Life Education
Life Curriculum follows a thematic curriculum which is underpinned by the RSHE statutory framework, CEAIG and other components such as citizenship. There are three themes which underpin the LE curriculum:
1.Health and Wellbeing.
2.Relationships.
3.Living in the Wider world.
The strands run through all years in LE and are delivered and presented in an age appropriate manner. The thematic curriculum in Life Education is a spiralled curriculum where consistent themes and messages are developed from years 7-11, to ensure our students are ‘happy, healthy and safe’ and to be ‘work and college ready.’
If you would like further information about the Life Education curriculum, lessons or resources please email: FAO Miss N Heffernan enquiries@middtech.com.
Year 7
In Year 7, the three themes for Life Education are split evenly across the half terms. All lessons are taught and planned in an age-appropriate manner encompassing the government statutory guidelines. Support is signposted in every lesson.
Health and Wellbeing:
Students begin the year by focusing on transition and safety, with focus on transitioning to secondary school and how a young person can keep themselves and others safe. This also includes safety outside of school and first aid. A unit on puberty and health is taught to educate and supports students on the physical and emotional changes that can occur with puberty and important healthy routines to manage changes, promoting a healthy lifestyle. This includes: sleep, exercise and a balanced diet. Students are also taught the important and awareness of body autonomy and keeping themselves and others safe.
Relationships.
Students learn the importance of building positive relationships with others. Such as: setting boundaries, online safety and building self-worth and efficacy. This unit is designed to allow students to develop the tools necessary for forming positive relationships with themselves and others. Further to this, students will cover a unit on diversity, encompassing British values and the Equality act 2010. In this unit students will explore the impacts of bullying, prejudice and discrimination, what the law says on these and how these can be challenged.
Living in the Wider World:
Students will learn and develop on key skills and aspirations needed for success in school and in the world of work. Students will learn and reflect upon the importance on personal skills, teamwork and raising aspirations in the workplace. In the summer term, students will be introduced to key areas on financial decision making. This includes understanding the basics of: saving, borrowing, budgeting and making financial choices
Year 8
In Year 8, the three themes for Life Education are split evenly across the half terms. All lessons are taught and planned in an age-appropriate manner encompassing the government statutory guidelines. The units introduce new key concepts and build upon content learned in Year 7. Support is signposted in every lesson.
Health and Wellbeing:
In Year 8, students start off with a unit on drugs and alcohol. Students learn about the effects of drugs and alcohol on the body (legal and illegal) and the legalities surrounding drugs and alcohol. The emphasis of the unit is designed to keep young people safe and understand the risks of substances. In the spring term students will cover a unit on emotional wellbeing. The unit focuses on mental health and wellbeing, ways to support and maintain healthy emotional wellbeing, coping strategies and addressing misconceptions around mental health.
Relationships.
In the first relationships unit, students will build upon prior learning in Year 7 on discrimination. The unit will re-cap what discrimination is, what the law says and how to challenge discrimination. The lessons will focus on ways to support and challenge discrimination of those protected by the Equality Act 2010, including: sexuality, gender, disability, race and religion. In the summer term, students will develop on the relationships unit covered in Year 7 with a focus on identity and relationships. This includes: gender identity, sexual orientation, consent and introduction to contraception. This unit is designed to promote a fully inclusive life education curriculum meeting the needs of all students. The unit also has a strong underlying theme of consent and autonomy.
Living in the Wider World: In Year 8 students will learn about the community and careers, introducing key concepts around different types of careers, patterns of work and life choices, The unit is designed to encompass future careers and challenges and important work around climate change and application of this to daily working lives. In the final term, students will develop knowledge on online safety through the digital literacy unit. This unit focuses on online safety (including mobiles phones) through exploration of social media and consent and challenge’s around online safety. The unit also explores media reliability and challenging what they see online.
Year 9
In Year 9 the three themes for Life Education are split evenly across the half terms. Year 9 lesson are delivered twice a fortnight. All lessons are taught and planned in an age appropriate manner encompassing the government statutory guidelines. The units introduce new key concepts and build upon content learned in Year 7 and 8. Support is signposted in every lesson.
Health and Wellbeing:
In Year 9, students will first learn about peer influence, substance use and gangs. The purpose of this unit at its core is to safeguard young people form the risks of exploitation and peer influence (including gangs). Students develop understanding of healthy and unhealthy friendships and learn about the impact of gang and drug culture. This key topic is delivered to ensure students understand the risks of such behaviours and where to seek support for self and others. The health and wellbeing unit also builds upon the key concepts of healthy lifestyle and mental health units covered in Years 7 and 8 but in more depth. In the healthy lifestyle unit, students revisit the importance of healthy lifestyle choices, including: sleep, diet, exercise and healthy lifestyle balance. This unit links with the mental health unit in practicing healthy habits (and healthy coping strategies). The mental health unit explores mental health and ill health, challenging stigma around mental health and understanding/ dealing with negative emotions (including periods of transition and change) and how to support self and others.
Relationships.
The relationships unit covers four key components: respectful relationships, intimate relationships, healthy relationships and addressing extremism and radicalisation. In respectful and intimate relationships, students learn about the role of families and parenting, managing conflict and dealing with relationship changes. In the intimate relationships unit, students cover key statutory RSHE work around consent, contraception and risks of STI’s, with relationship education being the key focus. This unit is vital for students as they learn about personal safety and the law. This is then developed further in the healthy relationships unit which ties the first two relationship units together in understanding healthy romantic relationships
Living in the Wider World:
Students cover two main topic within this theme: setting goals and financial decision making. The setting goals is designed to support students in goal settings as they move towards options and GCSE’s, thinking about career options and building upon their key strengths and attributes. In the financial decision making unit, students learn about the impacts of financial decisions (including risks) such as debt, gambling and the impact of financial choices. The unit covers issues around the complexities of in-app purchases on mobile phones and using finances safely.
Year 10
In Year 10 Students receive 3 half term blocks of Life Education, with the other three split with RS. Three themes for Life Education are split evenly across the half terms. All lessons are taught and planned in an age appropriate manner encompassing the government statutory guidelines. The units introduce new key concepts and build upon content learned in previous years. Support is signposted in every lesson.
Health and Wellbeing:
In Year 10, the first unit is taught on building for the future and independence. This builds upon key concepts of self-efficacy, and stress management. The unit will cover key coping strategies on supporting stress management and promoting healthy emotional and health and dealing with change. Students also develop understanding with responsibilities and choices that come with more independence, through exploration of safety and responsible health choices in a range of different contexts.
Relationships.
In the relationships unit, students will develop an understanding of the importance of families and communication in relationships. In the families topic, students build upon knowledge learnt in Year 9 through exploration of different types of families and parental responsibilities, pregnancy (including fertility and miscarriage and areas for support), marriage and changing relationships (including divorce). The unit aims to challenges misconceptions regarding relationships and offer support where support can be offered. Students will also learn about the importance of communication with relationships and personal values, develop a deeper understanding of healthy and unhealthy boundaries and seeking support.
Living in the Wider World.
The final unit for Y10 covers next steps after school. This is delivered in the final term, where Y10 students are entering Y11 and thinking about post 16 options. The unit covers application processes including for: colleges and workplaces, skills for further education and employment and a more in-depth focus on careers.
Year 11
In Year 11 the three themes for Life Education are split evenly across the half terms, until students leave. All lessons are taught and planned in an age appropriate manner encompassing the government statutory guidelines. The units introduce new key concepts and build upon content learned in previous years. Support is signposted in every lesson.
Health and Wellbeing:
The first unit in Year 11 covers mental and emotional wellbeing. The theme of mental and emotional wellbeing has been important throughout all years as its vital in supporting the wellbeing and aspiration of young people. Students will further their understanding on mental health and well-being, re-capping on stress management, healthy coping strategies and also body image. The latter being a focus due to the role of social media and accessibility to influence on body image and perception.
Relationships.
In Year 11 the relationships unit encompasses three themes: respectful relationships, intimate relationships and diversity and inclusion. The units build upon and reinforces key concepts learned in previous years to support the safety and well-being of young people. The relationship unit revisits key concepts to personal values (including contraception), consent and assertive communication but also covers more sensitive topics around abuse and unhealthy relationships and managing dangerous/toxic relationships. These are designed with the safety and wellbeing of students as the utmost priority, and support is always signposted.
Living in the Wider World.
In Year 11 students learn about financial choices. The key aspects covered will be around: managing money, budgeting, saving, debt and managing money. The purpose of this unit to ensure students have good understanding about financial decisions especially as many will begin entering the world of work and understanding the risks associated and influences on financial choices