their passions in the future.

The Mars Rover Project

Mars Rover is fun and fulfilling project, which challenges students to build and code a functional Mars Rover. It requires two teams with different skills to work together over the academic year to achieve the project’s aim. The physical build will push student’s engineering skills to new height by setting the creative challenge of making a machine that can handle the rugged landscape of Mars. The coding challenge will develop technical computing skills in the other student team and challenge them to work collaboratively with the engineers to write functional code that fits the rover using it. The first workshop will inspire and instruct students in the design and development of their rovers, it is then up to the school teams to build and test their machines. We come together later in the year to compete and see which team has built the best Rover!

The Great Debate

This programme develops both skills and student advocacy and is a great example of how our themes overlap and reinforce each other. With a focus on oracy, research and argumentation the Great Debate sessions seek to provide students with all of the tools they need to hold rational and evidence-led opinions and defend them.

Special Interest GCSEs

Currently, CEP runs one special interest GCSE, and that is Latin. We could not run this without the help of dedicated colleagues at Cheltenham College and the course has run successfully for a number of years.

We would like to continue running this and other subjects in the coming years and welcome interest from schools and students so that we can target other subjects that may be extended to CEP schools.