Life skills

At Long Toft Primary School, our life skills curriculum looks like this:

Intent

The aims of our life skills curriculum are:

• To enable children to experience areas which they may decide to develop into a future career.
• To provide pupils with the skills that they need to look after themselves as they grow into adults.

At Long Toft, we take a cross curricular approach to learning. Within our whole school learning, we aim to make meaningful links to all areas and subjects across the curriculum through a topic approach and this includes life skills. Through this approach, our aim is to ensure that delivery of life skills is linked to curriculum subjects, where possible. In both key stages, children’s learning in life skills centres around the key areas: building relationships, money management, health and safety, careers and adult life and personal hygiene.

In EYFS and Key Stage 1, this is mainly achieved through introducing these concepts as part of role play in provisional areas and focuses mainly on an awareness of these situations. Practical skills are also developed such as hand washing and the correct use of cutlery.

In Key Stage 2, these concepts are placed into a more real-life scenario as children realise that this learning will impact their adult life and therefore how they can manage their future choices and decisions. Also in Key Stage Two, there is an emphasis on effective communication, as part of this practical skills such as listening and British Sign Language will be introduced throughout school.

Our life skills curriculum has been developed by all staff members at Long Toft Primary School coming together to discuss what skills they feel are important for the children in their year group beyond the National Curriculum. This has been written into a life skills curriculum. This learning is achieved through stand-alone lessons, cross curricular approaches and themed weeks.

Implementation:

What will it look like in the classroom?

First hand experiences with tools in all areas of the curriculum, such as personal hygiene products and money management. 

A child-led approach to learning.

Vocabulary

Previous learning and vocabulary is explicitly shared at the beginning of a project and taught systematically in a carefully sequenced series of lessons.

Impact

How will this be measured?

Pupil voice and books will show…

• An engaging life skills curriculum which develops their ability.
• Photographs of children taking part in life skills lessons.
• That pupils develop a range of skills and knowledge across all parts of the life skills curriculum.
• Confidence in discussing their learning and experiences.