Boosting young people’s confidence as they return to school

These Barclays LifeSkills resources help build students’ motivation and confidence on their return to school.

It comes as no surprise that young people are feeling anxious about returning to school after the most recent COVID lockdown. More than two-thirds (67%) believe the pandemic will have a long-term negative effect on their mental health, according to a survey undertaken in January by Young Minds, while three quarters (75%) say they have had concerns about schoolwork.

Motivation and confidence has dipped during extended periods of homeworking and the prospect of social interactions with teachers and peers may be daunting. As one survey respondent explained: “I’m struggling working from home every day since March 2020. I have little social interaction, very little motivation, and every day feels the same.”

Flexible, ready-to-use resources

Despite these challenges, students will have developed important transferable skills over the past year that can be built upon to help them reach their full potential. To bolster these, Barclays LifeSkills has created a series of flexible, ready-to-use resource packs for educators that can be used in a number of settings.

The activities and worksheets can be built into lessons or set to students as independent learning, and the content draws on in-depth research conducted with educators and vulnerable groups, to focus on themes which are known to impact positively on students’ concentration in classes, and their motivation to learn: