Life Skills
Life Skills
Life Skills gives pupils the knowledge, skills and attributes pupils need to keep themselves healthy and safe and to prepare them for life and work in society today and in the future.
At Whyteleafe, as part of the broad and balanced curriculum, we promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society. We prepare pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life while having a duty to keep pupils safe.
At Whyteleafe we ensure:
A well-delivered Life Skills programme starting at EYFS and continuing to the end of Key Stage 2, it is based on the ‘Jigsaw’ scheme which has an impact both on academic and non-academic outcomes (particularly for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged).
Life Skills planning at Whyteleafe is grouped into 6 units of work (Jigsaw puzzles) and these are broken down into lessons (Jigsaw pieces) for each year throughout the school.
The following units are studied each year at Whyteleafe.
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Being Me
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Celebrating Difference
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Dreams and Goals
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Healthy Me
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Relationships
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Changing Me
Our aim at Whyteleafe is for our pupils to develop skills and attributes such as resilience, self-esteem, risk-management, teamwork and critical thinking in the context of learning and this links with our unique Whyteleafe wheel of learning and Whyteleafe behaviour sapphires (see diagrams below).
We value our Life Skills Curriculum as a key method in supporting children’s development as human beings, to enable them to understand and respect who they are, to empower them with a voice and to equip them for life and learning. At Whyteleafe School, each class has a dedicated Life Skills lesson each week in order to teach the Life Skills knowledge and skills in a developmental and age-appropriate way. These are taught by class teachers or by other trained staff as appropriate to the theme, such as the school’s Thrive Practitioners who plan activities with children to support their mental health.
Lessons are reinforced and enhanced across the school in so many ways. Examples include assemblies, collective worship and through relationships across the school. We aim to ‘live’ what is learnt and apply it to everyday situations in the school community.
