10/08/2026
Our Life Skills Course is built around cooking, but it’s really about giving young people the confidence and practical skills to look after themselves.
Food is a big part of that. We’re not teaching students to survive on beans on toast — we want them to leave able to cook proper, nutritious and delicious meals for themselves and for others.
Across the week they tackle everything from BBQ and street food nights to roast dinners, healthy lunches and Italian-inspired meals. The recipes are designed to stretch them, but with our 2:1 student-to-tutor ratio, the cooking remains accessible whatever their starting point.
And, of course, there is much more to living independently than cooking.
We’re very lucky to work with some fantastic local partners who help us bring those other skills to life.
Alisa and Em House from Fuel & Flow Fitness lead our Gym Introduction and Nutrition session, helping students feel more confident around exercise, fitness and looking after their health.
WCT - First aid courses Plymouth (Devon & Cornwall) deliver a certificated Emergency First Aid course, giving students skills that could genuinely make a difference when they are needed.
And Naked Solar and Charlie Backwell have helped us develop the home maintenance side of the course, by providing a home electrical circuit and fuse demo board so students can get a better understanding of how things work around the home and the simple preventative maintenance everyone should know.
Throughout the week we also encourage students to grow in confidence, become more independent and think about how they manage relationships and everyday situations when they leave home.
And they get to do all of this in a pretty special place — Highcliffe Cornwall, Polzeath, just five minutes from the beach, with an onsite gym and tennis courts too.
It’s a week of learning to cook, looking after yourself, trying new things and gaining skills that we hope will stay with students for life.
StudentLife LifeSkillsForTeens
