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The Princess of Wales joined a special event on 18 May to mark Mental Health Awareness Week – taking part in expert-led conversations on how we can build the mental wellbeing of current and future generations and learning about interactive activities undertaken by secondary school students.

With this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week shining a spotlight on how anxiety impacts the lives of so many children and young people, Her Royal Highness, who is Patron of Anna Freud [the wellbeing and mental health charity], took part in discussions on how evidence-based research, clinical expertise and young people’s lived experience can be united to create innovative new ideas and close the gap between children’s needs and the help they receive.

Her Royal Highness joined Anna Freud staff, supporters and young people with lived experience of mental health challenges in a series of discussion topics including ‘How best to normalise conversations around mental health’, ‘Building a workforce which champions early intervention’, and ‘Whether schools can be places which build mental wellbeing’.

The Princess then joined a classroom lesson alongside students and staff from St Richard’s Catholic College in Bexhill, based on the new ‘Let’s talk about anxiety’ animation and accompanying teacher toolkit, which will be freely available to secondary schools across the UK. St Richard’s Catholic College co-created the resource which is aimed at students in the early years of secondary school. The resource will help them to understand that anxiety is a normal emotion, as well as offering top tips for coping. Students reflected on and practised their own healthy coping skills, drawing on ideas from the animation, before applying their knowledge in scenarios that might make people anxious.

The resource exemplifies Anna Freud’s vision for empowering children and young people with the knowledge, confidence and skills to manage their mental wellbeing, as well as those who impact on their lives - from parents to policy makers, early years workers to teachers, mental health professionals to community-based practitioners.

Deborah Bligh, Vice-Principal and Senior Mental Health Lead at St Richard's Catholic College said:

“We were delighted to have been invited to collaborate with Anna Freud on such an important topic. Our pupils felt they were really listened to and empowered to share the support they feel they need in school, and beyond.

“We all feel anxious at times and the importance of being able to normalise this and discuss different ways to respond to it is so important. Children are having to try and make sense of the unpredictability of the last few years, alongside all the other pressures that family, school and social lives can bring. When feelings of anxiety become overwhelming, pupils need to know how and where they can access support.  This excellent resource from Anna Freud is another example of their support to schools as we all continue to build a culture of wellbeing for our pupils.”

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To access the new 'Let's talk about anxiety' toolkit, please click here.