Missing Mel - Section 4: Stress, Pressure and Missing People

Print this page

This video is embedded from the NASUWT YouTube channel. You may have difficulty viewing it if you have filters blocking the site.

Lesson 4.1

Intro activity

Mind map with whole class – What is stress? What is pressure? Find definitions agreed by group (5 mins.). Split group in half. In pairs, half the group list 3 examples of situations at school where you might experience genuine stress or pressure. 

The other half list situations at home. Share these lists with another pair (groups of 3 can also work if uneven numbers) (8 mins.)

List the people who may exert pressure on young people.

List the things they each might say which overtly pressurise young people. Then list the things they say which can subtly exert pressure.

Main activity

Explain to the pupils that the DVD they have been using for these sessions is a story based on a girl who really did go missing at the start of the summer term.

Play the DVD (Scene M1). In groups of 4-6, list 3 emotions you can find evidence of in this scene. (7 mins.)

According to the Missing Persons Helpline, 100,000 young people go missing every year. With about 30,000 schools in the UK, that is approximately equivalent to three young people from your school disappearing without explanation.

Hand out individual Problem Page letters included in this pack. Individually write a reply to the letter given. Be respectful of the problem faced and offer realistic advice for how it may be addressed. Group together in threes with the same letter and compare answers. (This means all the Sarahs or Harpinders finding each other.) Combine the individual responses into the most comprehensive letter. Share the letters and the responses with the class. Discuss what makes a ‘good’ reply. Discuss how the ‘best’ replies were informed. 

Which information point (Friends, Family, other Adult, other Young People’s Advice Service) is to be most trusted, and why?
In your groups of 3, list 3 reasons why you think a young person might choose to go missing. Share these with class. Discuss with the whole class what support structures exist (in or out of school) for someone feeling extreme stress or pressure. (5 mins.)

(Optional Drama-based activity) In groups of 4-6, devise a scene that illustrates the stress and pressures on a young person, leading to their decision to run away from home.

Total Activity Time: 45 mins. approx. Timings and activities may be modified as teacher sees fit.

Lesson 4.2

Intro activity

Recap with whole class the work they did in the previous session around stress, pressure and missing persons.
Distribute scripts of scene M2 to class. Ask for volunteers who are confident readers to read script out loud (parts are JESSICA, PAULA, CAT, ADAM).

Mindmap what the group thinks has happened to the missing girl, MEL

Main activity

Play the DVD of the scene between CAT and MEL (Scene M3). (Explain that CAT has left the school and gone to some woodland where the girls used to play when they were younger.) Briefly, discuss what they now know about MEL and her
reasons for leaving home (5 mins)

In light of the options discussed earlier and in the previous session, discuss what the character of MEL could have done differently. Who might she otherwise have turned to for help? Discuss also some of the risks young people may be face if
they run away. Who might they turn to for safety then?

In groups of 2 or 3, write (or improvise) a dialogue scene between 2 characters, one of whom has run away from home because of stress/pressure, using your own words. The second character can be a friend, or a relative, or any other
person.

This task could equally take the character of MEL and write an alternative ending based on (10 mins)
Present and share these scenes in class. (10 mins)

Total Activity Time: 45 mins approx. Timings and activities may be modified as teacher sees fit.

Script

JESSICA: This is a living nightmare. I’ve got terrible pictures
in my head. Have you?

PAULA: Yes Jessica.

JESSICA: I don’t think anything this awful has ever happened to me before.

PAULA: I should have gone with her on Saturday. I should have gone with her when she left.

JESSICA: Don’t beat yourself up. You can’t help whatever’s…might have….oh God…

PAULA: Stop. Right. There.

ADAM: She was screaming at you, and she was in silhouette against this luminous green wall. And then I never saw her again.

CAT: You’re leaping to conclusions. You don’t know.

ADAM:I don’t know. But we never know, do we? This could be our last moment. And this. And this.