Life Skills and Well-being Curriculum

As educators, we understand that learning is about so much more than reading and writing. Therefore, alongside the subject based national curriculum and our commitment to help our children develop strategies for positive mental well-being, we have developed a Life Skills curriculum.

At Sulhamstead and Ufton Nervet Primary School, our Life Skills curriculum is designed to give the children the knowledge, skills, language, tools and cultural currency to navigate successfully from childhood through to adult life. We will achieve this through a bespoke programme of lessons - designed to meet the needs of our pupils, both within school and the wider community. Our lessons will allow the children to express their honest thoughts and feelings in a safe, informed and mutually respectful environment. We dedicate a session a week to Life Skills and Well-being/Mindfulness as part of our broad and balanced curriculum.

Our Life Skills curriculum aims to ensure that all our children flourish; we want them to thrive, not just survive.

Statement of Intent Lifeskills

Why Introduce a Life Skills Curriculum?

The Sutton Trust report on ‘Life-Skills’ – supported by numerous Education Endowment Foundation research projects, highlight a number of key findings;

Adult life requires a range of skills in order for people to flourish, both in the workplace and in their daily lives, from the confidence and motivation to seek challenges and complete tasks, to the interpersonal skills that aid teamwork and other social interactions. These essential life skills are crucial to people achieving their potential, and therefore it is natural that they should also lie at the heart of our education system.
With increasing automation, it is the ability to show flexibility, creativity and teamwork that are increasingly becoming just as valuable, if not more valuable, than academic knowledge and technical skills.
Every young person should have the opportunity to build their confidence, motivation and resilience in ways that will benefit them for life.

With this in mind, and in line with our overall ethos of providing the very best education, opportunities and experiences for the children at SUN, we deliver a Life Skills curriculum. This has been designed to give the children the knowledge, skills, language, tools and cultural currency to navigate successfully from childhood through to adult life. We will achieve this through a bespoke programme of lessons.

How does this prepare our children for life outside of school?

We feel this will prepare our children for life outside of school by:

finding new ways of thinking and problem solving
developing self-confidence, self-worth, self-awareness and resilience
developing self-care and caring for others including responding to critical situations: relationships, social skills, first aid, personal safety, privacy, online safety
developing knowledge of how to keep healthy both physically and emotionally
managing money including developing economic awareness: economic awareness, safety, cultural capital
preparing our children to become positive role models in, and effective contributors to, society
giving our pupils the chance to become the very best versions of themselves.

How do we teach Life Skills?

Our school vision and values are at the heart of our two-year rolling Life Skills curriculum. The skills taught to each class will build on from the previous year and these lessons will complement our 'Love a Book' and well-being/mindfulness sessions. Each of our fortnightly sessions will focus on different themes:

Keeping Safe

Developing Positive Relationships

Environmental Awareness

Cooking

Domestic Skills

Fostering Independence

Financial Awareness