Two schools in Sidcup are offering a welcome reminder about the importance of self confidence following the launch of their new body-positive campaign.
Burnt Oak Junior School and Chatsworth Infant School’s ‘Great To Be Me’ campaign focuses on boosting positive body-image and self-talk amongst their young pupils.
With growing national awareness and concern around the importance of both mental and physical health, both schools have launched their own campaign to promote healthy and positive attitudes amongst their community of pupils and staff.
"Great To Be Me" is a positive health campaign being launched across The Pioneer Academy’s community of schools, with each school partnering up with their own positive and inspiring ambassadors.
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To help kick-start their health campaign, Pacific rowing world record setter Natalia Cohen paid the Bexley students a visit to offer words of wisdom and shared stories of her adventure of rowing 8,000km with her teammates from America to Australia.
These impressive exploits were captured in the 2017 documentary, 'Losing Sight of Shore'.
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Commenting on the campaign, Ms Cohen said: "It’s an honour to be an ambassador for the Great To Be Me project that is instilling vital positive beliefs and behaviours into children at the age that matters.
"Self-belief, trust, open communication and empathy are the traits that are fundamental at any stage in life and so it’s incredible to see this initiative being rolled out as young as in infant schools!
"A huge congratulations to everyone involved and maybe we all need to remember to celebrate our uniqueness and strengths and embrace the fact that it’s ‘great to be you’".
National studies from the British Journal of Developmental Psychology reported that eight per cent of boys and 14 per cent of girls aged nine to ten had a negative image of their body, with girls as young as five expressing concern about the way they look and their size.
Other studies report one in four seven-year-old girls has tried to lose weight at least once, and one third of young boys aged eight to twelve are dieting to lose weight.
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