Skills for Life: Healthy Lifestyle
Healthy lifestyle is a Skills for Life unit in which learners explore how lifestyle choices affect physical and mental wellbeing, set a personal health or wellbeing goal, plan steps towards it and take part in activities that support it. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with other units into a Skills for Life or Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2. Literacy carries most of the assessment: describing, explaining and comparing lifestyle choices, justifying and planning a goal, and reflecting on progress. Numeracy is light and sits in tracking activity, sleep or steps, reviewing that data and planning steps with timescales.
- 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): 4 learning outcomes with assessment criteria at Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3 (what a healthy lifestyle is, simple ways to support it, setting a personal health or wellbeing goal, taking part in activities towards that goal). Evidence is compiled in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: 4 learning outcomes with assessment criteria at Level 1 and Level 2 (key factors in a healthy lifestyle, how lifestyle choices affect physical and mental wellbeing, setting, planning and tracking a personal goal, taking part in and reviewing a range of activities). Evidence is compiled in a portfolio, internally assessed by the centre and externally quality assured by WJEC. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Measurement
-
Reviewing data and planning steps with timescales
Level 2 learners create a structured plan with clear steps and timescales, review progress and evaluate how effective their activities were. The amplification suggests increasing intensity or duration gradually and setting short term targets; the plan and review are assessed, but averages, trends and dates are the learner's way of showing them.
Numeracy: Measurement, Interpreting data, Strategic competence
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils use a calendar to plan four weeks of a walking goal, adding five more minutes each week, and check the total time.
- Year 8
- Pupils work out the mean nightly sleep for two weeks of their own data and say whether it went up or down.
- Year 9
- Pupils compare the mean and range of their step counts before and after a change in routine and decide whether the change worked.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Level 1 and Level 2, learning outcome 3, assessment criteria L2 3.2 and L2 3.3, and learning outcome 4, assessment criterion L2 4.3, page 7; Amplification, learning outcome 4, page 10
“increase or vary intensity, duration, or type of activity gradually”
Progression step 3
I can use and interpret calendars, timetables and schedules to plan events and activities, and make calculations as part of the planning journey.
I can draw conclusions from data and recognise that some conclusions may be misleading or uncertain.
I can use mean to interpret a simple data set.
Progression step 4
I can prioritise and organise the relevant steps needed to complete the task or reach a solution.
I can draw conclusions from data and recognise that some conclusions may be misleading or uncertain.
I can use mean, median, mode and range to compare data (continuous and discrete), and can choose the most appropriate average.
Good to know
- The unit codes printed in the pack are "S613E1" for Entry 1 and S614E2, S614E3, S614L1 and S614L2 for the other levels, so check the Entry 1 code with WJEC before registering. The unit carries "20" guided learning hours (Unit overview, page 3).
- Writing is not the point: "extended written work is not required unless appropriate" and judgements should focus "on the meeting of standards, not on spelling or presentation unless specifically assessed" (Sources of evidence, page 12).
- Reflections and evidence can be spoken or visual: "tutor questioning (oral or written) and learner responses" and "audio or video recordings of discussions or presentations" are listed (Sources of evidence, page 12).
- Plural criteria have a minimum: "a plural reference within assessment criterion refers to a minimum of two" (pages 5 and 7).
- AI tools may be used only when acknowledged; AI misuse includes "Using AI to complete parts of the assessment so that the work does not reflect the learner's own work, analysis, evaluation or calculations" (specification, section 4.6, page 21).
- Suggested assessment tasks "are not mandatory"; teachers may use, adapt or replace them (specification, section 4.1, page 18).
Links with other qualifications
The pack names GCSE Physical Education and Health, GCSE Food and Nutrition, VCSE Sport and Leisure, and the Foundation qualifications in Sport and Leisure and in Health and Social Care and Childcare as linked WJEC qualifications. Explaining the effects of exercise, sleep and diet, setting goals and evaluating activities are shared with GCSE Physical Education and Health and VCSE Sport and Leisure, and recording and charting activity data links with GCSE Mathematics and Numeracy. Related Skills Suite units named in the pack are Exercise for all, Mental health and wellbeing, Food planning and preparation, Community participation, Music, dance and drama, Skills in the natural environment, Arts and crafts, Practical gardening and Values for life.
Source: WJEC Healthy lifestyle 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).