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About The Real Life Curriculum 🌍
What is The Real Life Curriculum? 🎓
The Real Life Curriculum is a practical exploration of how school could better prepare young people for adult life.
It starts from a simple idea:
School exists to prepare young people for adult life, and therefore the curriculum should be centred around life skills.
The Real Life Curriculum is a draft curriculum for Years 7–10.
Instead of being organised around traditional school subjects, it’s organised around areas of adult life.
Skills like reading, writing, maths, critical thinking, and communication are still there —
they’re just taught through real-world situations young people will actually face.
It’s designed to be:
- easy for parents to understand
- useful for teachers and schools
- clear enough for decision-makers to engage with
This isn’t a finished solution.
It’s a working model — something people can look at, question, improve, and build on.
Why The Real Life Curriculum exists 👩🏫
Many adults say they left school academically qualified, but unsure how to handle everyday adult responsibilities.
The Real Life Curriculum therefore seeks to answer this question:
What knowledge would genuinely help young people feel more confident and capable as they grow up?
How it's being developed 📝
The Real Life Curriculum is being developed alongside free learning resources from The Grown-Up School.
These include:
- video interviews with professionals from different industries
- practical explanations of things like tax, work, housing, and public services
- resources that can be used in classrooms, at home, or independently
Everything is designed to be:
- free to access
- suitable for schools
- easy to understand
- based on real experiences, not assumptions
A shared effort
Long term, this isn’t meant to be written by one person.
Adult life is complex, and no single person has all the answers.
The aim is for the curriculum to be shaped by:
- teachers and educators
- employers and professionals
- charities and community organisations
- parents and young people
- people with lived experience
By bringing different voices together, the curriculum can better reflect real life as it’s actually lived.
An open invitation
The Real Life Curriculum is a starting point.
If you’re interested, you can:
- explore the draft curriculum
- share feedback or ideas
- offer your expertise or experience
- support the project and help build momentum
Educational change takes time, and it works best when it’s shared.
This project exists to make the conversation clearer, more practical, and easier to take part in.