Health and Wellbeing
Promote Positive Body Image
When a child stops swimming because they hate how they look, the adults around them can do more than they might think.
- 20 minutes
- 7 modules
- 0.5 CPD hours
- Certificate
Members
14 days free, then £70 a year or £7 a month.
Have a join code from your school?
Already have an account? Sign in
What you'll learn
- Model a healthier attitude to your own body in front of pupils
- Pay compliments about who pupils are, not how they look
- Check displays and resources so every child sees people like them
- Help pupils question filtered images and online highlight reels
- Build several pillars of self-esteem, so one knock doesn't flatten a child
About this course
By the end of primary school, many children are dropping things they enjoyed because they're self-conscious about how they look. Poor body image can drag down self-esteem, and learning with it, in boys as well as girls.
Four practical strategies adapt to any age. The hardest is what you model yourself, from offhand comments about your own looks to compliments about hair or clothes that could have been about kindness or effort. Then look at your displays and resources through a child's eyes. Would they see someone like them? You'll also get ideas for helping pupils question the filtered, edited lives they see online.
The idea that stays with you is self-esteem as a temple with lots of pillars. If looks are the only pillar, one unkind comment can bring the whole thing down.
- For early career teachers, mental health leads and 6 other roles. All phases.
7 modules
Open in order
- 1 min
Introduction
- 3 min
Why does it matter?
- 4 min
How to be a good role model
- 4 min
Celebrate diversity
- 5 min
Promote critical consumption
- 4 min
Pupils need multiple pillars of self-esteem
- 2 min
Wrap up