Sara
•Mar 13, 2026
Life Skills Programmes for Schools: How Edsidera’s Awards Help Schools Go Beyond the Curriculum and Evidence Real Impact
Schools today are expected to demonstrate how they develop well-rounded young people who show independence, resilience, leadership, and a strong sense of responsibility within their communities. While many schools are already doing incredible work in this area, the challenge is often how to clearly evidence that impact during inspections and accreditation reviews.
Edsidera’s life skills awards are designed to support both.
Through practical and engaging challenges, students develop key skills such as critical thinking, resilience, creativity, entrepreneurship, sustainability awareness, and community responsibility. Students capture their learning through individual evidence journals, encouraging reflection and ownership of their progress.
Alongside student evidence journals, schools receive a School Portfolio aligned with common inspection themes, helping demonstrate how the programme supports areas such as student leadership, personal development, community engagement, and innovation.
At the end of the academic year, we can also curate a school portfolio overview summarising student participation and achievements across the award. This provides schools with a clear and practical piece of evidence they can reference during inspections.
Flexible to Support Schools
We strongly believe programmes that support life skills development should be accessible and flexible for schools.
Our awards can be delivered in several ways depending on what works best for each school community:
Whole-school rollouts funded by the school
Implementation by specific year groups or phases
Optional sign-up programmes paid for by parents
For schools choosing a larger rollout funded by the school, we are always happy to explore discounted pricing for higher student numbers, helping ensure the programme remains accessible.
Schools can also choose the format that works best for them. Our awards are available through both the interactive Edsidera app and printed booklets, giving schools flexibility depending on their preferred approach.
Designed to Reflect School Priorities
Every school community is unique, so our programmes are designed to be adaptable.
Schools can include additional add-on challenges aligned with their priorities such as leadership, sustainability, community service, or entrepreneurship. For British schools, we can also include BSO-aligned challenges to support inspection frameworks.
In addition, every school can request bespoke challenges at no extra cost, allowing the programme to reflect their ethos, culture, and strategic focus.
Supporting National Vision and Global Context
For schools in the UAE, our programmes include challenges aligned with national priorities. Each year we include an additional challenge connected to the country’s focus; for example, 2026 has been designated the UAE’s Year of the Family.
Our Little Star Award and Rising Star Award include optional Arabic audio, helping make the programme more inclusive for younger learners. The Karam Award is also available in both English and Arabic, supporting bilingual learning environments.
While we proudly support the UAE’s vision and values, the programmes are also fully adaptable for schools globally, allowing challenges to align with the priorities and cultural context of each country.
Looking for Something Completely Bespoke?
In addition to our established life skills awards, Edsidera also works with schools that wish to create entirely bespoke programmes.
This may include designing a custom award or diploma framework built specifically around a school’s vision, values, and strategic priorities. From programme structure and challenge design to branding, certificates, digital platforms, and student evidence portfolios, we can support schools in creating a programme from the ground up.
This allows schools to develop a unique student achievement pathway that reflects their identity while still providing the structure and evidence needed to support inspections and accreditation.
Empowering Future-Ready Young People
Life skills are about preparing young people not just for exams, but for life.
By combining meaningful challenges, student reflection, and clear evidence for schools, Edsidera’s life skills awards help schools demonstrate how they are going beyond the curriculum to develop confident, capable, and socially responsible young people.
Launch Life Skills Awards in Your School
Edsidera works directly with schools to launch life skills awards that align with their values, priorities, and community.
Whether you are looking to introduce a whole-school programme, run an optional parent-funded award, or develop bespoke challenges linked to your school priorities, our team can support you in creating a programme that works for your students.
If you would like to explore launching one of our life skills awards in your school, get in touch with the Edsidera team to learn more.
