Headmaster's Thoughts On Self-Confidence, Self-Belief and Self-Esteem

This week's 'Notes from the Headmaster' concentrates on self-confidence, self-belief and self-esteem. He writes:

'You may have read an article in The Sunday Times entitled ‘Nation of awkward teens needs help to shake hands and smile’. Barclay’s CEO talks about the importance of self-confidence and people skills: how to shake someone’s hand, look them in the eye and hold your shoulders back. Without these skills, he asserts, today’s teens will be left behind in an increasingly competitive global jobs market. Social media is a very effective, but essentially two-dimensional form of communication, whereas, in the workplaces of the future, collaboration will be very important. He then continues to talk about first impressions: “You can try to control the impression people will form of you. If you don’t seem confident, the people around you won’t feel confident.”

All of this makes a lot of sense to me, and our aim at Bablake is to nurture natural self-confidence, self-belief and self-esteem. It’s why we hold doors open and greet each other with a smile when passing in the corridor- and this also brightens everyone’s day! It’s why we encourage pupils to work collaboratively as well as independently in most lessons. It’s why we stress the importance of teamwork- in sport, music, drama and house activities. And it’s why we challenge pupils to move out of their comfort-zone and to give presentations to others. For some this is ‘work in progress’, for hugely talented though they may be, not all our pupils are good at ‘selling themselves’ and at daring to stand out from the crowd.

I am sure that the Archbishop was very impressed by the natural and courteous way in which our pupils spoke to him on Tuesday. And he was undoubtedly charmed by the Sixth Formers who dared to ask him to join him in a selfie!'

Our Headmaster sets out his thoughts here on education, our community and our culture every week.