Whilst we teach a wide range of subjects at St Bart’s, delivering an exciting, robust character education helps ensure that our children develop holistically, developing and building upon key life skills that will equip them for the next stages of their life in the 21st Century.

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We work in collaboration with the Skills Builder Partnership to develop the key character skills the pupils need to be successful learners and confident, independent and resourceful individuals.

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The eight character skills are explored and developed each day through every learning opportunity. Progression through the skills is highlighted in the pupils’ books and is celebrated with certificates in each Friday’s Celebration Worship. Each classroom has posters of the skills displayed and we have a central Skills Builder corridor display which is updated each month. This celebrate three significant individuals – from the present day or from the past – who have used the Skills Builder skills to help them succeed in the domains of music, science and sport.

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Each year we have Skills Builder Challenge Days in which the whole school takes part in age-related activities on a single theme. We have enjoyed ‘Start Up Success’ in which pupils created and sold merchandise in the school hall raising thousands of pounds for charity. This year we will be holding a ‘A Day in Politics’ in which the key British Value of democracy will be explored. During these off-topic days, the pupils make significant progress in the development of all of their skills, consolidating and building upon the work through-out the year.

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The pupils are therefore incredibly familiar with the skills and their importance, and the quest to develop the skills binds our entire curriculum together.

At the end of the 2020-2021 academic year, we were awarded the Bronze Award for our use of the Skills Builder scheme. Our pupils showed an even greater development of the skills across school during the 2021-2022 academic year so we were awarded the Silver Award.

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This year we are hoping to achieve the highest Gold Award. This would be a significant achievement and would reflect the great and positive impact that the Skills Builder scheme has had on the character development of the pupils as individuals and on the sense of cohesion amongst the student body as a whole.

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