Skills for Life: Everyday Law
Everyday law is a 20 hour Skills for Life unit about how the law touches daily life: legal terms, rights and responsibilities, where to get legal help, and the consequences of keeping or breaking the law. It is one unit that learners combine with others into a Skills for Life or Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma. Literacy carries the unit: learners match, define and explain legal words, apply them to scenarios, compare advice sources and justify choices, mostly through talk, role-play and short written answers. Numeracy is light, limited to weighing cost when choosing advice and consumer examples such as refunds.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- Medium
- Amount of numeracy work
- Low
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): Four learning outcomes (common legal terms, rights and responsibilities, where to get help, situations where the law applies), each with two assessment criteria at Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3. Evidence goes in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: Four learning outcomes (legal concepts and terms, rights and responsibilities, accessing legal advice, how the law affects situations and decisions), each with two assessment criteria at Level 1 and Level 2. Evidence goes in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Collaborative talk
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Discussing legal issues through role-play and debate
Suggested activities include role-play of returning goods or reporting unsafe conditions, structured discussions with sentence starters at Entry Level, and a structured debate on a simple legal or ethical issue at Level 1 and Level 2. These support speaking and listening, and recordings can be evidence, but no criterion requires a debate or role-play.
Literacy: Collaborative talk, Listening as part of collaborative talk, Questioning
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils role-play returning a broken toy to a shop in pairs, using sentence starters such as I would like a refund because.
- Year 8
- Pupils take part in a class discussion on whether there should be an age limit for buying energy drinks, giving one reason and responding to one other view.
- Year 9
- Pupils hold a structured debate on whether mobile phones should be banned in schools, each speaker making a point, listening and answering a point from the other side.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Suggested activities, page 10; sources of evidence, page 11
“Participate in a structured debate on a simple legal or ethical issue”
Progression step 3
I can explore challenging or contentious issues through a variety of authentic contexts, including sustaining a role.
I can listen in order to show agreement and disagreement in collaborative discussion and situations.
Progression step 4
I can use talk in a range of authentic contexts to explore challenging or contentious issues.
I can sustain a convincing point of view, anticipating and responding to other perspectives.
Good to know
- The unit codes are "S609E1" to "S609L2" (Unit overview, page 3), one code per level from Entry 1 to Level 2, and the unit is 20 guided learning hours.
- Evidence does not have to be written: "evidence may be verbal, written, practical, or visual, extended written work is not required unless appropriate", and assessors judge the standard, "not spelling or presentation unless specifically assessed" (Sources of evidence, page 11).
- Possible evidence includes "Audio or video recordings of discussions, role-plays, or learner explanations" and "Question-and-answer records, quizzes, or simple tests assessing understanding" (Sources of evidence, page 11).
- No special resources are needed: "Assessment of this unit should not require any specific resources." (Resources required for assessment, page 12).
- AI can be used only if acknowledged. When properly referenced it "can be acceptable", but learners "cannot be credited for any work they produce for assessment which is not their own" (section 4.6, page 21).
- Suggested assessment tasks "are not mandatory"; teachers may use them, adapt them or write their own (section 4.1, page 18).
- Plural criteria mean at least two: "a plural reference within assessment criterion refers to a minimum of two" (pages 6 and 7).
Links with other qualifications
The pack names GCSE Social Studies and GCSE Religious Studies as related WJEC qualifications, and both develop reading viewpoints and explaining rights, responsibilities and fairness. Consumer rights also appear in GCSE Business and in the VCSE and Foundation Retail and Customer Service, which cover the Consumer Rights Act 2015, while VCSE and Foundation Public Services cover criminal justice services such as the police and courts. GCSE English Language and Literature supports the reading, explaining and debating this unit asks for. Related Skills Suite units named in the pack include Financial literacy, Democracy in action, Ethical choices, Rights and responsibilities in the workplace, and Fairness and inclusion in the workplace.
Source: WJEC Everyday law unit delivery and assessment pack, read with the WJEC Entry 1 to Level 2 Skills for Life and Skills for Work specification, approved by Qualifications Wales, teaching from September 2027 (© WJEC CBAC Ltd 2026).