The Lifestyle First Curriculum helps schools build a genuine culture of wellbeing by placing health at the centre of everyday school life.
Created by experts in psychology, paediatrics, education and medicine, and aligned with the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine (BSLM), it turns the latest research into practical, ready-to-teach lessons.
Better health supports better learning - attendance, focus, behaviour, relationships, fitness and academic outcomes improve. Lifestyle First gives schools a simple, structured way to bring these benefits into daily practice.
Designed for busy teachers, the curriculum is easy to deliver and fits seamlessly into existing PSHE provision. Through the Lifestyle First Portal, schools also access staff CPD, parent support, in-lesson tools and whole-school campaigns that help shift habits and build healthier routines.
Lifestyle First mission is to empower families with the knowledge, confidence and practical tools to make small, sustainable changes at home. When families understand the “why” behind healthy habits and feel supported to take the first step, they become active partners in their child's wellbeing.
This shared approach strengthens the link between home and school, supports consistency, laying the foundations for lifelong healthy living.
What are The 6 Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine?
The Lifestyle First Curriculum is built around the six pillars of lifestyle medicine: healthy eating, physical activity, sleep, mental health, healthy relationships and minimising harm.
Using these pillars, the curriculum helps schools focus on the everyday behaviours that support better physical and mental wellbeing. Rooted in evolutionary biology and modern lifestyle medicine, it helps children understand how sleep, movement, nutrition, relationships and environment all work together to influence health.
When healthy habits improve, the body and mind respond positively. Sleep improves, stress and inflammation can reduce, emotional regulation becomes easier, and overall wellbeing and metabolic health are strengthened.
Many modern health challenges are not simply caused by “broken” bodies, but by the mismatch between human biology and modern lifestyles. Lifestyle First takes a holistic approach to mental health, helping pupils understand the powerful connections between movement, sleep, nutrition, relationships and emotional wellbeing.
Poor mental health rarely exists in isolation. It is often linked with poor sleep, inactivity, stress, loneliness or disconnection from nature and community. That's why the curriculum promotes a whole-child, whole-school approach to wellbeing.
Environmental awareness is also woven throughout the programme, helping children understand the connection between personal health, community health and the natural world.
Lifestyle First is a trusted resource for the entire school community, supporting students, staff and families to move towards a healthier, more balanced and health-first way of living.
The Lifestyle First Primary Curriculum Mapping
The curriculum is designed using a spiral approach, where key themes are revisited regularly so that knowledge, understanding and skills deepen year after year. This helps children build confidence over time while enabling teachers to reinforce essential concepts in age-appropriate ways.
Schools joining Lifestyle First for the first time can introduce all core concepts across every year group, ensuring no child misses the foundations needed for lifelong wellbeing.
Our engaging resources create a sense of positivity, hope and emotional safety for children. Lessons are carefully designed to support wellbeing, encourage open conversation and help pupils feel confident exploring important topics.
At the same time, the curriculum fully meets statutory RSE requirements and supports the wider PSHE framework, giving schools confidence that they are delivering high-quality, compliant provision without compromising on warmth, creativity or care.
Our curriculum comes with health focused campaigns to get the whole family involved!
Lifestyle First campaigns are designed to reach beyond the classroom and into the heart of family life. Whether it's cooking and eating real food together, reducing screen time, or taking on active challenges like running a family mile in under ten minutes, the goal is always the same: helping families build healthier lifestyles together.
When healthy habits are modelled, encouraged and celebrated across the whole family, children are far more likely to adopt them for life. Our approach brings everyone on the journey — students, parents, carers and siblings — creating a shared sense of purpose and a supportive environment where positive change can thrive.
Lifestyle First campaigns promote meaningful, long-term change across all six pillars of lifestyle medicine, helping schools create healthier habits and cultures where wellbeing can truly flourish.
The Lifestyle First Award gives students the opportunity to put their learning into practice, turning knowledge and awareness into real-life action. Many schools choose to complete the award in Year 6, providing children with a memorable and empowering culmination to their primary school journey while helping prepare them for the transition to secondary school.
In order to encourage students towards healthier choices
We have also created a Lifestyle First Award which is aligned with the BSLM
3 Bonus lesson features are included as part of the Lifestyle First curriculum
The Lifestyle First Curriculum doesn't just teach about lifestyle medicine — it helps teachers embed it into everyday classroom life. Our in-lesson features, including movement breaks, a curated music player and guided breathwork, give teachers simple, ready-to-use tools that make healthy habits a natural part of the school day.
These features act as an extra layer of support for busy teachers, enhancing PSHE delivery without adding workload. They're quick to access, easy to run and designed to fit seamlessly into any lesson, helping staff reinforce wellbeing principles in real time.
Each tool brings clear benefits for students:
- Movement breaks boost focus, regulate energy levels and improve behaviour by giving the brain the physical reset it needs to learn effectively.
- Breathwork sessions teach students the connection between breath and their nervous system, helping to manage anxiety and build resilience — skills they can use far beyond the classroom.
- The music player helps create calm, positive learning environments, supporting emotional regulation and reducing classroom stress.
Together, these features turn lifestyle medicine into a daily habit rather than a once-a-week lesson. Students don't just learn about wellbeing they experience it, practise it and take those strategies with them into their wider lives.
.....And as teachers ourselves, we've got your back saving you time with our resource packs
The lessons come complete with a comprehensive teacher resource pack that supports confident, high-quality delivery from day one. Each pack includes detailed lesson breakdowns, step-by-step guidance, and ready-to-use activity sheets that make planning effortless. Teachers also receive 12 beautifully illustrated colouring pages for every Lifestyle Pillar, offering creative opportunities for reflection, calm and deeper engagement with the themes.
Beyond these core elements, the resource pack is filled with additional tools, prompts and optional extension activities that allow teachers to tailor the learning experience to the needs of their class. Everything has been designed to save teachers time, be enjoyable to teach and highly effective in helping children understand and apply what they learn.
Packages are Affordable and pricing Adjusted to the size of your school
Can you put a price on what Better health in your school community would feel like?
