Aylesbury High School
L4L & Personal Development
Throughout our L4L (Learning for Life) & Personal Development curricula, we aim to create confident, resilient individuals capable of making informed decisions and making the most of the opportunities that will help them to live happy, healthy lives. Please see below for more on our curriculum intent and what we focus on in each Year. Please see here for more details on Relationships and Sex Education topics and when they are covered. Please note that all students must study Relationships Education, but parents have a right to withdraw their child from Sex Education. To more fully understand our policy, please take the time to read this link. If you would like to request to withdraw your child, please fill in this form.
Student resources
The Google Drive and Clickview are only available for students and teachers of Aylesbury High School.
| AHS only resources | Key Stage 3 quick links | Key Stage 3 quick links |
Key Stage 4 quick links |
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Subject intent
Key Stage 3
L4L in Year 7 starts with a focus on settling in to AHS, with lessons on getting to know each other and key staff, how to find their way around the school, making friends and study skills. Our two digital safety lessons ensure that our Year 7s are able to use their new-found digital freedom responsibly, and they learn how to keep themselves safe online as well as how to use their devices respectfully. Our RSE topics in Year 7 teach students about sexual and gender identity to give positive messages about the inclusive nature of our school, and we cover puberty to ensure that they know how to cope with periods at secondary school. Our Resilience programme gives them essential skills to cope with the complexities of secondary school, such as coping with friendships, workload and peer pressure and how to bounce back from setbacks. Our Citizenship project on Human Rights is a key part of supporting essential British Values and also teaches Year 7 important research and presentation skills which they will need throughout their time at AHS.
Year 8 and 9 L4L lessons build on this foundation, with digital safety lessons building on the theme of keeping students safe by exploring the topics of Child Sexual Exploitation and Sexting. Safety is developed further using the Risk Avert materials to help students understand issues around drugs and alcohol. To develop students’ resilience skills further, they examine the effect of the media on body image and study a 6-week programme on keeping mentally healthy. Our RSE curriculum continues in Year 8 with a 6-week programme to ensure that students are prepared to make healthy choices in the future. The Year 8 citizenship topic of the Mock Trial gives students further experience of British Values and develops their presentation skills further. The cultural heritage topic plays an important part of valuing our students’ diverse cultural heritage. The Year 9 careers lessons are delivered before students make their option choices. Year 9 also learn crucial skills before they reach Key Stage 4 such as how to manage money and deliver first aid. Their communication skills are developed further through projects connecting with students in another country and taking place in a pressure group project on an issue that is important to them.
Key Stage 4
L4L at Key Stage 4 builds on themes started in Key Stage 3 but takes an age-appropriate approach within the context that students of this age may be more at risk of certain situations. Other themes such as Resilience are revisited, but within the context of coping with Key Stage 4 issues such as exams. Careers lessons focus on preparing students for the next stage of their education.
Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9) course implementation and learning journey
Course content
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In Year 7, we help our new students settle into school with lessons on friendship and study skills. Here are some useful resources to support their transition: In Year 7, as soon as they are settled in school, they learn how to make the most of their digital tools, and we sign them onto UNIFROG, the platform we use to explore future options, during and beyond school. They start with 4 sessions of our in-house UPGRADE programme, which teaches them about how to be independent learners, study and revision skills and more. It is important to us that our students understand that respect for diversity is a key value at our school, so our lesson on Inclusion and Diversity introduces them to that. Digital safety is an important theme of Year 7 lessons as we try to guide our students to use the internet productively and safely. To support your child in this, you might like to have a look at these resources: Further guidance on E-Safety can be found on the Governance and Policies Page, linked here. Online safety Our RSE strand in Year 7 looks at topics such as puberty and family relationships. Here are some useful resources: Our Year 7 Resilience Programme from Bounce Forward aims to build emotional resilience and the ability to deal with setbacks. |
Year 7 – Digital safety and Communication course content
Click on this link to access a sample of the resources we use for the Year 7 course.
| Year 8 |
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Although we start the school year with a new UPGRADE session, Year 8 students focus on physical and mental health, including healthy coping strategies. We look at puberty in more depth at the same time that we introduce the concepts of respect and consent in any relationship. When discussing health issues, we study body image and how young people manage risk. Within this topic we discuss addictive substances consumption and county lines. We also revisit internet safety (with a focus on nudes, deepfake, exploitation and cyberbullying) and we prepare them for their Outward Bound adventure by revisiting how to improve their resilience skills and looking at leadership and teamwork. In Year 8 students study the Justice System, and they perform a Magistrate Mock Trial within their L4L lessons. Their research project in the summer term is about “who they are”, where they present to their peers their own cultural heritage and what makes them the young people they are now. Useful resources for Year 8: |
Year 8 – Talking about our emotions
Click on this link to access a sample of the resources we use for the Year 8 course.
| Year 9 |
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Year 9 L4L has core PSHE topics, like RSE where we look at healthy relationships, consent, contraception, STIs and safe sex. Within the careers' topic, we keep working with Unifrog to find out more about their interests and all the suitable options for them beyond school. We analyse their GCSE options and discuss their next steps in life (in and out of school) after Y11. We also have an UPGRADE session at the start of the school year to support them finding and practising different revision skills that will be essential for their next academic steps. Although these are our main topics in Year 9, we also cover topics such as First Aid, water safety, self-esteem and confidence, online stress, family relationships, bereavement, and financial skills (budgeting, online banking, fraud, earning money and payroll etc). Useful resources for Year 9: |
Year 9 – Relationships and sex education
Click on this link to access a sample of the resources we use for the Year 9 course.
Learning Journey
Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11) course implementation and learning journey
Course content
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In Year 10, the students are taught PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) on a rotation with Citizenship and Religious Studies. They cover topics such as: Useful resources: Citizenship: the Law, Human Rights, British Values, Politics and Youth, study skills and how to manage the exam season (UPGRADE programme), careers (curating your online profile) and we discuss democracy and social media. The RS lessons cover ‘what is a religion’ with students researching a range of religions which have not been studied at Key Stage 3. |
Year 10 – Gambling: Risks, consequences and safety
Click on this link to access a sample of the resources we use for the Year 10 course.
| Year 11 |
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In Year 11, we start with 2 extended UPGRADE sessions followed by an A level taster session to introduce the 3 A level options that they have not seen before (Politics, Psychology and Sociology). We explore extremism and radicalism with an online programme from the University of Kent, conflict management, women’s protection, fertility and parenthood pathways, finishing with some Philosophy discussions such as euthanasia. |
Year 11 – Looking out for each other
Click on this link to access a sample of the resources we use for the Year 11 course.
Learning journey
There are no assessments in L4L, but students do evaluate all of their learning.
Key Stage 5 (Years 12-13) Personal Development
Personal Development at Sixth Form level is delivered primarily through fortnightly 1-hour sessions on alternating Monday Period 5s for Year 12 and 13. It is delivered in year group sessions, with some having some pre-session prep reading, and others having a follow-up drop-in as required. Many sessions involve the speaker being available for any individual questions and support at the end of the session.
The sessions are designed to be delivered at key times for our students. For example, in Year 12, ‘Why go to University’ is delivered the week before our Next Steps University Fair, and then immediately followed by a Student Finance session.
Personal Safety, Sexual Health, Wellbeing, Resilience, Substance Abuse, Healthy Relationships are all covered with more age-appropriate sessions than lower down the school.
We take student feedback on sessions and have adjusted, and will continue to adjust, accordingly. For 2026–27 sessions for each year group, please see below:
Year 12.
Year 13
Exemplar lesson materials.
Year 12 – the anxious generation
Subject impact
Key Stage 3
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To help students settle in to the school, understanding staff roles and school systems
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To provide help and guidance for students in terms of friendship, mental and physical well-being as well as their school work
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To ensure students have an opportunity to discuss and learn about wider issues in school and the wider world
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To provide careers education and advice for GCSE and beyond
Key Stage 4
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To provide students with advice and guidance on studying and the options at the end of KS4
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To ensure students understand their rights and responsibilities in the wider world
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To ensure students continue to receive help and guidance on mental and physical well-being
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To enable students to discuss and debate issues of importance to them
Key Stage 5
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To provide students with advice and guidance on studying and the options at the end of KS5
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To ensure students understand their rights and responsibilities in the wider world
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To ensure students continue to receive help and guidance on mental and physical well-being
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To enable students to discuss and debate issues of importance to them
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To provide guidance as to further steps upon leaving Aylesbury High School
School values in L4L & Personal Development
| Boundless Aspiration | Curious Engagement | Resilient Bravery | Selfless Generosity |
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