To mark World Mental Health Day in 2020, the Bupa Foundation, in partnership with Cheltenham Festivals, the National Literacy Trust and Mind, launched Beyond Words – a national creative writing project inviting all children, young people and schools to put their feelings about a year like no other into words. Children and young people were invited to write a piece on the theme of ‘My 2020’ and submit their writing with a chance to get published in a digital anthology in 2021 to celebrate outstanding contributions from children and schools. The project worked with award-winning poets and authors to produce tutorials and resources supporting children, young people and schools with writing and mental wellbeing. The Bupa Foundation donated £3 for each submission to the partner charities to support mental wellbeing projects for young people.
As part of the project, the National Literacy Trust was commissioned by Bupa to explore teachers’ and young people’s perceptions of the project overall and the impact the project might have on young people. To this end, surveys were designed for teachers and young people to complete after submitting their work as part of the project. This report presents findings from 40 young people and 11 teachers who took part in the survey.