Britain Get Talking at your School

[Voices overlap from news reports. The text on screen reads ‘Mental health has declined in almost 40% of school children.’ The screen changes to show children playing outside.

The text on screen shows news headlines that read ‘Children stressed and self-harming over UK cost of living crisis, The Guardian’ and ‘Child mental health referrals top a million in post-lockdown crisis, The Telegraph’

The screen changes to show a seaside town. Seagulls are heard in the background. The text on screen reads ‘Tuesday 10th October, World Mental Health Day.’

The screen changes to show a school. Children are running and playing outside. A girl closes her locker.

In the background we hear Ant and Dec say “Hello everyone! Ant and Dec here”. In classrooms and an assembly hall, groups of children are watching Ant and Dec’s assembly video.]

Dec: The world can be a bit of a scary place right now, can’t it? And you might feel anxious about it. But when we share more, we can ease our stress and reduce our anxiety.

[Ant and Dec hold up a coloured school jotter. On the front page, there is an image of a speech bubble with lines.]

Ant: So, this is a different kind of homework. It’s designed to get us all talking.

[The text on screen reads ‘We’re partnering with schools all over the country to set a different kind of homework. Created with a psychologist and the teaching community.]

Dec: Why don’t you start by writing or drawing your fears or your feelings in here?

[On screen Ant and Dec both gesture to the speech bubble on the front of the jotter. In their classrooms, children are writing on coloured school jotters.

The screen shows a montage of school jotters, each filled in with worries. The text reads ‘The cost of living, deforestation, I am worried about my schedule because I usually never know which parent I’m going to be with, I won’t have no friends, inflation, me being lonely at play, my future.’]

Girl: It helps us be more aware of what’s going on inside our head.

Girl: It can help normalise talking about mental health.

[We see children talking and doing the homework task in school and at home.]

Boy: You never know that other people might have worries that they want to share.

Teacher: It’s easily accessible. The children do it at home as well.

Teacher: It removes that taboo and that stigma with mental health.

Dame Rachel de Souza: It raises awareness of the issue and how to make things better.

[Ant and Dec’s assembly video continues to play. Children pack their bags with the homework task.]

Ant: And you can do it anytime you like, but over at ITV, we’ll be doing this all together this World Mental Health Day, which is Tuesday 10th October.

[The text on screen reads, ‘What’s on our minds can be the hardest subject.]

Teacher: Who’s going to have a go at doing this homework?

[The children in class all raise their hands.]

Teacher: Lovely! Super excellent.

[We then see a table with a school jotter, on the front is a text box in the shape of a speech bubble. Next to the jotter is a hand twirling a pen. The text reads ‘Tonight, let’s all do our homework.’ Britain Get Talking, supported by Mind, YoungMinds and SAMH. ITV logo]