To mark World Mental Health Day this year, St Edmund’s Prep School decided to set its pupils a different kind of homework – in support of ITV’s Britain Get Talking initiative and YoungMinds, a charity that fights for young people’s mental health. This year, as part of its ‘Hello Yellow’ campaign, YoungMinds joined forces with ITV to create a unique homework challenge for school children to help encourage conversations around mental health in households nationwide.
Devised in collaboration with a clinical psychologist and the teaching community, Britain Get Talking and YoungMinds gave students a homework task that encouraged them to open up to their parents, or other trusted adults, about any difficult subjects they have on their minds.
With an NHS survey stating that mental health has declined in almost 40% of school children since 2017, the aim of the challenge was to get students to share their worries, to ease stress and reduce anxiety.
Mental health is an important issue that affects people of all ages and is a topic that the team at St Edmund’s takes very seriously. Talking is one of the best ways we can look after our mental wellbeing. However, a lot of the time, there can be barriers which hold us back from having deep and meaningful conversations. The ‘Hello Yellow’ campaign aims to use the time when millions of households would normally sit down together to complete school homework to also participate in an open dialogue together about any issues of concern.
The homework set for St Edmund’s pupils included a link to the Britain Get Talking website; a video about the importance of looking after your mental health; and details of a relaxation exercise.
If you didn’t get round to completing the homework, it’s not too late. All the links and information can be found below:
What is Mental Health video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=GFxkX1QT9rSpNLcJ&v=yG0Zj37K5bA&feature=youtu.be
Britain Get Talking website:
https://www.itv.com/britaingettalking/
“It’s easy to think children and young people aren’t aware of the things we’re worrying about as a parent, but they often pick up more than we think, or they might have other worries of their own.”