What is Lyfta?
Lyfta is an award-winning platform made up of interactive 360° spaces and soundscapes of real homes, workplaces and environments from around the world. Students are invited to explore new places, unlock rich media content, and get to know a diverse range of real people through powerful and inspiring short films. Lyfta helps schools and MATs to:
- Build social and cultural capital
- Teach about diversity, equity and inclusion
- Deliver character and values education
- Teach about sustainability and global citizenship
- Offer social and emotional learning
- Nuture critical digital literacy
The range of interactive storyworlds are ideal for broadening students' horizons and teaching a range of subjects, skills and values as well as the UN SDGs. The 300+ ready-made lesson and assembly plans intergrated into the platform cover a range of vital themes such as sustainability, wellbeing, human diversity and compassion, and are ideal for nurturing skills and values like empathy, resilience, and critical thinking.
Educational Impact
increase student collaboration
reduce attainment gap
build student knowledge
improve teaching efficiency
reduce teacher workload
Additional evidence
 Company | Business Name: Lyfta Education HQ Location: United Kingdom Founded: 2016 |
| Age Range | 5-7, 8-10, 11-13, 14-16, 17-18 |
 Features | Immersive SpacesMonitor Student Progress300+ Lesson And Assembly PlansEngagement Manager Support |
 Languages | English |
 Accessibility | Robust features |
 Policies |  Terms of ServicePrivacy PolicyGDPR |
 Requirements | Internet - Low BandwidthDesktop - MacDesktop - WindowsDesktop - ChromebookMobile - iPad PC, laptop or IPad with internet connection. Students access lessons with a passphrase generated by the teacher. |
 Set Up | Instant access to a Lyfta Starter account. |
 Training | Live OnlineWebinarsDocumentationVideos We offer highly-rated free CPD training to help teachers can get the most out of the platform. |
 Support | EmailFAQs/ForumKnowledge Base Subscribers have access to an engagement manager to help embed Lyfta. |
 Tags | Global LearningEnrichment Cultural capitalDEIDiversity, Equity and InclusionValues EducationSocial capitalSocial and emotional learningstorytellingimmersive lesson plansassembly plansSocial capitalCharacter EducationSELVirtual school trip |
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Lyfta PricingPricing Plans FreemiumFree TrialPaid Subscription Lyfta pricing starts from ÂŁ5 / per-pupil We understand that each school and trustâs approach to using Lyfta is different and structure our prices accordingly. Please book a call on our website to discuss your priorities and for us to outline our pricing structure. Free instant access to 2 storyworlds is available when you sign up for a Lyfta Starter account. Free access to the whole platform is available for 30 days when you join our free training webinar.  Optimised for a quick response | |
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Lyfta Reviews
4.7Â out of 5
from 64 Verified Reviews
Lyfta has collected 0 reviews in the past 6 months
User rating
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Jun 2023
Implementing Lyfta across Bridgewater High School & The Challenge Academy Trust has had a transformative impact on both our students and teachers. It has broadened our students' global perspectives, nurtured empathy, and provided a dynamic and engaging learning environment.
Roberts found Lyfta:
- Significantly reduces teacher workloadâTeachers can modify or customize pre-prepared lessons based on their students' interests, cultural backgrounds, or individual learning styles. This flexibility ensures that the lessons are relevant and resonate with the students, increasing their engagement and understandingâ
- Significantly reduces attainment gapâImplementing Lyfta across The Challenge Academy Trust has had a transformative impact on both our students and teachers. It has broadened our students' global perspectives, nurtured empathy, and provided a dynamic and engaging learning environment. Students have the opportunity to visit over 30 different countries throughout the year and the platform has allowed ALL students to better understand and celebrate other cultures around the worldâ
- Significantly increases student collaboration
- Significantly improves teaching efficiencyâLyfta's commitment to promoting inclusivity and supporting educators has made it an invaluable asset in our educational toolkit. The lesson plans and resources provided are of the highest quality making it an excellent resource in terms of planning a wider Personal Development Curriculumâ
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâLyfta provides high quality content that promotes student engagement and offers both flexibility and support for staff delivering the sessions. The Lyfta sessions enhances the teaching and learning experience, empowering both teachers and students in their education journey.â
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Mar 2023
Lyfta is slickly presented and students are able to explore the content intuitively. Perhaps there could be more links to the curriculum and when I first set it up for the students, we had some technical difficulties.
Paul Bush found Lyfta:
- Moderately reduces teacher workloadâThe Lyfta well-being content, the live lesson about Asalif and Earth Day.â
- Moderately reduces attainment gapâThe way the content is presented and accessed means that all my students are able to access the learning and participate.â
- Moderately increases student collaborationâDuring the well-being week, students worked together to explore the world and write information reports on what they had found out.â
- Moderately improves teaching efficiencyâAs the content is best self-discovered, it allows me to monitor students and assist only when necessary.â
- Moderately builds student knowledgeâThey learned all about the world with real contexts.â
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Graham Macaulay
Director of Innovation and Growth
LEO Academy Trust, England
Used Lyfta weekly for 3-4 years
Mar 2023
A resource which provides children with exceptionally high quality resources to help them develop a deeper understanding of the diverse nature of our world.
Graham Macaulay found Lyfta:
- Significantly reduces teacher workloadâLyfta provides a wealth of exceptionally high quality content, aligned by theme and topic. This helps teaching staff to find exceptionally high quality resources with minimal effort.â
- Significantly reduces attainment gapâDue to the highly engaging, interactive content on the Lyfta platform, pupils of all abilities are able to engage and access the resources at an appropriate level for them. This helps to scaffold learning and enable every child to succeed.â
- Significantly increases student collaborationâUsing Lyfta has enabled our children to collaborate in rich and meaningful ways. Drawing on their own individual interpretation and response to the resource provided, children are able to then share their reflections whilst building upon other children's thoughts and feelings.â
- Significantly improves teaching efficiencyâThere is no doubt about it, the resources on Lyfta are some of the best quality resources for exploring values and human behaviours. By providing children with access to extremely high quality content, teachers are able to be more efficient through precise questioning and discussion to challenge learners.â
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâChildren are able to effectively explore values and human behaviours, that they may not have done previously. This is particularly relevant for some curriculum areas which teaching staff may have found difficult to explore without appropriate resourcing.â
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Gulcin Sesli
Co CEO
spring partnership trust, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Used Lyfta weekly for 7â12 months
Mar 2023
Excellent resource and cannot compare with anything in the market.
Gulcin Sesli found Lyfta:
- Moderately reduces teacher workloadâPlans preparedâ
- Significantly reduces attainment gapâAddresses cultural capital deficit between DA pupils and their peersâ
- Significantly increases student collaborationâDiscussion which we merge with our voice 21 programmeâ
- Significantly improves teaching efficiencyâPlansâ
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâKnowledge of the world we live inâ
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Stuart White
Specialist Wider Curriculum Lead
Iris Learning Trust, England
Used Lyfta weekly for 4-6 months
Mar 2023
Lyfta is a wonderful platform to help develop children's knowledge, understanding and empathy of the world around them. As more and more storyworlds are added to the platform, children get to explore places and cultures they were not aware of. The resources have some adaptabilty which allows teachers to make Lyfta a personal experience for their children.
Stuart White found Lyfta:
- Moderately reduces teacher workloadâLyfta's super range of lesson plans and activities can be used or easily adapted to suit the needs of the children.â
- Moderately reduces attainment gapâExcellent for all learners, including SEND children. Lyfta allows children of all abilities to engage with, and discover cultures beyond their locality. Children are able to jump into the story worlds at different levels and share their thoughts and understanding.â
- Significantly increases student collaborationâThoughtful and provactive story worlds promote classroom discussion and debate that all children can take part in.â
- Moderately improves teaching efficiencyâTeachers are able to draw upon resources within the different storyworlds, providing a number of cross-curricular links.â
- Moderately builds student knowledgeâChildren can learn about different countries and cultures which they may not have encountered before. They are provided within a valuable insight into social, environmental and cultural issues.â
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Oct 2022
Lyfta has transformed the way that I am able to teach. The children LOVE it and it has sparked some extremely interesting discussions and debates in my classroom.
Dean Lynch found Lyfta:
- Significantly reduces teacher workloadâ- Less time searching for high quality resources - Videos provide a framework for lessons - Ample opportunities for cross curricular links already highlightedâ
- Significantly reduces attainment gapâ-Excellent for EAL learners - Allows Excellent opportunities for decolonisation - Videos are organised to ensure entry points for all pupils - Provides children from ethnic minorities the opportunity to share their knowledge as their countries are representedâ
- Moderately increases student collaborationâ- Allows opportunities for enriched discussion and debate - Many activities where peer and partner work is neededâ
- Moderately improves teaching efficiencyâ- Cross curricular links - Creates a bank of specialist knowledge the children can draw upon for other areas of curriculum such as speech writing in English - Promotes critical thinkingâ
- Moderately builds student knowledgeâ- Learn about many different countries, cultures, and issues around the world - Provides a foundation and an interest in world affairs and politics - Knowledge is often used for inference when learning about historical and geographical eventsâ
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Jun 2022
Lyfta has inspired and engaged our children more than I thought possible from a single platform. One of the highlights of my week is running the Lyfta assembly where we all discuss the weeks Lyftatime and I get to hear their thoughta and views.
Michael Brothwood found Lyfta:
- Moderately improves teaching efficiencyâLinking Global Goals to real life situations. Teachers have a platform to link stories to the goals we discussâ
- Moderately improves teacher knowledgeâTeacher have more of a background of stories around the world and how they link to the Global Goalsâ
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâOur children are using Lyfta to make connections with what they are learning about and stories from around the world.â
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Nov 2021
Leonie Hunt found Lyfta:
- Significantly improves teaching efficiencyâReal life scenarios for children to explore - real lives and video footage that engages, relates to and excites the children.â
- Moderately improves teacher knowledgeâAllows teachers to use a relevant resource to teach the curriculum effectively.â
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâChallenges stereotypes, creates real life examples with real people, allows them to make connections between themselves and others lives and home environments. Opens children's eyes to world knowledge.â
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Haleema Ahmed
Year 2 Class Teacher
Three Bridges Primary School, England
Used Lyfta weekly for 1-2 years
Nov 2021
Lyfta is a beautiful platform that shares unique stories that have been incredibly inspiring not only for our students but for me personally. Lyfta for the WIN!
Haleema Ahmed found Lyfta:
- Significantly improves teaching efficiencyâWe have found that there are many lessons that have already been prepared and align with the National Curriculum brilliantly.â
- Significantly improves teacher knowledgeâI have been able to learn about many other countries through the different story worlds.â
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâBy hearing from the different stories it has opened up their minds to many other ideas and may of them have been to keen to learn more - researching different aspects independently.â
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Jun 2021
I like how it has helped me in this particular scenario. I would be keen to try it out for future topics too.
Tom found Lyfta:
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâUsing it to improve children's understanding of the world around them - particularly with relevance to migration in our ongoing geography topic.â
- Does not improve teaching efficiency and productivity
- Slightly reduces teacher workloadâNot that it's bad - we just have to work to the academy trust's particular ways!â
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skillsâIt has helped me to develop my knowledge of what life can be like for migrants around the world.â
- Slightly saves school moneyâNot sure as I don't know enough about school budgetingâ
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Mar 2021
I've already recommended as the platform is engaging and immersive and so needed to open up students' eyes
Lynsey found Lyfta:
- Moderately builds student knowledgeâReframed their thinking about food waste and reducing plastics after looking at Andrea's yardâ
- Slightly improves teaching efficiency and productivityâSaved time trawling for relevant videosâ
- Moderately reduces teacher workloadâRange of topics covered in one place so no need to search around for different contentâ
- Moderately improves teacher knowledge and skillsâOwn awareness of how others around the world are affected by various issuesâ
- Does not significantly save school money
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Mar 2021
as a Connecting Classrooms school, I will encourage the Global Learning lead to do the training
Beth Stevenson found Lyfta:
- Moderately builds student knowledgeâdiversity around the worldâ
- Moderately improves teaching efficiency and productivityâlinking global goals across the curriculumâ
- Does not significantly reduce teacher workloadâinitial time to exploreâ
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skillsâprofessional knowledge as well as different uses of technologyâ
- Slightly saves school moneyâunknownâ
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Mar 2021
An amazing platform that offers so much.
Gudrun Osborn found Lyfta:
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâIt impacts in so many areas of the curriculum with the focus area able to be controlled by individual teachers. It also develops knowledge of the SDG's in relation to real people.â
- Significantly improves teaching efficiency and productivityâWell-prepared lessons, platform organised really well.â
- Significantly reduces teacher workloadâTeacher's freed to access high quality preprepared resources that enable them to teach, not research.â
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skillsâKnowledge of the SDG's in relation to real scenarios and people.â
- Does not significantly save school moneyâWe have a tiny budget and can't really afford Lyfta, but it offers too much to not try and find the money to fund it.â
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Mar 2021
I think it's a great platform that can be used in a variety of ways and I would definitely recommend it to my colleagues.
Sian Kerr found Lyfta:
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâThey have become more interested and knowledgeable about the world around them.â
- Moderately improves teaching efficiency and productivityâIt's great that there are already ready-made lessons.â
- Moderately reduces teacher workloadâWith the lesson plans already there, it saves me having to search for resources.â
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skillsâIt makes me more aware of how people live around the world.â
- Slightly saves school moneyâI don't know.â
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Mar 2021
Love it, found it inspirational.
LJ Annandale found Lyfta:
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâSympathy for other cultures, awareness of global citizenship, human stories allowed children to identify issues in a non âlecturingâ wayâ, spontaneous debates, deep discussions, impact of global goals in action, compare and contrast activities.â
- Significantly improves teaching efficiency and productivityâLesson plans and ideas availâ
- Slightly reduces teacher workloadâAny teacher, who wants to inspire a class, will always have a heavy workload even if resources are amazing as teachers need to prepare in order to deliver a great lesson. But having all the ideas avail and easy to search does save time.â
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skillsâI learn from listening to the stories too and was often moved like the children. Plus it embeds global goalsâ
- Does not significantly save school moneyâNone. Itâs very costly, particularly for a small rural school like ours. Not in our budget.â
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Mar 2021
Would definitely recommend to teachers and schools who would use it and benefit from it
Andrew Maddox found Lyfta:
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâGood discussion points, knowledge beyond their experiencesâ
- Significantly improves teaching efficiency and productivityâGood resources and effective platformâ
- Significantly reduces teacher workloadâless time looking for resourcesâ
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skillsâHelps boost knowledge through resourcesâ
- Slightly saves school money
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Amanda Pickard
Teacher/Digital Learning Officer
Ayr Grammar Primary School, Scotland
Used Lyfta for 1 month
Mar 2021
I love Lyfta, it's so easy to use, incredibly powerful, everything at your fingertips, tackles big questions, high quality and growing. đ„°
Amanda Pickard found Lyfta:
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâTackling difficult subjects with primary 1s can be very challenging, the stories are a powerful way to introduce things like change and loss and use making thinking visible strategies to scaffold learning. Learners are able talk about what they think - hugely powerfulâ
- Moderately improves teaching efficiency and productivityâSuper powerful, real, human stories, accessible, high quality resource in one place makes teaching these subjects so much easier - everything at your fingertips đâ
- Significantly reduces teacher workloadâEasy to search for appropriate stories, all the resources with support materials in one place - every teacher's dream đâ
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skillsâEvery time I look at a story I learn something new or take something new away from the teaching and learning experience.â
- Does not save school moneyâI really want to be able to champion Lyfta in my school and Local Authority but the cost per teacher per year is a stumbling block. If we could have a school login there would be a bigger chance of making sure that this is a sustainable resource for everyone, creating a legacy with our learners.â
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Mar 2021
Extremely useful resource that I can't wait to show to my colleagues.
George Williams found Lyfta:
- Moderately builds student knowledgeâMore awareness of countries around the world and the socio-economic situations they are in.â
- Moderately improves teaching efficiency and productivityâLessons are more tightly linked and don't deviate from the main learning focus.â
- Slightly reduces teacher workload
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skillsâI have built a wide array of resources that can be used in a range of contexts and I have a greater understanding of the world as a whole.â
- Slightly saves school money
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Feb 2021
It's such a great resource and totally inspiring for anyone that engages in it
Amanda Fahey found Lyfta:
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâGiving them understanding of other peoples lives, coping strategies, expanding their ideas and thinkingâ
- Significantly improves teaching efficiency and productivityâI was able to set up a high quality lesson in a very short amount of time with the knowledge that the children would learn a huge amount, be totally engaged and deepen their thinkingâ
- Significantly reduces teacher workloadâThe lesson plans already set are of a such a high standard that I found I choose these over doing my ownâ
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skillsâI found myself watching lots of the videos out of interest of my own when trying to decide on lessons. So much to learn for us all on thereâ
- Slightly saves school moneyâI don't knowâ
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Jan 2021
The training was great and the resources are excellent. If a whole school was using the platform it would be great for children to be accessing and exploring it across all phases.
Sarah Malyn found Lyfta:
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâReal people, real places makes it more memorable for them.â
- Moderately improves teaching efficiency and productivityâWith all the resources in one place you can efficiently teach an area without having to take evidence/information from different sources.â
- Moderately reduces teacher workloadâThe research and layout is so user friendly that you can adapt resources to work best for you.â
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skillsâJust from doing the training I found it incredibly helpful hearing from other practitioners and sharing their knowledge.â
- Slightly saves school moneyâI don't really know about this part.â
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Jan 2021
not really
Margaret Carnall found Lyfta:
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâcant answer hereâ
- Significantly improves teaching efficiency and productivityâcant answer hereâ
- Significantly reduces teacher workloadâaccess very easyâ
- Moderately improves teacher knowledge and skillsâAndreas yard very interestingâ
- Slightly saves school moneyâcant answer hereâ
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Dec 2020
It unlocks new worlds and cultures.
James Antonious found Lyfta:
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâBrings other cultures to lifeâ
- Significantly improves teaching efficiency and productivityâIt is a multimedia platform that allows you to move between story worlds and videos.â
- Significantly reduces teacher workloadâLyfta has a large range of lesson plans and ideas.â
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skillsâExcellent training and a brilliant resource that teaches the teachers as well as the children.â
- Slightly saves school moneyâI am on a temporary accountâ
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Sarah Lockhart
Teacher of Music & Personal Development
Kinlochbervie High School, Scotland
Used Lyfta for 8 weeks
Dec 2020
I have already recommended Lyfta to my colleagues in both primary and secondary schools
Sarah Lockhart found Lyfta:
- Significantly builds student knowledgeâPupils are able to identify and discuss complex political issues (communism, conservatism) through the basic introduction given on the Lyfta platform.â
- Significantly improves teaching efficiency and productivityâI have been able to plan a 12 week unit of work (1 hour contact time with pupils per week) without the endless hours which can be spent planning lessons from scratch. This resource has given a great foundation for my Citizenship lessons.â
- Significantly reduces teacher workloadâReady-to-use lesson plans and assemblies pre-made on the site.â
- Significantly improves teacher knowledge and skillsâIt can improve teacher knowledge of different settings through visiting storyworlds and meeting the people there however I would say the biggest knowledge impacts for me have been in learning about how my students respond to new settings, meeting new people and being compassionate, empathetic people (or not, as the case may be sometimes). It's very interesting to see which storyworlds or groups of people they react best/worst to.â
- Slightly saves school moneyâThe funded training run by British Council has been so invaluable for our school in accessing this amazing resource but I'm concerned school leadership won't see a subscription as being a priority once that trial ends.â
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Dec 2020
because there is so much to explore.
Aurelie Charles found Lyfta:
- Moderately builds student knowledgeâlearning about other countries culture.â
- Moderately improves teaching efficiency and productivityâreinforcing a lesson conceptâ
- Moderately reduces teacher workloadâlesson plans are ready to use. you just have to chooseâ
- Moderately improves teacher knowledge and skillsâlearning about other cultures, new ideas and concepts. giving me ideas for lessonsâ
- Slightly saves school moneyânot sureâ
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Dec 2020
It looks good but we haven't trialled it enough yet
Tracy found Lyfta:
- Slightly builds student knowledgeâNeed to do more work on thisâ
- Moderately improves teaching efficiency and productivityâEase of finding sourcesâ
- Moderately reduces teacher workloadânot yetâ
- Moderately improves teacher knowledge and skillsânot yetâ
- Does not significantly save school moneyâIt will be a large chunk from our budget as we are a small school, and especially post covidâ
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Pedagogy
Certified by Education Alliance Finland, 03/2018
EAF Evaluation is an academically-backed approach to evaluating the pedagogical design of a product. EAF evaluators assess the product using criteria that covers the most essential pedagogical aspects in the learning experience.
PassiveActive
Teacherâs materials guide to host pedagogically high quality lessons with dynamic rotation of teacher led and student centered activities. External online materials are also well used.
RehearseConstruct
The solution provides motivational material in order to wake up the userâs interest on the topic and prior skills or knowledge needs to be used in conjunction with new.
LinearNon-linear/Creative
Solution provides alternative learning paths for users from different age groups, which are well guided with teacherâs materials.
IndividualCollaborative
The core of the learning experience is to enhance social skills through the development of cultural understanding and learning to respect people with different backgrounds.
Learning goals
Certified by Education Alliance Finland
The supported learning goals are identified by mapping the product against the selected reference curriculum and soft skills definitions most relevant for the 21st century.
- Learning to notice causal connections
- Spoken language objectives years 3-6.
- Writing composition objectives years 3-6.
- Writing transcription objectives years 3-6.
- Challenge stereotypes and prejudices
- Develop respect for cultural diversity
- Empathise with others
- Explore and compare cultural knowledge, beliefs and practices
- Reflect on intercultural experiences
- Investigate culture and cultural identity
- Using technological resources for finding and applying information
- Using technology as a part of explorative process
- Learning to view and consider media and advertising critically
- Familiarizing with the influences of media and understanding its affordances
- Learning to acquire, modify and produce information in different forms
- Practicing to express own thoughts and feelings
- Practicing to argument clearly own opinions and reasonings
- Learning to understand the meaning of rules, contracts and trust
- Enabling the growth of positive self-image
- Learning about cultural aspects and to respect different cultures
- Learning to know and respect human rights
- Learning to face respectfully people and follow the good manners
- Learning to understand people, surroundings and phenomenons around us
- Getting familiar with different cultures
- Learning about different countries and their characteristics
- Supporting student to build their own linguistic and cultural identity
- Practicing to notice causal connections
- Practicing to notice links between subjects learned
- Practicing to look things from different perspectives
- Practicing to create questions and make justifiable arguments based on observations
- Creating requirements for creative thinking
- Practicing to observe spoken and written language
- Learning to become an active and responsible citizen
- Learning to see oneself as a member of different communities
- Understanding and practicing ways to affect in democratic society
- Understanding civics as a discipline
- Understanding own communities and society as a part of global unity
- Understanding societal structures and communities in society
- Understanding that different operators in society can have different values, opinions and aims
- Reading comprehension objectives years 3-6.