Childline: It’s Not Love aims to offer strategies for how to navigate away from potentially harmful situations

A scene from one of the NSPCC's three short films for the It's Not Love learning resource.

As children grow up, it is only natural that they begin to explore relationships. That can be a difficult time not just for them, but also for their families, friends and people with a responsibility of care for them.

It’s not always easy to spot the signs of negative behaviour in a relationship, and as young people take their first steps into this world they might not recognise when something is wrong.

Childline is available to young people who need to speak to someone about anything they’re experiencing or concerned about.

But more help is also now available in the classroom.

This month, the NSPCC has unveiled a new package of digital resources aimed at teachers and professionals working with children and young people in secondary schools across the UK, to help explore healthy and unhealthy friendships and relationships.

It’s Not Love is a series of age-appropriate films and comprehensive lesson activities for teachers to help drive discussion in classes and assist young people in recognising the signs that something might not be right.

More than 45,000 pupils, practitioners and teachers have already seen the performance nationally, and a series of specially commissioned short films to be shared in classrooms have just been made available through NSPCC Learning.

By helping teachers feel more confident and engaged with this kind of educational material, we believe It’s Not Love can make a real difference to the lives of young people across the country and help them have safer, healthier relationships as they grow up. We are very proud of It’s Not Love, and the feedback we’ve had from students and professionals who have seen it has already been amazing.

Not only that, but so far we have also found young people respond really well to the live performances and recognise characters and situations they might encounter in real life.

It’s Not Love aims to offer strategies for how to navigate away from potentially harmful situations, think about safe and trusted allies and services who can offer help and support.

Childline is one of those allies, and we’re available to support young people around the clock.