Life Skills

Life Skills:  Being My Best Self

Life Skills is the Personal, Social,Health and Economic education of children. It became statutory in September 2020 and we have created a bespoke curriculum to reflect our children, igniting in them a desire to be active global citizens and to be their best selves. Life Skills is included in every aspect of life at Monkhouse - in lessons, assemblies and through groups such as Pupil Leaders, Eco Warriors, Young Sports Leaders and Opal Leaders.

The Life Skills curriculum has been broken down into 6 categories:

• Families, friendships and relationships 
• Understanding their place in the world
• Values
• Safety
• Physical well-being
• Mental well-being 

Each year group has set, specific objectives that are relevant to the children within that age range. This allows children to consistently develop their understanding about each of these six areas as they progress through school. Through these strands, we have a broad, balanced and inclusive curriculum, which can link to other areas of the curriculum when relevant. 

What it looks like in our school

At Monkhouse, we recognise the importance of Life Skills for our children to develop into future citizens who have a passion for creating a positive impact in the world around them. This subject can be taught alone for specific areas but Life Skills is often incorporated into our projects. Life Skills is ingrained into our real world projects where we consider different aspects of the curriculum and how these apply in real world contexts. For example, our projects about the industrial revolution and coal mining in the North East focus on communities and the impact on health. Our eco projects incorporate elements of caring for each other and the planet. 

Lessons engage and challenge the children to understand an alternative point of view or lifestyle different to their own. All children are encouraged to contribute in some way and develop their own skills. It can be taught through role play, discussions observations, thus encouraging children to recognise their own views and respect those of others. 

Every week, each class has a collective worship session. These sessions allow children to reflect and share their thoughts and opinions about different aspects of friendship, family, health, safety and the world around them.

We aim to prepare our children to become confident global citizens who can see the importance their impact and others  has on the local and  wider community.

Useful Links

Aspirations and extra 

Through the teaching of Life Skills we emphasise the importance of the whole child and their unique potential and development to become part of the global community and see other people’s and their impact on a personal and wider level. We have links to many outside agencies  ( such as Show Racism the Red Card, RNLI and HMD ) to broaden understanding of the wider community. 

Our children engage with the local community through performances, visits and raising money for charities. Last year, our charities were Sport Relief, the Food Bank and Harper Asprey the hedgehog charity.

This year we plan to support the Bay Foodbank, Making Winter Warmer, homeless charity and Children in Need.