Drug Education at primary

[Thandeka]

Hi,
Have been tasked with updating my boroughs Drug Education resources for primary so thought I would ask the wisdom of you wonderful lot if you had come across any good resources (online or otherwise) for drugs ed. Even if you have seen/heard about any amazing lessons.

I have the Tacade stuff and QCA stuff and thats about it. So a bit dated. Hmmmmm Help!

Thandeka- gets googling and goes cross eyed.

Sigh.

P.S Am happy to bribe with chocolate if it will help?

What sort of 'drug education' have you in mind? I'm just wondering how effective it is to spend time on this with primary aged children. Is there any evidence that health education in the primary years has any/much effect?

There absolutely is tons of evidence that it is effective and has an effect, spiral curriculum and all that (starting early and building upon previous knowledge each year rather than bombarding them with info at 16 or whatever)- its about being age appropriate so not introducing kids to drugs but teaching them to recognise dangers in the medicine cabinet, not sharing medicines, then building up to peer pressure avoiding solvents etc etc.
(Solvent abuse being an identified problem amongst the primary age range)

Would link to relevant articles but only have 2 hours childcare left to get as much done on it as I can...

When you have time please Thandeka. Drug and alcohol use seems to be epidemic so you've got to wonder.

Have a few here:

www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/lessons.html

www.jrf.org.uk/media-centre/national-youth-survey-spotlights-drug-and-alcohol-misuse-crime-and-contributing-risks

rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/dpr47.pdf

www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/behaviour/drugs/- update on where we are with law in schools- annoyingly STILL not published.

If anything the problem is not much is taught in primary/secondary about drug/alcohol use and it is often taught by non specialists (not helped by the government just getting rid of the PSHE certification scheme so fewer teachers can become specialist) and isn't taught alongside important skills such as assertiveness and risk analysis etc. Just telling people what heroin is and what effect is has on the body is probably going to do little to affect whether or not an individual decides to take it.

I remember covering "drugs" as a topic in year 6. It was fascinating to me at the time and pretty apt as there were lots of scary stories circulating about secondary school (such as if you stand under a certain tree the big kids will MAKE you take drugs. Lol now but scary as a very innocent 11 year old!)

So for me it was a good time to begin it. The problem after this was that it was repeated, the same information/message, every single year. Firstly this message was okay for a year 6 class, but too simplistic for an older teenager - basically, drugs are always bad, will always ruin your life, you will die, etc etc. Of course when I actually came across people who were into drugs I realised that this wasn't automatically the case. So then it all became less credible.

we get harold the giraffe in the life bus come to visit us every couple of years

www.surreyheath.gov.uk/news/news.htm?mode=10&pk_news=443

Can't offer any info but wanted to say that Harold the giraffe and the life bus are a wonderful, the PTA pays for them to come every year and they also offer good info to parents to. (we are in Oxfordshire so must be a quite wide spread thing).