Life Skills


The Life Skills curriculum is separated into key skills – keeping safe, emotional and mental health, health and fitness, personal skills development, future choices and money, values, rights and responsibilities, online life and media and relationships.

Within this ambitious curriculum, students are taught the value of respect for both themselves and others as well as the positive impact that this will have on the local and wider community that they engage with. Students are encouraged to believe in themselves whilst developing their understanding and skills that can be used throughout their school journey and beyond, giving them the determination to reach their full potential.

Life Skills at Applemore College aims to provide students with knowledge, skills and information for them to thrive throughout adolescence and into adulthood. This is done through targeted, dedicated sessions during the college week as well as throughout the college’s wider subject curriculums, PDL Days and extra-curricular activities, to ensure students have a wide range of different experiences while attending the college.

The curriculum is tailored to focus on local and national trends. External agencies work closely with us to deliver specialist content such as consent, sexual health and substance misuse. Life Skills will also provide students with skills to critically think about topics they are confronted with in their daily lives within the modern digital age; technology, fake news, media representation. Fundamental British Values will also be promoted within Life Skills; values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs. This ensures young people understand the importance of respect and leave college fully prepared for their life in modern Britain.

Year 7

FUTURE CHOICES AND MONEY

  • Starting Secondary School
  • Goal Setting
  • Managing Money

KEEPING SAFE

  • Travel Safety
  • Verbal Bullying and Banter
  • Alcohol
  • Vaping, Smoking and Cannabis
  • Consent
  • First Aid
  • Grooming
  • FGM

PERSONAL SKILLS AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Managing Team Conflicts
  • Confidence Building
  • Teamwork
  • Communication Skills

VALUES, RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITES

  • Welcoming Inclusive School
  • Respect
  • Community Diversity
  • Challenging Stereotypes
  • Prejudice and Discrimination

RELATIONSHIPS

  • Friendships

  • Friendship Changes

  • Bullying

  • Bereavement

  • Families

ONLINE LIFE AND MEDIA

  • Body Image

  • Social Media as a Positive Influence

  • My Online Personality

  • Online Privacy

HEALTH & FITNESS

  • Personal Hygiene
  • Fit and Active

EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

  • Emotions

  • Feeling Low

  • Being Unique and Self-Esteem

  • Boosting My Mood

  • Feelings and Behaviour

  • Managing Disappointment

  • Emotional Changes during Puberty

Year 8

FUTURE CHOICES AND MONEY

  • Personal Strengths and Interests

  • Aspirational Goals

  • Employability Skills

  • Careers and Routes to employment

KEEPING SAFE

  • Attitudes about Substance Misuse
  • Alcohol
  • Substances and Media
  • Gangs and Knife Crime
  • Financial Exploitation
  • First Aid and Emergencies
  • Online Bullying
  • Gangs and knife crime
  • Financial Exploitation

PERSONAL SKILLS AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Accepting Responsibility
  • Communication Skills
  • Non- Verbal Communication
  • Active Listening
  • Managing Criticism
  • Managing Misunderstanding

VALUES, RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITES

  • Challenging Unfair Family Expectations
  • Promoting Inclusion
  • Responsibilities as a Consumer
  • Impact of Fast Culture
  • Extremism
  • Equality & Diversity

RELATIONSHIPS

  • Relationships and Media

  • Positive Romantic Relationships

  • Relationships Feelings

  • Perception/ Expectations in a Romantic Relationships

  • Positive Online Relationships

ONLINE LIFE AND MEDIA

  • What does the internet know about me?

  • Media Influence

  • Fake News

HEALTH & FITNESS

  • Physical Activity and Mental Health
  • Responsibility for my life
  • Food Choice
  • Science and Health

EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

  • Unhealthy Comparison

  • Positive Self Talk

  • Mental Health Stigma

  • Anxiety and Depression

  • Connecting with Others

Year 9

FUTURE CHOICES AND MONEY

  • Careers Available

  • Self-Employment

  • Young Entrepreneur

  • Working Part Time

  • What Career Would I Like?

  • Money Worries

  • Being In Financial Debt

KEEPING SAFE

  • Bullying and Mental Health
  • Recreational Drug Use
  • Substance and Communities
  • Substances and Emergency Aid
  • Medicine Safety
  • Abusive Behaviour
  • Drugs and Law
  • Knives and Gangs
  • STIs/Contraception
  • Unintended Pregnancy

EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

  • Affects of Mental Health

  • Isolation and Mental Health

  • Support for Mental Health

  • Managing Peer Approval

RELATIONSHIPS

  • Positive Intimate Relationships

PERSONAL SKILLS AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Problem Solving

ONLINE LIFE AND MEDIA

  • Pornography

  • Sexting

HEALTH AND FITNESS

  • Prevention of Infection
  • Sleep and Relaxation
  • Physical Activity Choices

Year 10

FUTURE CHOICES AND MONEY

  • Work Choices at 16

  • Jobs and Stereotyping

  • Changing Job Market

  • Budgeting Skills

KEEPING SAFE

  • Substances and Addiction

  • Women’s Safety

  • Why do some people choose crime?

  • Radicalisation, Extremism

  • Safe Sex

PERSONAL SKILLS AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Growth Mindset

  • Giving and Receiving Feedback

VALUES, RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITES

  • Values
  • Climate Change
  • Animal Welfare
  • Hate Crime
  • What influence am I?
  • Black History
  • Marriage, Partnership and Rights

RELATIONSHIPS

  • Impact of Loss and Separation in Relationships
  • Being a Young Parent
  • Parenting and Teenagers
  • Romantic Relationships

ONLINE LIFE AND MEDIA

  • Advertising, Social Media

  • Reliance on Social Media

  • Gambling Addiction

  • Being a Role Model

  • Dark Web, Pornography

HEALTH & FITNESS

  • Life Saving Science
  • Cancer Prevention

EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

  • Self- Esteem and Confidence

  • Supporting Someone to Cope

  • Little Things Impacting on Mental Health

  • Stress, Anxiety and Depression

  • Unhealthy Strategies

Year 11

FUTURE CHOICES AND MONEY

  • Applying for Work Training

  • Study Plan

  • Impact of Substance Misuse

  • Family and Community

KEEPING SAFE

  • Substances and Future Life Choices
  • Safety and Body Enhancements
  • Emergency First Aid
  • Safety in Workplace
  • Managing Unwanted Attention
  • Domestic Violence
  • Substances and Risky Sex
  • Sexual Abuse
  • Negotiation and Communication Within a Sexual Relationship

PERSONAL SKILLS AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Developing Resilience

VALUES, RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITES

  • Freedom of Expression
  • Faith, Values and Sex
  • Rights, Responsibilities and the Law in a Sexual Relationship

RELATIONSHIPS

  • Gender Diversity

ONLINE LIFE AND MEDIA

  • Managing My Online Profile

HEALTH & FITNESS

  • Sleep, Rest and Study

  • Finding and Using Health Services

EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

  • Preparing for Change