Skills for Life: Healthy Lifestyle
Healthy lifestyle is a Pearson Skills for Life unit in which learners look at the factors that affect mental and physical health and wellbeing, review how far they follow a healthy lifestyle, plan steps or goals to improve it and take part in activities to meet those goals. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Life Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2. Digital demand is low: no assessment criterion needs a device. Online questionnaires, health apps and trackers are suggested ways to review a lifestyle and record data, plans can be produced digitally, and learners must reference sources and acknowledge any AI they use.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Low
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): One assessment criterion at each of Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3: list, outline or identify factors that affect health and wellbeing, give steps, simple goals or a basic plan to improve own lifestyle, and take part in activities to achieve them. The essential information for assessment decisions says how many factors, steps and goals learners show at each level. Centres choose the type of evidence and set and mark the assessment, adapting Pearson's Authorised Assignment Brief or devising their own, internally verified and quality assured by Pearson standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each of Level 1 and Level 2: describe (Level 1) or explain (Level 2) factors affecting health and wellbeing, review own lifestyle using different techniques, produce a clear, realistic plan (Level 1) or a detailed, measurable plan following SMART principles (Level 2), and take part in activities to achieve at least two (Level 1) or three (Level 2) planned goals, then reflect on them. Centres choose the type of evidence and set and mark the assessment, internally verified and quality assured by Pearson standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
The digital skills in this qualification
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Recording and reviewing health data with apps and trackers
Level 1 and Level 2 learners must review or assess their own healthy lifestyle using different techniques, and the guidance gives online technology as one example. Annexe C links the unit to using pedometers, health apps and wearables to record and interpret data, and to online quizzes. The review is required, but the digital route is only suggested, so the digital work is not itself assessed.
DCF: Data and information literacy
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils wear a pedometer or use the step counter on a school tablet for one lesson day and record their step totals in a shared table.
- Year 8
- Pupils log a week of sleep times from a simple app or diary into a spreadsheet and make a bar chart showing which nights reached nine hours.
- Year 9
- Pupils complete an online lifestyle quiz, enter their scores for sleep, activity and diet into a spreadsheet, and pick out the two areas most in need of improvement.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 14, Essential information for assessment decisions, Level 1 and Level 2, page 70; Annexe C, SfL 14 Digital Links, page 162
“using health technology (pedometers, apps, wearables) to record/interpret data; using online quizzes”
Progression step 3
I can construct, refine and interrogate data sets within tables, charts, spreadsheets and databases to test or support an investigation.
Progression step 4
I can perform analysis on simple data sets including grouping data as appropriate.
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Producing lifestyle plans and reflections digitally
Entry 3 learners create a basic plan with goals and timelines, Level 1 learners a clear, realistic plan with at least three goals, actions and timelines, and Level 2 learners a detailed, measurable SMART plan, followed at Level 1 and Level 2 by a reflection on the activities. Annexe C links Level 1 and Level 2 to producing plans, presentations and reports. The plan and reflection are required, but they do not have to be digital, so the digital production is not assessed.
DCF: Sourcing, searching and planning digital content, Creating digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils type a three step plan to drink more water this week into a template on Hwb and add a clip art image for each step.
- Year 8
- Pupils build a two week goal tracker in a table in a word processor, with columns for goal, action, date and done, and fill it in each morning.
- Year 9
- Pupils make a short slide presentation of a personal SMART goal, showing the target, the timeline and a chart of their progress, and finish with a reflection slide.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 14, assessment criteria, page 68; Essential information for assessment decisions, Entry 3, page 69, Level 1 and Level 2, page 70; Annexe C, SfL 14, page 162
“completing questionnaires/diaries and reflective accounts; producing plans/ presentations/reports”
Progression step 3
I can independently create and plan work before beginning a digital task.
I can use a range of software to select, produce and edit a range of multimedia components for a purpose, such as:
- text and images, e.g. format text (bold, underline, italics, highlight); insert and edit text boxes; columns; use refine tools (spellchecker, find and replace); word wrap; crop; alter size and shape; alter images; add effects; trim and split sound and video clips; transitions; onion skin
- presentation, e.g. page orientation; animations; transitions; remove and alter images; use background; use action buttons to create hyperlink; embed objects.
Progression step 4
I can select and effectively use a variety of planning techniques.
I can select and use a variety of appropriate software, tools and techniques to create, modify and combine multimedia components for a range of audiences and purposes, such as:
- text and images, e.g. explore and use effectively image manipulation techniques; explore and use appropriately the many aspects of document layout; use animation, video and audio effects such as echo, tempo, envelope, layering, frame rate, key frames
- presentation, e.g. use design tools; adapt themes and colours to suit the purpose; create master templates.
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Referencing sources and acknowledging AI
Learners at every level must certify that their evidence is their own and clearly reference any sources and any AI used, for example health websites, apps or questionnaires used to review their lifestyle. Using AI tools without acknowledging them is malpractice. This applies to all assessed evidence.
DCF: Digital rights, licensing and ownership, Sourcing, searching and planning digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils copy the name and address of the NHS web page they used for a healthy eating fact sheet into a sources box at the bottom of the page.
- Year 8
- Pupils keep a simple list of the websites and apps they used for a sleep project, with the date they visited each one.
- Year 9
- Pupils use an AI chatbot to suggest exercise ideas, then rewrite the ideas in their own words and add a note saying which tool they used and what they changed.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 14, Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 71
“they have clearly referenced any sources and any artificial intelligence used”
Progression step 3
I can understand that copying the work of others and presenting it as my own is plagiarism.
I can cite sources when researching and explain the importance of this, e.g. create simple lists for the referencing of digital and offline sources.
Progression step 4
I can evaluate the reliability of sources of information, justify my opinions and reasons for choices, and reference using appropriate methods.
I can act responsibly as creator and user of creative work, e.g. exploring decisions that creators make when exercising their creative rights and responsibilities, giving consideration to ethical, real-life issues.
Good to know
- The unit is listed as "SfL 14 Healthy lifestyle" with a Unit GLH of 20 (Unit summary, page 5). It counts towards the Pearson Skills for Life qualifications, for example C00/5444/4 "Pearson Level 1 Skills for Life Award" (Qualification titles, page 4), first taught from "September 2027" (Other key information, page 4).
- A unit counts only once: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6, and Assessment of units, page 9), so schools should decide which level each learner is working towards.
- The required teaching content is not in the specification: it "can be found in the Teaching and Learning Support document for this unit" (Unit content, page 69), so schools need that separate Pearson document as well as the Authorised Assignment Brief.
- Evidence is flexible: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 69), but "achievement cannot be inferred from performance" (Section 4, page 9), so taking part in activities needs a record such as an observation record or diary.
- Digital tools are optional. At Level 1 learners review their lifestyle with different techniques, for example "lifestyle questionnaires or online technology" (Essential information for assessment decisions, Level 1, page 70), so a school without devices can still deliver the unit.
- AI must be acknowledged: "A learner will have committed malpractice if they use AI tools without acknowledging them" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 71).
- In Annexe C the Numeracy and Literacy columns for SfL 14 appear to be swapped: the Numeracy column lists "completing questionnaires/diaries and reflective accounts" and the Literacy column lists "interpreting questionnaire scores" (Annexe C, page 162).
- The unit says its cross-cutting theme experiences "can be found in Annexe E" (page 72), but Annexe E has no row for SfL 14: the table goes straight from SfL 5 to SfL 18 (page 172), although Annexe D ticks Diversity and Local, National and International Contexts for this unit (page 168).
Links with other qualifications
Healthy lifestyle sits closest to WJEC GCSE Physical Education and Health, which also covers the factors that affect health and wellbeing, goal setting and taking part in physical activity, and to the WJEC VCSE and Foundation in Sport and Leisure; healthy eating links with WJEC GCSE Food and Nutrition. Within the WJEC Skills Suite it pairs naturally with Exercise for All, Mental Health and Wellbeing and Food Planning and Preparation. Compared with the WJEC Healthy lifestyle unit, which is also 20 hours but has four learning outcomes and asks Level 1 and Level 2 learners to set, plan and track a personal goal, the Pearson unit has a single criterion per level that combines factors, a personal plan and activities, asks for at least three goals with timelines at Level 1 and a SMART plan at Level 2, and treats apps and trackers only as an example.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Life Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfL 14: Healthy lifestyle.