This session builds on the work of the previous growth mindset session by helping children identify and tame the voice of their inner critics. The inner critic is an internal psychological construct that undermines personal confidence and the willingness to face new challenges. It hampers children's ability to aspire to greater levels of achievement and step outside their comfort zones. It actively impairs performance when children do well and when they don't. 

Psychologists see the inner critic as a pattern of destructive thoughts towards ourselves (and sometimes others) that manifest as nagging voices or beliefs in our heads. It is not an auditory hallucination but a well-integrated stream of consciousness at the root of much self-loathing or harmful behaviour. It can be seen as 'the enemy within'. Strong inner critical voices have been connected with several mental health issues. It can affect every aspect of life, including our self-esteem, confidence, relationships, and accomplishments. The inner critic erodes our positive feelings about ourselves, amplifying self-criticism, self-denial and inwardness. It causes us to distance ourselves from achieving our goals and has even been linked to addiction.

There is a difference between an inner critic and a conscience, though people sometimes confuse the two. An inner critic is not there to encourage or guide positively. It often degrades and punishes, making feelings of self-loathing more likely, leading to destructive or undesirable behaviour. However, we can tame the inner critic, turning it into an inner friend, which first involves identifying and understanding the nature of its power. Following this, an alternative internal dialogue can be developed – one of the inner friend. This process is carried out via discussion around the true nature of friendship —particularly when our friends make mistakes— and a guided visualisation exercise where the inner friend asks the inner critic to step aside.

The story of Kwan (and specifically the characters of Hannah and Samira) provides a helpful metaphor for the critic and the friend, respectively. Session Seven builds on these concepts and incorporates the learning from previous sessions to help pupils create an ideal inner friend —a helpful 'co-pilot' that not only guides them in achieving success but also helps them to deal with the challenges and obstacles of change and transition.

As previous sessions have shown, when good people make choices that result in us being poorly treated or unscrupulous people attempt to influence us to do something we don't want to do, it can be challenging to react positively. Kwan, Ella and events in the story have shown how easy it can be to make poor decisions that result in consequences we would never choose or want. The only way to ensure we always make our own, positive choices is to understand who we are and listen to what we genuinely believe to be correct. We all have that little voice inside our heads, but it needs to be trained to help rather than hinder.

The programme's second part focuses on building and planning for transition. Pupils will apply a positive growth mindset and set themselves goals for the next year based on this mindset, and a vital part of this is to create a positive narrative within their own thinking

Recap and review ground rules as a class. 

Discuss any rules that worked well and any that didn't work – do they need to change? Make amendments if required. Ensure pupils are clear about why ground rules are used and why they are so important.

This activity aims to help children identify the voice of their inner critic. It can be intimidating to speak our internal thoughts out loud, so a gentle way to begin is by looking at the story's characters. Providing a proxy for pupils to explore these ideas offers them a safe environment to reflect on their own thoughts and feelings. 

Developing the inner friend's voice means tuning into different thoughts or an alternative narrative (sometimes called a counter-narrative). Again, this can initially be difficult for children to do concerning themselves, so it can often be easier to start by thinking about the kinder and more supportive thoughts they might use about others. 

In this activity, pupils will start to redefine the thoughts they choose to have using the distancing technique of 'the perspective of a friend' or perhaps even a character (e.g. Samira) from the story. Later in the session, they will be encouraged to adopt this same perspective of a friend when dealing with their own thoughts to apply a kinder, more supportive approach to themselves.

When looking at concepts such as the negative self-image that results from our inner critical thoughts, it's essential to balance this with strategies that help shape positive thinking. This final activity sets up a simple exercise for pupils to complete over the next few weeks to help them focus on the positive things in their lives.