Confidence

Provision and/or strategies: approaches, adjustments and specific interventions expected to be made by settings according to the ages and stages of the CYP

Universal

• Promote a strong sense of belonging through inclusive practice, ensuring all CYP see themselves as valued members of the learning community.
• Establish a learning climate in which CYP feel safe to engage with challenge, where challenge, uncertainty and struggle are explicitly normalised, and mistakes are viewed as integral to progress, in line with growth mindset approaches (EEF).
• Promote a positive peer culture where effort, kindness and mutual support are valued and reinforced.
• Maintain consistent routines to enhance predictability and reduce cognitive load.
• Ensure adults consistently model the valuing of effort, persistence and resilience.
• Explicitly model positive self-talk and encourage CYP to articulate their own strengths.
• Identify and address potential barriers to learning that may impact confidence, applying appropriate strategies outlined within Cognition and Learning section.
• Pre-teach key vocabulary and concepts to minimise anxiety and support participation in whole-class learning.
• Scaffold learning through graduated tasks to ensure frequent, achievable success.
• Consolidate success before introducing increased levels of challenge.
• Provide a wide range of opportunities for CYP to experience success across academic, social, creative and physical activities.
• Provide clear, specific and timely feedback, alongside precise, process-focused praise linked to effort and strategy use, to guide improvement.
• Promote the development of self-awareness and autonomy by explicitly recognising strengths and achievements across a broad range of skills, drawing on metacognitive and self-regulated learning principles (EEF).
• Facilitate autonomy through structured choice-making opportunities.
• Teach and rehearse self-affirmation strategies using structured scripts and visual supports.
• Support social development in alignment with relational approaches.
• Provide regular opportunities for CYP to reflect on their learning, recognise progress and articulate what has helped them succeed.

Targeted

• Provide visual supports (e.g. cue cards, checklists) to increase independence and reduce uncertainty.
• Provide explicit teaching to develop self-awareness, self-belief and understanding of strengths, including identifying and challenging unhelpful thoughts.
• Plan and facilitate structured opportunities for success, with adult support to ensure achievement and reinforce positive self-belief.
• Provide graduated adult support (modelling, prompting and scaffolding) to build confidence, reducing support as independence increases.
• Support CYP to set and review achievable personal goals to build a sense of agency and progress.
• Support CYP to apply confidence and self-belief across different contexts, activities (e.g. outdoor learning) and adults.
• Encourage reflection on success using visual or written self-evaluation tools.
• Use targeted interventions such as:
  • Emotion Coaching
  • ELSA