Life Skills  

Life Skills at LHAA aims to develop
the knowledge, skills and attributes within students to enable them to thrive as individuals and manage their lives both now and in the future. Our curriculum is built with the aim to help pupils to stay healthy, safe and to prepare them for life and work in modern Britain; whilst also building wider learning skills such as curiosity and respect to help pupils achieve their academic potential across the school. We strive to help our pupils understand the importance of community and offer a safe place for them to build the skills to respect others regardless of differences. Students will be encouraged to look at how they can actively and positively contribute to society, to enjoy learning and see it as a lifelong process.  

We aim to engage students, parents and staff in the ongoing development of the curriculum as we all work together to enable our students to manage critical opportunities, challenges and responsibilities that they will inevitably face as they grow up. The safety of our students is paramount within lessons and we strive to build a positive and safe classroom environment for students to discuss some difficult and potentially controversial topics. We aim to support student wellbeing as we address issues that can affect their ability to learn.  

Life Skills at LHAA combines Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHEE), Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) education and Citizenship. These lessons include the content within the government’s statutory framework on health, relationships and sex education, though these are also delivered across the school in other subject areas (for example online safety is also covered in Computing).  

The delivery of these topics support the wider Personal Development (PD) work within school to ensure the integration of Life Skills within PD our curriculum was developed working closely with the Personal Development lead, Pastoral leads and Designated Safeguarding Lead.  

As a school, we are dedicating large amounts of time and resources to ensuring LHAA students leave our care with knowledge about how to keep themselves safe, care for others and play an active role in their communities. We are aiming for our provision within Life Skills to be thorough and truly excellent, building student’s knowledge but also their skills to navigate the world well, to help them build a strong sense of their own values so they can make the right decisions for them and have the confidence to stick to them.