Our Life skills curriculum at Cookham Rise Primary School is taught via Kapow PSHE. Here is a summary of the content for parents across each age group.

We want our children to SHINE as informed, caring and healthy members of the community 

Life Skills at Cookham Rise Primary - Intent Statement 

“Life skills as a subject is not only about making good decisions, it’s about being able to act on them. To be effective it must be grounded in an understanding of what enables us to act in real life situations, and this includes knowledge, but also skills and personal qualities.” The PSHE Association 

At Cookham Rise Primary, we aim to give children the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that they need to effectively navigate the complexities of life in the 21st Century. The curriculum covers key areas which will support children to make informed choices now and in the future around their health, safety, wellbeing, relationships, and financial matters and will support them in becoming confident individuals and active members of our society. 

Our Life Skills planning covers the Relationships and Health Education statutory guidance (as set out by the Department for Education), including the non-statutory sex education. It also covers wider Life Skills learning, in line with the requirement of the National curriculum (2014) which is that schools ‘should make provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE).’ Children’s learning significantly contributes to their personal development as set out in the Ofsted Inspection Framework and promotes the four fundamental British values which reflect life in modern Britain: democracy; rule of law; respect and tolerance and individual liberty.  

Identity is a theme that runs through all year groups. In response to the child-on-child abuse updates to Section 5 of Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE, 2022), our curriculum introduces and revisits ideas of personal boundaries, consent and communicating our boundaries with others. This prepares pupils for the challenges and responsibilities they will face in the future. 

Life Skills at Cookham Rise Primary - Implementation Statement 

At Cookham Rise Primary we have carefully selected The Kapow Primary scheme for Life Skills which is a whole school approach. The scheme consists of three areas of learning in EYFS: Reception, matching the EYFS personal, social and emotional development prime areas. In KS1 and KS2 there are five areas of learning.  

EYFS: ● Self-regulation ● Building relationships ● Managing self 

Key stage 1 and 2: ● Families and relationships ● Health and wellbeing ● Safety and the changing body ● Citizenship ● Economic wellbeing 

Each area is revisited to allow children to build on prior learning and every lesson provides progression. The scheme is based upon the statutory requirements for Relationships and Health education. Sex education has been included in line with the DfE recommendations and is covered in Year 6 of our scheme. The scheme supports the requirements of the Equality Act through direct teaching, for example learning about different families, the negative effect of stereotypes and celebrating differences, in addition to the inclusion of diverse teaching resources throughout the lessons. 

A range of teaching and learning activities are used and are based on good practice in teaching RSE/Life skills education to ensure that all children can access learning and make progress. In key stages1 and 2, there is an introductory lesson at the start of each year group which provides the opportunity for children and teachers to negotiate ground rules for the lessons. These introductory lessons can then be referred to throughout the year to help create a safe environment. All lessons include ideas for differentiation to stretch the most able learners and give additional support to those who need it. Many lessons, stories, scenarios, and video clips provide the opportunity for children to engage in real life and current topics in a safe and structured way. Role-play activities are also included to help children play out scenarios that they may find themselves in. There are meaningful opportunities for cross-curricular learning such as Computing for online safety and Science for growing, nutrition, teeth, diet and lifestyle. The scheme provides consistent messages throughout the age ranges including how and where to access help. At Cookham Rise Primary we very much recognise and value the role of parents and carers in both life skills and RSE.   

At Cookham Rise Primary, class teachers observe, reflect upon and develop a detailed knowledge of their own cohort. Teachers use their professional judgement to adapt the programme in line with their pupils’ needs.  

Relevant skills and personal attributes are also developed through our wider school ethos, including how the school community treats each other. Our ambitious and sequential curriculum is underpinned by our three school rules - ready, respectful and safe. Both the formal lessons and our wider ethos contribute to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of all pupils. 

Life Skills at Cookham Rise Primary - Impact Statement 

Each lesson within our Life Skill’s scheme features assessment opportunities whereby teachers identify whether pupils have met, exceeded, or failed to meet the desired learning intentions for that lesson. The assessments take the form of multiple choice quizzes and ‘knowledge catchers. The latter can be used at the start of each topic to identify what the children already know. This information may then inform upcoming plans being adjusted as necessary.  

Once taught the full scheme, children will have met the objectives set out within the Relationships and Health Education statutory guidance and can utilise their learning within their daily lives, from dealing with friendship issues to resilience to making healthy choices and knowing where and how to get help when needed. 

Cookham Rise Primary School's Lifeskills in action

Our gifted Emotional Literacy Support Assistant, Caroline Warrington, creates a wonderfully positive and warm environment to support pupils.