PSHE Lesson Plans / KS4 - Life Skills - 4 lessons

Life Skills Lessons for PSHE and Citizenship

Unlike facts or practical skills, lessons concerning intangible subject matter, such as psychological concepts, can present the teaching professional with a unique set of challenges.The difficulties in being able to engage students when delivering explanations of ‘life skill’ concepts, involving attitudes, confidence and mindsets can not be underestimated and therefore, with this in mind, ‘Teaching-Resources-UK’ have designed a great set of quality resources to assist teachers in this area.

Our life skill teaching resources benefit teachers who are delivering lessons within the PSHE and Citizenship curriculum. They provide:

• Pedagogical guidance in the form of a well-structured and straightforward lesson plans that include clear lesson outcomes and plenary ‘review and preview’ activities
• A comprehensive list of the resources the teacher will require for the smooth delivery of the lesson
• Interesting and stimulating individual and group activities along with corresponding worksheet resources
• An associated presentation with each of the lessons that contains clear and easy-to-understand slides that explain the concepts using scenarios that are applicable to the students
• Suggested links to other learning

The series of four life skills lessons, which have been developed with the assistance of ‘Step Up! International, who are the UK’s leading self-harm training and consultancy provider for schools and the education sector, can be conveniently downloaded from the ‘Teaching-Resources-UK’ website.

The fundamental objectives of each of the lessons are to enable teachers to help students:

• Think about the impact of having a positive or negative mindset on their everyday activities and how possessing a positive attitude can help them in being successful in achieving their goals in life • Think positively about themselves, their attitudes to things and how they can identify aspects of their lives that could benefit from positive affirmations
• Identify their own skills, qualities and traits and how to use them within situations by using role-play • Adopt positive mental attitudes and build confidence

Lesson 1 – Positive Mindset

In lesson 1, students think about how positive and negative thoughts can influence how they act. They are encouraged to appreciate the benefit of having a positive mindset.

Lesson 2 – Affirmations

Students now think more deeply about their own attitudes and the effects of thinking positively about themselves. They identify areas of their lives that may benefit from some positive affirmations.

Lesson 3 – Role Models

In this exercise, the class now turn their attention to role models. Using real life examples, students will begin to understand how capitalise on the skills, qualities and traits that they have identified in their own role model.

Lesson 4 – Confidence Building

In the final lesson, students will bring together the learning on positive mental attitudes with additional confidence building skills to conclude the learning on this topic.