The Life Skills program is central to the life and ethos of The Hall School.  Indeed, it could be argued that the whole of the school day is involved in the delivery of Life Skills.  Both inside and outside the classroom all members of the school community are working together to raise boys into young men who are prepared and keen to take their places in society.  Life Skills are therefore crucial to everything that we seek to achieve at the school.

‘Life Skills’ is taught from the Reception to Year 8 as part of the boys’ education and growth. Its main objective is to enable the boys to become healthy, independent and responsible members of the wider community by learning the basic principles for distinguishing between right and wrong. In doing so, the boys are actively contributing to the pastoral life of the school and their surrounding community which in turn helps to develop their sense of belonging, self-worth and responsibility.

The Life Skills program seeks to promote and develop the Every Child Matters outcomes, namely:

to be healthy
to stay safe
to enjoy and achieve
to make a positive contribution
to achieve economic wellbeing.

As part of the Life Skills program there are close links between the department and other subjects, including Science, RS, Thinking Skills, Current Affairs and Games/PE.  Life skills are also developed through assemblies, which are led by individual members of staff and by forms or other groups of boys.

At the Junior School we encourage the boys to take an active role in learning and developing crucial Life Skills.  While the boys are learning new skills, they are simultaneously building on their own strengths, interests and experiences. A cross-curricular approach helps develop the boys’ commitment to learning and their enjoyment thereof. Life Skills encourages their capacity to think rationally both inside and outside the classroom. When faced with a problem, we hope the boys will have learned adequate Life Skills to make an informed decision with an innovative approach. By incorporating Life Skills into the boys’ learning environment, they become better equipped to take ownership of and leadership in their future lives.

In the Middle School boys continue to develop their thinking about themselves as individuals and their interaction with other people.  This includes assessing personal strengths and weaknesses (something which is repeated in future years) and using that to develop individual targets as well as those for the year group.  Through the Life Skills curriculum boys address considerations of tolerance, kindness and mediation as well as health, linking in with the Science curriculum.  Boys think about taking responsibility and their rights and those of others; respecting others; conflict resolution and acting responsibly.  Once every two years all boys in the Middle School are taught basic First Aid by the Red Cross.

In the Senior School the taught Life Skills program is focussed on preparing boys for their life beyond The Hall.  This is particularly the case in Year 8, of course, but it starts in Year 6, where we encourage boys to think increasingly about their own responsibility for themselves and others.  All year groups start the year by considering the ethos of the form and rules or targets for the form as a whole and their own input to achieving those targets.  They also look at their own expectations for the year, including a further assessment of their strengths weaknesses and how they have developed over the past year.  Senior School boys consider living with other people, including living with disability with a specific reference to blindness.  They also think about their personal appearance and about family and peer pressure, including smoking, alcohol and drugs.  Boys in the Senior School are also given regular instruction in revision organisation and techniques and study skills.  Year 8 start to look at the world of work and address some more serious matters, such as the difference between ‘terrorist’ and ‘freedom fighter’.  They are given the opportunity to think about their changing role as they move on to new schools.
 
Throughout the Middle and Senior Schools there is an annual session on bullying during which boys are reminded of their responsibilities for preventing bullying in the school community and how to achieve this.  

In the Middle and Senior Schools the Life Skills program is, in the main, delivered by the boy’s Form Tutors in a timetabled session on Friday morning.  There is also some input from other specialists, both within the school community and from outside it.