DS1 is just 8 and very down on himself. Which leads to angry outbursts and meltdowns and him saying he is rubbish.
He's at a very high pressure school (we're in France and here the focus is on attainment much more than effort). We're already looking at changing schools but it won't be this year so I want to help him increase his confidence.
He is bilingual but struggles to express himself (in both languages and in all situations: school, home, with friends, with strangers) and we asked school for help last year but nothing happened.
He is very sporty so that boosts him, but it's often hard to get him to start doing it (eg he won't want to go cycling or swimming but when we make him, he loves it and does it well).
He was behind in his reading so we forced him to do it every day and it helped but it was so hard getting him to do it.
School gives 1hr homework every day so I don't want to overload him with extra stuff to try to improve his grades, but consequently he can feel bad if he hasn't grasped something but others have.
Final point - he actually has good grades at school (apart from oral and written expression and handwriting) but he is surrounded by very intelligent, hardworking and competitive children so he compares himself.