"Since joining SOHK, I've been less shy, like, it might sound stupid but before I wouldn't even go and buy something from a shop."

Frankie is a Year 11 in his third year of SOHK for Schools, at a school in East London. Before starting with SOHK Frankie was extremely shy. He had low self confidence and often avoided working with others. This is his story:

“My friend told me about Hard Knocks, and said it would be fun for us to do rugby together, and I also thought it would be good for fitness reasons. I wasn’t really doing anything with my life in that sort of regard, like sports-wise. I wouldn’t really go out a lot or anything like that, and I was more shy. So it was something to sort of open myself up with, and to improve my fitness.

"Since joining School of Hard Knocks I’ve been less shy, like, it might sound stupid but, before I wouldn’t even go and buy something from a shopkeeper, I would always get someone else to buy it for me, but yeah, that was mainly it, just the shyness. I don’t feel that as much now.

"I think our team work is really improving. I feel like I’m in a new family and I’m spending more time with people that I wouldn’t have spent time with before. There’s more people joining us now, so it’s just having more people in the family.”