to think that 7 is too young for DRUGS EDUCATION?

[noonar]

my dd is 7 and in year 3. i'm just a little surprised that she has come home today talking about cocaine, given that she is so young and we were given no notification that they were going to be learning about such a sensitive issue.

if a particular child lives in circumstances where they may be likely to be exposed to the dangers of drugs, then of course they need to be educated about them in an age appropriate way. but surely 7 is too young for the majority of children.

dd has come home very confused and full of
questions which i would have liked some time to anticipate, tbh.

AIBU to a) be cross beacuse we werent informed and b)to think she is too young.

thinking of withdrawing her from further lessons.

am open to changing my view, btw, if there is evidence that this age is optimum for drugs ed to start, but my knee jerk reaction is that it is too young.

Im with you 7 seems too young

I don't think 7 is too young, but the drugs education should be age appropriate. It should be more along the lines of don't eat or drink things if you don't know what they are, don't take pills from Granny's bag because what might be good for her might be bad for you, and so on.

It is too early to be talking about cocaine. Maybe a child brought it up?

thanks. i dont want to sound complacent, but i just dont see how this is relevant to her (sheltered) life at this time. when she starts going out without me then i'll feel differently.

milly, i dont know. oh, she mentioned syringes too. it is a mine field.

i think she'd had a pretty full briefing about a whole range of substances that 'change your body'

I thought that read, "maybe a child brought it in" for a second there!

What you say Milly is quite right, it should be age appropriate and taught alongside PSHE concepts such as talking about feelings and fostering self-esteem in order to give children the tools to make good choices.

The lessons in DD's school (Yr 3) introduced the idea that all synthetic medicines are drugs but that not all drugs are medicines and took that as the starting point.

Speak to the school, and hope that they were talking about syringes in the context of someone's Mum in the class having diabetes!

in London (and prob other big cities) i would say that 7 is absolutely fine. i remember classmates who had already started exploring all things prohibited at around that age.

Message withdrawn

I don't think it is too young, plus it means that there is already a dialogue going on about it before it may become an issue. So when children start talking (hopefully only talking) about things like that they will know what's what.

Tispity

I am shcoked that you werent notified that this topic would be covered.
TBH if my ds (who is in year 3) came home talking about stuff like this I would be writing a letter.

I agree with the point about older children not being receptive to the danger/safety message but surely a year 5 isnt already too old.......

Eek. I think it's too young. I would prob withdraw my child tbh, maybe not straightaway, would want to look at teaching materials first I think.

You might find this link useful:

www.lgfl.net/lgfl/leas/haringey/accounts/staff/harjc/web/Info/Drug%20Education%20Resource/

It is the drug education material for Haringey LEA. It show the year 3 topics and resources. The focus is on not touching things without permission from a trusted adult. The type of drugs covered are calpol, ventolin, lemsip and alcohol.

I would be very pissed off if my DS's school did this without warning. Not least because both of my children were born addicted and I think there would need to be a careful approach by the school to their particular issues. (I know that DS's school wouldn't do this because they do a newsletter at the beginning of each term with an outline of what they intend to cover.)

My DD (2) is a Calpol addict.

Just say No!

i was 8 years old when two older boys placed a Class A drug in the palm of my hand as a 'prize' for beating them at Scrabble - it happened at a bazaar in the church hall opposite my house. i never 'took' it (i had NO idea what that would involve either ), but i played with the little packet of white powder all afternoon - holding it up to the light, dissolving some in a glass of water, looking at it through a magnifying glass. it was only five hours later that an older sibling (also clueless) put 2 and 2 together and we went into a blind panic about how to dispose of it! those were innocent times, i think.

I advise on PSHCE for our local schools. I expect the Year 3 scheme of work was based on All medicines are drugs, but not all drugs are medicines etc. Other children may have asked about cocaine and the teacher would have had to deal with these questions in an age appropraite way.

I don't understand the problem - why is it wrong for children to learn about drugs at a young age - an age where it's still easy to convey to them that drugs are bad for them rather than making them curious.

And anyway - why are parents so keen on keeping their children in ignorance? How does knowledge hurt?

There are children younger than 7 dealing in the playground in some area's. Early education is the best way to plant the seed of sensible thinking IMO. My Ds came home to tell me about the same thing at the same age and I talked to him some more about it; it's the only way.

I think you should have been notified.

However, some of her peers may already witness drug taking, whether parental or by older children / teens out on the streets or on playgrounds. I am not insinuating that you live in any kind of 'rough' area, btw (I do though!) this kind of stuff can quite easily happen in nice areas too.

Syringes are an environmental hazard and imo 7 is fine to be aware that if they see them, not to touch and to tell an adult.

pixie - i expect that would be lesson no 1 though. these subjects immediately take us into grey areas in schools where there is a lot of diversity. we have friend who constantly roll up 'god knows what' in the garden, when they visit with their young dcs. i expect that they shall teach their dcs to do the same and any well-meaning PSD lesson at school (even if delivered brilliantly) would be completely lost on them

If a child of any age is given drugs/alcohol education, they really should inform you ahead of time and invite you to a session where you can learn about what they learned.

I think the concensus amongst experts is that 7 is not too young, and what they will learn will be age appropriate. But you should be able to attend a presentation about what your DD has been told just so that you can field her questions.

I have done this for all of my DCs, starting from early KS2.