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.
Life Lessons Beginning
Life Lessons founders Nicole and Jamie met in 2019 on the UCL backed Edtech accelerator Educate. It became clear that both believed in the need to address inequalities in education and recognised the role foundational life skills could have in closing that gap.
When the UK government announced changes to the statutory requirements for teaching Relationships and Sex education in schools Nicole and Jamie recognised this particular challenge for schools but also the opportunity for equipping young people with foundational skills.
Working together, with Nicole applying her experience as a PSHE teacher and education leader; Jamie bringing his experience of growing education businesses and developing product as part of the teams at The Student Room and Unibuddy.com.
They set out to create resources that would be relatable to all young people, connecting directly with their lives. To empower teachers with flexible lessons delivered using technology so all schools could benefit.
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.
Co-Founder
Nicole Rodden (MA, BA, PGCE) is a former Relationships & Sex Education (RSE) teacher with Teach First. Nicole co-founded the award-winning organisation Life Lessons, with the mission to help pupils to be healthy, make good decisions and navigate the social and emotional complexities of life. They do this by supporting teachers to deliver evidence-based, peer-led relationships, sex and health education. They currently support over 200 schools and alternative provisions across the UK. Prior to this, she undertook a Masters in Education Leadership at UCL and was Programme and Training Manager at Education Charity, Team Up.
Co-Founder
Jamie O’Connell has, for over 12 years, applied innovation to education; growing a number of education technology businesses that successfully support student learning and progression. Jamie has a particular interest in the positive power of peer based learning and influence, this started when he was part of the founding team at The Student Room and more recently as Director of Strategic Development at Unibuddy. Jamie and his co-founder Nicole Rodden have set out to scale the provision of high quality life skills education and to prove its impact, starting with relationships and sex education fit for the modern world.
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!
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.
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.
School Relationships Executive
Lewis is our School Relationships Executive and is responsible for reaching out to schools and building our network.
Before joining Life Lessons, he taught history science and PSHE in London for 8 years.
Lewis spends a lot of time in cinemas and loves reading history, particularly that of twentieth century revolutions.