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Hull Women’s Centre Girls' Group at Maybury Primary School

Posted 14th September 2016
by John

Hull Women’s Centre staff delivered a 10-week programme (between Easter and July 2016) to deliver to the girls from year 6 at MayburyPrimary school in East Hull, to increase their confidence and self- esteem.
Topics we covered in the sessions are:
• What is Self-esteem?
• Don’t judge a book by its cover
• Compliments and positive affirmations
• Assertiveness and Anti-Bullying
• What is body image and positive body image poems
• Transition to secondary school, worries and coping
• What is stress and how to cope
• Meditation and relaxation
• Hand massage and stress balls
• Creating scrap books from all the sessions
We had 12 girls attend the 1st and 2nd week and throughout the 10 weeks we had 11 girls each week. The feedback from the girls was positive and they felt that they had gained a lot from the sessions. Some of the girls had issues with how they saw themselves at the start of the project, however through been involved in the various sessions the girls became more positive. Each session the young people would take part in activities focusing on increasing their own confidence and self-esteem as well as helping others within the group. Some of the sessions were really challenging for some of the girls to think positively about themselves but over time we could see a shift in their feelings about themselves and they showed empathy and encouragement to one another.
They were a couple of activities that especially helped the girls to be supportive and kind to each other, The session on bullying and why we shouldn’t bully was interesting as there had been some tension with certain members of the groups and this gave the girls an opportunity to think about how this makes people feel and how it can affect people if others are been mean and negative towards them. The girls understood why we shouldn’t bully and how being kind and not judging others can have a huge impact on their confidence and self-esteem.
The compliments envelope was a great activity for this group as they all had to give each other nice comments and to focus on their positives. The impact of receiving compliments from others in the group was really powerful and the girls seemed surprised and pleased by all the kind comments they received.

Young Peoples quotes;
“Helped build my confidence” said A _ _ _ _ _ _
“I found this lesson a good experience to show not to bully and why bullying is not nice” said B _ _ _ _ _
“I enjoyed this lesson as I learnt something new” said C _ _ _
“I enjoyed this lesson because I had someone to talk to about my worries” said D _ _ _ _ _ _
“I liked this lesson it was educational” said E _ _ _
The girl’s final thoughts on the project:
They all expressed that they had learnt a lot from attending the sessions and they were disappointed it was ending. The girls said they had learnt a lot from taking part in the girls' group project, as well as the increase in their own confidence and self-esteem.
“I have loved every part of the lessons and I feel more confident” said F _ _ _ _ _
“I have learnt how to deal with stress” said D _ _ _ _ _ _
“I have learnt to be more confident in myself” said E _ _ _
I’ve learnt a lot of things about my body that I didn’t know before” said G _ _ _ _
“I have a lot more confidence and had fun” said H _ _ _ _ _
“I have learnt not to spread rumours as its mean” said J _ _ _
“I now don’t judge people by their looks” said B_ _ _ _ _
Hull Women’s Centre
August 2016

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