Life Skills
Pupils need to be prepared for life beyond school, to prepare them to play a full and active role in society. Life Skills is an ideal tool for exploring British values. It builds character and develops soft skills that employers require, such as communication, initiative, social interaction and teamwork.
Elements of Life Skills education appear in many subjects such as English, History and Maths as well as supporting learners’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
Our Life Skills curriculum fosters pupils’ awareness and understanding of democracy, government and how laws are made and upheld. It gives them the knowledge to explore political and social issues, to weigh evidence, debate and make reasoned arguments.
Life Skills covers E-safety, Relationship and Sex Education and Physical Health and Mental Well-being. Within our Life Skills curriculum, we deliver Relationship, Sex, and Health education which teaches pupils to develop healthy, nurturing relationships. It supports them to make well-informed, positive choices for themselves and to understand how to judge when they, or someone they know, needs support and where they can seek help if they have concerns.
Pupils study Life Skills by exploring big questions. Examples include:
- What impact does our online world have on me?
- What is a healthy relationship?
- What are the rights and responsibilities I enjoy as a UK citizen?
- How do I contribute to my community?
- To explore our enquiry questions, pupils first develop an understanding of key concepts and rules of law that underpin them. Through debate, discussion, documentaries, reading and exploring their own experiences, Life Skills develops important attributes in pupils, such as honesty, kindness, tolerance, courtesy, resilience, and self-efficacy.
In Year 7, pupils learn about E-safety, exploring how they can stay safe online. They explore what is age appropriate and the dangers that are present online. They delve into identity development, their body image and their self-esteem. Mental and emotional health topics are complemented by work on physical health. Pupils study values and beliefs and how to make moral decisions. Pupils study how a democratic government works; this includes how a political party comes to power and what contribution and influence they will have through using their democratic vote in the future.
In Year 8, pupils study the concept of being an active citizen. They explore different types of family and relationships within that family. Pupils study what healthy relationships look like including communication, boundaries and trust. They look at online safety in more depth including cyberbullying. Pupils explore their civil liberties, political freedoms and constitutional law. This includes the role of the police and the operation of courts. Pupils then also learn about voluntary groups who work in their community and have the opportunity to undertake a school-based pupil council election.
In Year 9, pupils study healthy relationships and strategies to secure emotional, physical and spiritual awareness. Pupils explore rights and responsibilities in more depth – including the role of our legal system.
At KS4, pupils continue with the Life skills curriculum, Year 10 pupils learn about the impact of gambling and illegal activity, respectful and intimate relationships and dealing with social media. In Year 11, pupils continue their sex education, learning about miscarriages, adoption, fostering and parenting. We also teach them how to revise, dealing with exam stress and preparing for their post-secondary education future.
Pupils have access to a wide range of leadership and civic activities to support and enhance their learning, including community service projects, magistrates mock trial competitions, charitable initiatives and campaigns and the opportunity to stand as a representative for their year group as part of the Pupil Council.
The study of Life Skills can lead to a range of future careers as it is embedded in all areas, examples being civil servants, public services, legal, political and medical professions.
Pupils with SEND are offered a wide, aspirational and ambitious curriculum across all subject areas through the All Stars Succeed strategy which emphasises the importance of Quality First Teaching. Every teacher has been trained on the understanding of pupil needs and implementation of high-impact adaptive strategies to enable pupils with SEND to make excellent progress, such as the use of High 5 strategies (informed by research conducted by the EEF) to create an inclusive environment in their teaching spaces. Moreover, the subject-specific All Stars Succeed charters allow for the implementation of subject-specific support in the classroom to help pupils overcome their barriers.
Collaboration between Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) and classroom practitioners on MS Teams before, during and after a lesson is a pivotal mechanism to ensure there is a coordinated approach towards support for pupils with SEND. This is evidenced with a purple pen in student books.
Star Maps are created in collaboration with the SENCO, class teachers, pupils and parents advising on strategies to help break down any barriers to learning. Strategies include adaptive teaching methods that are specific to a particular need as well as subject-specific adaptive teaching methods for subjects in which a pupil may find additional challenge due to his need. Star Maps are reviewed on a termly basis strategies by teachers, parents and pupils. These meetings are led by members of the senior leadership team. Star Maps support pupils with a variety of needs including, visual impairment, cognition and learning difficulties, physical disabilities, speech, language and communication difficulties, autistic spectrum disorder, dyslexia, and social, emotional and mental health difficulties.
Ancillary aids and assistive technologies are also utilised to enhance provision and ensure access. Learning aids are deployed to specific pupils with SEN, particularly those with visual impairments and difficulties with writing. Pupils are provided with a mobile learning device to aid research, independent working and innovative approaches to learning. Pupils are also given access to a Virtual Learning Environment through Microsoft Teams and Microsoft
OneNote to access resources and complete learning at school and at home with a device.
Specialist careers advice is provided by New Directions to prepare pupils with SEND for further education and transition to adult life.
Life Skills offers great potential for leadership; be that through teamwork in lessons and stepping up to present the group’s findings or the completion of projects during the year and taking ownership by presenting to the class and practising and taking parts in debates.
In your son’s exercise book, you will find a number of key documentation:
Visual Learning Journeys – An overview of the key knowledge he will study from Y7-11 (vertical) and in your son’s specific year for each subject (horizontal).
Lesson-specific Learning Journey – You will also be able to access a learning journey in your son’s exercise book which will allow him to articulate the bigger picture and make links between topics and lessons. This document includes the lesson outcome/s and key knowledge components for each lesson in the half term. This will serve as the reference point for all key learning and revision topics for the given half term whilst helping him to know more and remember more over time.