Life Lessons supports teachers to deliver outstanding relationships, sex and health education

We aspire to a world where all young people are equipped to be healthy, make good decisions and navigate the social and emotional complexities of life.

HISTORY

Life Lessons Beginning

Life Lessons founders Nicole and Jamie met in 2019 when both were accepted onto the UCL backed Edtech accelerator Educate. Both had different start up ideas that they were exploring but it became clear, when they chatted over a sandwich at lunch, that there was a great deal of common ground. Both share a passion for removing inequalities from education, whether as a consequence of economic background, gender or location.

​When the UK government announced changes to the statutory requirements for teaching Relationships and Sex education in schools Nicole and Jamie recognised the challenge for schools. As with many of the best ideas, Life Lessons was first imagined in a pub. Nicole applied her experience as a PSHE teacher and education leader; Jamie was an advocate of relatable peer based support from his time at The Student Room and Unibuddy.

They set out to create video resources that would be relatable to young people in the classroom, fully inclusive and that would actively challenge systemic issues such as gender stereotyping and the hetronormative teaching of the subject. To produce a scalable solution so all schools could benefit and teachers would feel empowered to deliver
a challenging subject.

TEAM

Meet the Life Lessons Team

Our team is made up of experts in their respective fields, each working together to better support teachers, schools and young people.

Nicole Rodden
Nicole Rodden
Co-Founder

Co-Founder

Jamie O’Connell
Jamie O’Connell
Co-Founder

Co-Founder

April Smith
April Smith
School Partnership Manager

Schools Partnership Manager

April’s role is to support your whole school approach to RSHE programme delivery and she is your first point of contact when you become a Life Lessons school. Before April joined Life Lessons, she was teaching MFL in a secondary academy and was also Head of Year so she is best placed to support you as a school.

April loves to craft and has her own Etsy shop, she also has two rescue cats, CeeCee and Ava, who love to make an appearance during meetings – keep an eye out!

Georgia Latief
Georgia Latief
Content Marketing Manager

Content Marketing Manager

Georgia is our Content Marketing Manager and takes care of all things content and marketing related at Life Lessons including blogs, resources, testimonials, emails, managing our social media accounts, graphic design and website upkeep.

Before joining Life Lessons, Georgia worked for an education recruitment company and a safeguarding company both based in Wales. She is originally from New Zealand and has a background in theatre and media studies.

Georgia is an Cross Fit enthusiastic, can’t whistle and listens to a disturbing amount of true crime podcasts.

Annika Hagel
Annika Hagel
Learning Manager

Learning Manager

As Learning Manager, Annika creates and reviews Life Lessons learning content in collaboration with our team and external experts. Holding a MSc in Gender, Policy and Inequalities from LSE, she brings in-depth knowledge of diversity, inclusion and sexual and reproductive health.

When she isn’t developing new content for Life Lessons, Annika works on behaviour change interventions and research for non-profit organisations. She loves snails and prides herself in being able to wiggle her ears independently of one another.