Life Lessons 

Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education

Relationships and Health Education

Our Life Lessons Intent

Our Life Lessons scheme of work aims to equip the children at Birkdale Primary with the essential skills for life; it aims to nurture the whole child through carefully planned and resourced lessons that develop the knowledge, skills and attributes that children need to manage many of the critical choices, opportunities, challenges and responsibilities they will face as they grow up and in adulthood.

By teaching pupils about the world around them, how to stay safe and healthy, how to build self-esteem, resilience and empathy, and by exposing them to the diversity of modern day Britain, our Life Lessons can tackle barriers to learning, raise aspirations, and ensure that children are equipped with the skills and information they need to actively and responsibly participate in their communities.

How we deliver Life Lessons

Throughout the school, children are taught Life Lessons across six themed units of work spread across the academic year:

Autumn 1 - Good To Be Me!

Autumn 2 - Being Healthy

Spring 1 - Working Together

Spring 2 - Good Relationships

Summer 1 - Global Neighbours

Summer 2 - The Future is Bright

Each unit focuses on teaching the relevant skills, understanding and vocabulary of the theme, whilst continually encouraging the children to consider how they perceive themselves, their family and friends and the wider world around them in the context of the theme. Lessons are weekly and build on from the previous year's learning in the same theme in an age-appropriate way.

Children are initially given the opportunity to share and consider their knowledge and understanding of each lesson objective before taking part in range of practical activities and class discussions to explore the theme further. It is critical that each new skill or new vocabulary being taught is not only put into the context of classroom learning and school-life experiences, but also into the context of the child's wider life experiences, including (where relevant) how this may be needed in the future.

Our Life Lessons Unit of Work

The scheme we follow for Life Lessons is completely bespoke.

It was created by the subject leader based on the following governments requirements:

The PSHE Curriculum (2020)

Relationships Education (2020)

Health Education (2020)

Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural awareness (SMSC) - (2014)

An understanding of British Values in modern Britain - (2014)

as well as non-statutory guidance and advice from The PSHE Association schemes of work.

Once the essential objectives were in place, parent, staff and pupil surveys were used to gather ideas for the rest of the content of our scheme. The final version was agreed upon by the Headteacher and the Governing Body.

In the autumn term of each year, parents, staff and pupils are given the opportunity to review the scheme of work and make any suggestions for the future development of the subject.

What do our pupils think of Life Lessons?

Meet our Life Lessons Ambassador!

"Life Lessons is my favourite subject because we learn about ourselves and why we are special and we learn how to get along with everybody and respect others. We get to talk a lot about our wellbeing and who helps us to stay safe and healthy. I am really excited to think of some new ideas to make our lessons even better!"

Some examples of our work...