“…Terms such as emotional literacy, emotional intelligence and emotional skills (and accompanying concepts like 'self-esteem') are notoriously slippery and illdefined. Numerous critics have highlighted their constant elision, weak evidence base and oversimplistic logic (see Ecclestone and Hays 2008;Craig 2008Craig , 2009Claxton 2005;Matthews, Zeidner, and Roberts 2004;Furedi 2004). Little in the way of hard evidence is available to support the long list of benefits attributed to 'emotional skills', including improvements in attainment, behaviour, attendance, well-being and confidence.…”