National Mental Health Debate for Young People
Can young people prevent climate change?
Join us for the Royal College of Psychiatrists Wales & TEC Cymru National Mental Health Debate for Young People, where primary schools and secondary schools will argue for and against the motion ‘can young people prevent climate change?’
This virtual event is being held for schools throughout Wales to enter. The event will be broadcast over Zoom on Friday 9th December 2022, with the Primary School broadcast taking place in the morning, and the Secondary School broadcast in the afternoon.
The event will be chaired by Delyth Jewell MS. Delyth is a member of the Senedd for the South Wales East region and is also Chair of the Senedd Cross Party Group on Climate, Nature & Wellbeing.
This event follows on from last years successful National Mental Health Debate for Young People, on that occasion schools debated the motion 'does technology improve your mental health?'.
We are asking that schools register interest and we will send further details through.
There are two separate debates; one for primary schools, and a debate for secondary schools. The two debates will be broadcast at different times. The guidance is the same for both primary and secondary schools.
- Each invited school will nominate two student spokespeople to represent them at the debate.
- Each two-person team will argue ‘for’ and ‘against’ the motion on behalf of their school, with contributions 'for the motion' and 'against the motion' lasting two minutes each as a maximum.
- Each contribution is pre-recorded, and submissions can be received in English or Welsh.
During the event itself, submissions will be broadcast and there will also be contributions from prominent figures.
Schools will have the opportunity to interact through registering votes on whether pupils agree or disagree with the motion both before and after the broadcast of the submissions.
The event will be chaired by Delyth Jewell MS, and this will also involve a short panel discussion. Submissions will have been judged remotely by a panel of judges, and there will be an announcement of winning entries at the end of the event.
The event will run 'live' on Friday 9th December (primary schools in the morning, secondary schools in the afternoon), the recording will also be made available to schools to watch back, and this will be made available on the day of the event,
If you would like to register your school to participate, please complete the electronic form from the blue box opposite in the first instance, we'll then come back to you with details of how to submit a video recording and all the relevant deadlines.
We ask that schools register interest early to avoid disappointment.
We'll be keen to hear the views directly from young people on the motion 'can you people prevent climate change?'. Here are a few questions that may help generate discussion.
- Do young people feel empowered to take action?
- Will politicians listen to young people when making decisions?
- Will small actions lead to big changes?
- Should young people feel optimistic about the future?
Additionally, the College has produced information for young people, as well as for parents, carers and teachers. Whilst the information addresses eco-distress, it also contains detail and further resources from other agencies on how young people can be supported to discuss and to take action on climate change.
We'll be sending out a short guide of how best to submit the recordings, this will be shared once schools register their interest. Please be assured that it's straightforward.
We also have permission to share a couple of examples from recordings that were shared for our most recent debate for secondary school pupils. These can be shared on request, please contact Antonia Fabian.
Timeline
- Please register for interest as soon as possible.
- Video submissions need to be received by Wednesday 30th November.
- The full event programme, with confirmed schools and guest speakers will be issued on Friday 2nd December.
- The debate will be broadcast over Zoom on Friday 9th December. Primary Schools in the morning, and Secondary schools in the afternoon.
Notes for schools
The Royal College of Psychiatrists in Wales has a long history of running these successful mental health debates for young people in person. We have also successfully held virtual debates in this format for both primary and secondary secondary schools pupils across Wales for the last couple of years.
Our event partners
- Technology Enabled Care Cymru (TEC Cymru) are the national video consultation service, supported by Welsh Government.
For further information, please contact Antonia Fabian.