Life Skills

Life Skills are at the very heart of our belief that every child should be taught how to lead a healthy, safe and productive lifestyle and become active citizens who make a positive contribution to society. The most personal, social and attitudinal learning should be implicit and be embedded in the day to day life of the Academy – the way we communicate and respect each other; the way we conduct ourselves; our approach to nutrition and exercise; health and safety and the good maintenance of our environment. We also believe in the need for an explicit and directly taught curriculum focusing on Sex and Relationships and Health Education; work related learning and the wider issues around social, emotional and attitudinal learning. We intend our students to respect and uphold the law and the processes of democracy and to reflect the British values of respect, harmony and tolerance that we strive to instil into the young people of Droylsden.

We base our work on the strands that are listed in the National Curriculum, the statutory guidance relating to Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education and the Gatsby Benchmarks, as well as non-statutory guidance from organisations like the PSHE Association.

This is implemented in three ways:

The Distinct Curriculum:

• Life Skills (taught discretely in Years 7, 8 and 9) and in whole year group Drop Down Days at both Key Stages
• Specific elements of PSHE mapped and taught across subject curriculums in a cross-curricular manner
• Sex, Relationships, Health Education specifically in PE, Health & Social Care, RS, Humanities and Science
• The Pastoral Programme delivered through Life Skills and Character (‘Tutorial Time”)
• The Academy’s Relationships and Sex Education Policy can be found, HERE.

The Generic Curriculum:

• Academy Ethos and Values
• Assemblies
• Character Pillars
• Extra-curricular activities
• Academy behaviour policies and high expectations of progress and behaviour
• Student Voice activities
• House charity work
• Elections for Student Council
• Student council work, prefect duties
• Mentoring
• Educational visits and trips
• Residential experiences
• Sports Teams & other activities e.g. Sports Leadership

Cross-Curriculum:

• Revisited in other subject areas to make connections, such as Geography, English and Technology
• Outside agencies and locality teams in ensuring that relevant staff training takes place and also in the delivery of parts of the Life Skills programme (when appropriate)
• Bespoke work with individual students in the OBC.