Girl Looking Thoughtful

We would all love to have plenty of confidence. An adult who can hold their own in any situation or a child who can walk into a room and talk to anyone. You can’t buy confidence. It must come from within. Feeling confident is something we want for our children,  but even when they do feel it, they may not be able to hold onto it. There are plenty of year 7 children who have started out with a bucket load of confidence when going into secondary school but have had theirs knocked – they have suffered a crisis of confidence.

Why Do Children Have A Crisis Of Confidence?

There are many reasons children experience a sudden loss of confidence. Reasons include:

  • Your child may have found that they are not quite as good as they thought they were  in a certain subject or they aren’t top dog in terms of social groups and had trouble settling into a friendship group.
  • They may not feel as confident doing their homework.
  • They may worry about what their new friends and others think of them.
  • They are not very confident interacting with some of their teachers.

These are just a few reasons – there are many more. If you have a child who has not felt like this in the past month or two then be thankful as I know many parents have noticed a crisis of confidence. Being at a new school can make children doubt themselves. It is a big change in their lives and some children cope better than others but there are many things that parents can do to help children.

Rebuilding Confidence

So, let’s re-build that feeling of confidence by getting our children to see what they have achieved.

  • Write down the names of friends they have made.
  • Make a list of the teachers they like and get on with
  • List the subjects they are doing well in
  • Discuss how well they are doing in general
  • Remind them that life will get easier!

We need to remind children that they are brilliant and that they should shine and feel confident in who and what they are doing. When feeling confident they will be feel able to get over the mini challenges of year 7 and settle into Secondary School. For more info on secondary school and transition see my ebook on the subject.