2026 - Big Changes
At Learn and Thrive, we’re always evolving — not because we have to, but because our young people deserve the very best. Every tweak, every new lesson, every improvement to the website is driven by one goal: to create learning experiences that genuinely change lives.
This year, we’re taking big steps forward. We’ve listened carefully to families, teachers, young people, and our delivery partners, and we’re reshaping Learning for Life so it works even better for everyone who uses it. That means clearer pathways, stronger resources, and more of the content you’ve been asking for.
We are a small, mighty team, and we’re absolutely committed to building something powerful together — even in a challenging charity landscape. Your feedback, your use of the resources, and your support help us keep pushing forward and innovating.
This blog will walk you through what’s new, how things now work, and what exciting content is coming next for each user group.
We’re updating series by series so we can maintain our high standards and give you the very best. We’ll send email updates as soon as new content drops.
Thank you for being part of this journey with us — changemaking is always a team effort, and together we’re building futures full of confidence, independence and possibility.
What changes are happening?
We’re in the middle of a full, exciting refresh of all Learning for Life content — not just to tidy things up, but to make the whole experience stronger, clearer, and more useful for every parent, educator, and young person who relies on it.
As part of this review, we’re going back through every video and resource to make sure:
They’re accessible, easy to use, and consistently coded with letters and dots so you always know which resources, symbols and supports you need
Our offer fully aligns with the 2026 RSE curriculum, with no gaps and no guesswork
Educators can clearly map progress and knowledge gaps to support learning
As soon as we started reviewing the content in detail, one thing became clear: we could go even further to support the people delivering and learning from this content. So we’re adding a whole new set of tools to help you pick up and use Learning for Life smoothly, confidently, and with far less planning time.
What’s new?
Communication Sheets – simple forms for parents/carers, so that session leaders have all the personalised information they need to it right.
Take-Home Sheets – to help families continue learning beyond the session
Session Plans – clear, time-saving guides that hold everything educators need to prepare, teach and assess. Perfect for teaches needing a full lesson plan
Parent Checklists – to track progress across videos, series and success criteria
Learner Checklists – empowering young people to take ownership of their own progress
Knowledge Checks – to highlight what learners already know and where to focus next
Recap Sheets – quick refreshers on earlier learning so everyone can step into sessions ready
Yes — it’s a lot! But it’s also what high-quality, accessible, life-skills education deserves. We want every user to feel supported, confident and equipped, and these additions are part of our commitment to making Learning for Life as effective and easy to use as possible.
For parents
When we introduced small costs for downloadable resources, we saw what many of you told us directly: even low prices can still create barriers. And that isn’t what we want for families. We want the content to be easy to access, fair, and flexible — because home learning is such a core part of Learning for Life.
Change: Families can now choose to sign up for free access or they can choose to support us with a donation.
Families will receive a 12-month discount code that makes all digital resources completely free at checkout. If you can’t or don’t want to donate, you will still receive access — cost should never stand in the way of your young person learning vital life-skills.
How it works:
When you sign up for family access, choose the donation option or select free access. We’ll complete a quick SEND verification — simply confirming that a child or young person with SEND lives in your household. Once verified, you’ll receive your discount code.
Then just add any digital resources to your basket, apply the code at checkout, and complete your order for £0. Your resources arrive in your inbox straight away.
New content for families:
Parent Checklists – track progress across videos, activities and success criteria
Learner Checklists – support independence by helping young people track their own progress
Recap Worksheets – tells you what previous learning you need for this session, and asks some basic questions to get the brain firing.
Knowledge Checks – understand what your young person already knows before you start a session
For teachers, TAs, and school staff
To help schools save money, we’ve opened up our Education Pathways. These yearly subscriptions allow schools to download an unlimited number of digital resources, an unlimited number of times for the whole year. We’ve built these so you can have a Teach Me Too and/or Learning for Life subscription, depending on your setting and your learners’ needs. And if you’re looking to cut costs even more, we have our Education Partnerships, where your school gives us feedback on our content so that we can work together to make them better.
We’ve already started this process, and have been looking into how to better support teachers and TAs in tracking progress, assessing learning, and preparing for the 2026 curriculum updates.
Change: Education Pathways available, from £149/year, to access unlimited free digital resource downloads.
How it works: Your school or college pays a yearly subscription and all staff get access to a school-wide discount code. This way there is no change to your accounts. Put all the digital downloads you want into your basket, and at checkout add your discount code, and you can complete the checkout process with no payment details. You’ll then get an email with all your digital resources sent directly to you.
New content:
Lesson Plans - full session plans, including notes on success criteria, resources, and pre- and post-session assessment.
Communication Sheets - to send to parents and carers ahead of starting the sessions to get key information to personalise the learning to individuals. Also includes any requests for photos of the student’s family, friends, and more where needed.
Take Home Sheets - to send to parents and carers after the session so that learning continues at home or in their residential setting
Success Criteria Spreadsheet - aligned with the 2026 English Primary RSE curriculum, this spreadsheet means you can track students’ progress against success criteria, with space for notes
Recap and Knowledge Checks - pre-session assessment to check students’ understanding
For local charity or support group staff
Your role is essential for our community, providing such wide ranging support and guidance. We know first-hand how stretch your budgets and time are, so we have created our Delivery Partnerships to provide all of our digital content to your organisation totally free. No initial payment, no subscription cost - all the resources totally free.
Change: Any support group, local charity, or community organisation can complete our eligibility form to see if they qualify to get free access. We then provide your organisation with a discount code that gives you access to your desired project for free.
How it works: Use the discount code at the checkout and complete the checkout without any payment details. All digital downloads will then be sent to your email. Each organisation has access to this discount code with up to 5 email addresses, and they all must be associated with the organisation.
New content:
Session Plans - take the time out of planning! Includes success criteria, what resources you’ll need, and a full session plan from introductions to assessment
Communication Sheets - to send to parents and carers ahead of starting the sessions to get key information to personalise the learning to individuals. Also includes any requests for photos of the student’s family, friends, and more where needed.
Take Home Sheets - to send to parents and carers after the session so that learning continues at home or in their residential setting
Recap and Knowledge Checks - pre-session assessment to check students’ understanding
For any other users
All of this brand new content will still be available to you, but with the small cost still attached. There are some of the video packs we have kept free so you can have a preview of the sort of activities and worksheets that are available when you purchase the other packs.
As always the videos themselves remain free, and if you have worries about affording the content, or any questions, you can get in touch with our team.
So why all these changes?
If you read our blogs, you’ll know that funding has been an ongoing challenge — not just for us, but across the whole charity sector. After the pandemic, funding levels fell sharply. Some foundations have closed, others are giving less, and many more charities are competing for the same shrinking pots.
And yes — it’s tough. But we’re not going anywhere.
We hear constantly from families, teachers and young people about the difference this work makes. That’s what keeps us going, and why we’re absolutely committed to continuing to build new content, strengthen our projects, and expand Learning for Life.
These changes help us strike a balance:
Keeping access open and fair for families and community groups
Supporting educators with high-quality content that saves time and lifts outcomes
Creating a small, sustainable income stream so we can keep developing new learning
Most importantly, everything we do is aimed at making Learning for Life more effective, more supportive, and more impactful — for young people themselves and the adults who champion them.