East: Self Esteem Classes For Schools

2 April 2012, 06:00 | Updated: 2 April 2012, 13:02

Children at some of our schools are going to be getting special classes to help them with self esteem.

Beat the Norwich based national eating disorder charity is partnering with Dove to deliver free self esteem workshops to 11-14 year olds across the UK as part of its 2012 Campaign for Dove Self Esteem Programme.

The Campaign has contributed a minimum of £250,000 to Beat for the workshops which are free to schools and aims to reach 200,000 young people by the end of 2012.  

Research by Dove demonstrated that lack of self esteem among 11-17 year old girls prevents them from realising their full potential, with huge consequences for their personal and professional future and by 2050 could be costing the nation:

• 14% of our female managers in UK businesses
• 16% of our British female Olympic medallists
• 21% of our female MPs
• 17% of female doctors and lawyers
• And reduce the chance of a female Prime Minister in the UK before 2050 by 18%

The supporting advertising campaign was launched during Britain's Got Talent last Saturday.

Beat Chief Executive Susan Ringwood:  'We are delighted to be working with Dove because we know from our work with young people how important it is to encourage positive self esteem and emotional wellbeing.  Their continued support of our work has helped us help many thousands of young people for the past five years and we are looking forward to this latest opportunity'

Susan Ringwood from BEAT with Heat's Neil Perry