Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco Education in the Primary
School
11th February, 2015
Julie McCann
School Improvement Officer
Learning Objectives
An increase in understanding of:
• Trends in legal and illegal drugs.
An increase in your skills in:
• Planning and delivering effective drugs education within your PSHE curriculum;
• Supporting young people to have greater resilience to empower them to make healthier
choices.
Explore attitudes to drugs:
• your own;
• the young people you work with;
• wider society;
• Challenge stereotypes and myths around drugs and drug-users.
Starter …
Which table will be first to list 26 drugs A – Z?
Drugs can be legal, illegal, medical, recreational etc.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Effects and Risks….
Alcohol is by far the most common drug of
choice amongst young people
A recent national
survey found 12% of
11 year olds claim to
have tried alcohol,
rising to three
quarters of 15 year
olds
1 in 5 fifteen year olds
said that they drank
alcohol at least once
per week (usually at
weekends)
Effects and Risks….
Despite some evidence that suggests drug use
amongst young people is declining from a peak
in the 1990s:
31% of 15 year olds said
that they had at some
stage used an illegal, or
socially unacceptable
substance. 24% of
which said that this was
in the past year
19% of 15 year olds
admitted to using
cannabis in the past
year
Effects and Risks….
Between 2002 and 2009,
92,220 children and young
people aged under-18 were
admitted to hospital in England
for alcohol-related conditions
One in seven 16-24 year olds
have reported having
unprotected sex after drinking
alcohol
Between 20,000-24,000 young
people under the age of 18
access specialist substance
misuse services each year
Health and Wellbeing
• In half of the primary and two thirds of the secondary
schools, students had a well-developed understanding of
how to lead a healthy lifestyle. They … recognised the
dangers to health of substance misuse.
• Where learning was strongest, pupils developed good
strategies to resist peer-pressure to make unhealthy or
unsafe choices by, for example, practising using their
knowledge and skills in role-play situations.
OFSTED Findings – May 2013
Staying safe
• Pupils’ learning about personal safety was at least good
in half of the schools visited. Effective safety education in
primary schools included:
– legal and illegal drugs, their effects and risks
– how to resist peer-pressure and how to ask for help.
Young children and propaganda
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Young children often have stereotypical views about drugs – especially illegal drugs.
They are usually very anti-drugs and may think that all illegal drug use kills, that they
will be forced or tricked into taking drugs, that drug users and dealers are all down and
outs and easily recognisable and that they will never take drugs themselves.
It is tempting for teachers to try to reinforce such stereotypes with the aim of keeping
children anti-drug.
The problem is that as children grow up they discover through their own experiences
from peers and from observing other people that drug use is far more complicated, and
possibly less dangerous and more attractive, that they have been led to believe.
They may look back and feel that they have not been told the truth and go on to
mistrust adult sources of information.
It is thus very important, even with young children, to avoid exaggeration and to
sensitively challenge stereotypes.
Context
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Many primary pupils will have parents/carers or relatives who take medicines,
smoke or drink alcohol. Some may have family members who use illegal drugs.
All schools need to be sensitive to the very real possibility that the relatives of
some pupils may be problem drug users.
Care should be taken to ensure that the drug education programme takes
potential drug use of family members into account, for example in the issues
portrayed and the language used, so that drug education does not stigmatise or
heighten pupils’ anxieties about their family member’s welfare. Determining and
addressing the additional educational needs of children of problem drug users
will be a high priority.
Parents do not
have the right to
withdraw their
children from
drugs education
Consider running a
parents’ workshop
similar to this training
session
Provide factual
information to
help lessen
feelings of
ignorance
Attitudes to Drugs
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Why explore our own attitudes?
Drugs education within your PSHE education curriculum
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Ground rules;
Distancing techniques;
Explore attitudes in a non-judgemental way;
Focus on skills;
Links are made with other areas of PSHE curriculum;
Takes into account local data and trends;
Uses interactive teaching styles;
Respond and be sensitive to different cultures and experiences within
the classroom;
• Spiral curriculum;
• Teachers trained and confident and up-to-date;
• Assessed, monitored and evaluated.
Health Profile Search: http://www.apho.org.uk/default.aspx?QN=HP_FINDSEARCH2012
Needs Assessment
Give a blank piece of paper to each pupil and ask them to fold it in half and half again
to give 4 sections. Read out one statement from the list below and ask the pupils to
draw and/or write their response on one section of the paper. Repeat with the other 3
statements. In order to gain a clear understanding of the range of knowledge, ask the
class to do this activity individually and in silence.
1. Sam is walking home from school and finds a bag of drugs.
Draw or write what was in the bag.
2. Draw or write about who you think lost the bag.
3. Draw or write about what you think the person was going to
do with the bag.
4. Draw or write about what you would do if you found the bag.
Needs Assessment – follow-up
Picture 1
What have you drawn
Which drugs were in the bag
and which were not?
What is and what is not a
drug?
What do various drugs look
like?
How do we know?
What are the different names
that we give to drugs?
What drug names do you
know?
What do we know about
each of the drugs?
Picture 3
Picture 2
What sort of people have we
drawn (young/old,
male/female, happy/sad,
relaxed/aggressive,
kind/mean, ethnicity etc)?
Do these people use and / or
sell the drugs?
Do people who use and
supply drugs actually look
like this?
How do we know?
What are the people doing
with the drugs?
Where are they?
What is likely to happen to
them?
Are they enjoying themselves
or not?
Are they going to hurt
themselves or other people?
Where and how do people
use drugs?
Where and how do people
supply drugs?
How do we know?
Drugs Quiz
Picture 4
What is Sam doing with the
drugs?
What would be the worst
thing to do?
What would be the best
thing to do?
What would you have done if
you had found the bag of
drugs?
KS1 Substance Search
What do we mean by drugs?
What drugs do you have in your home?
Medicines
Caffeine
Tobacco
Alcohol
Solvents
What other things do you have in your home that could be dangerous if children
(or adults) take them?
Bleach, floor cleaner, washing up liquid, washing powder/liquid, weed killer.
Children take the home
diagram and worksheet
home and search their
home with their parent /
carer.
Create a large home
diagram on a board and
draw and name the
substances children have
found in each room.
KS1 Healthy – Unhealthy Continuum
Healthy
Unhealthy
KS1 People Who Help Us
Can s/he give us medicine or an injection?
Yes
No
Understanding Risk
What ideas come into your heads when you hear the word risk?
Why do people take risks?
Are risks good or bad?
Can you come up with an example of a positive risk eg taking a risk to stop a
bad thing happening or to achieve something worthwhile?
Can you come up with a negative risk eg putting somebody in danger?
Split group and half perform KS1 task
and half perform KS2 task
KS1 Understanding Risk:
Look at the scenario cards … what would you
do to the reduce the risk in each situation?
KS2 Understanding Risk:
sort the cards according to how much of
a risk they pose
Most risky
Least risky
Tobacco – Years 3 or 4
Quiz
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Ash, March 2013
What percentage of UK adults are smokers? Male and Female
What were these percentages in 1974?
What percentage of UK adults are ex-smokers?
Which age group has the highest percentage of smokers?
10-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74 75-79 80-84
• What percentage of UK smokers die from smoking related causes?
• How many UK children (11-15) start smoking every year?
• What fraction of smokers start smoking before the age of 18?
Quiz
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Ash, March 2013
What percentage of UK adults are smokers?
M–21% F-19%, 10 million in total
What were these percentages in 1974? M–51% F-41%
What percentage of UK adults are ex-smokers? M–27% F-22%
Which age group has the highest percentage of smokers?
20-24 M–30% F-28%,
• What percentage of UK smokers die from smoking related causes?
About 50% of all smokers, over 100 000 per year.
• How many UK children (11-15) start smoking every year? Over 200 000
• What fraction of smokers start smoking before the age of 18? 2/3
Smoking and Disease
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Smoking causes around 86% of deaths from lung cancer, around 80% of deaths from bronchitis and
emphysema, and about 17% of deaths from heart disease.
More than one quarter of all cancer deaths can be attributed to smoking. These include cancer of
the lung, mouth, lip, throat, bladder, kidney, stomach, liver and cervix.
People who smoke between 1 and 14 cigarettes a day have eight times the risk of dying from lung
cancer compared to non-smokers.
Smokers under the age of 40 have five times greater risk of a heart attack than non-smokers.
On average women smokers go through the menopause up to 2 years earlier than non-smokers
and are at a greater risk of developing osteoporosis.
Smoking has been associated with increased sperm abnormalities and is a cause of impotence.
It can affect both your sense of taste and smell. Smokers are more likely to develop facial wrinkles
at a younger age and have dental hygiene problems.
Teenage smokers experience more asthma and respiratory symptoms, suffer poorer health, have
more school absences and are less fit.
The Local Picture
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The health of people in Liverpool is generally worse than the England average.
Deprivation is higher than average and about 25,970 children under 16 live in
poverty. Life expectancy for both men and women is lower than the England
average.
Within Liverpool, life expectancy is 10 years lower for men and 9 years lower for
women in the most deprived areas compared to the least.
Over the last 10 years, all-cause mortality rates have fallen. Early death rates
from cancer and from heart disease and stroke have fallen but remain worse in
Liverpool than the England average.
Estimated levels of adult smoking, smoking in pregnancy and smoking related
deaths are all worse in Liverpool than the England average.
Public health priorities in Liverpool include alcohol, mental health, child poverty
and cancer.
Successes
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Protection of Children – since Oct 2007 it has been illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under
18.
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Ban on all advertising – including point of sale from Apr 2012 small shops have until April 2015 to
comply.
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Smoking in public places and workplaces banned – July 2007.
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Picture warnings on cigarettes – Oct 2008, other tobacco products – Oct 2010
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Ban on sale of cigarettes from vending machines – Oct 2011
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Plain packaging announced 2015
Successes
• Smokers start to feel the benefits of giving up almost
immediately.
• Matching activity.
• Key message to children – offer love and support to
family members who smoke, they probably already feel
guilty.
• Remember there are more ex-smokers than smokers.
Alcohol – Years 4 or 5
Alcohol: Impact on Individual
Start by defining alcohol (it is a drug), and sorting out drinks into alcoholic
and non-alcoholic.
Mind-map some of the effects of alcohol include short / long term and
physical / behavioural.
What might affect the extent to which some of the effects of alcohol might
have an impact on an individual?
Alcohol: Impact on Individual, Family, Community
The effects of alcohol usually go beyond that of the individual drinker.
Who is affected by each of the scenarios?
Individual
Family and
Friends
Community
Development: Media Messages
Do these usually represent the full picture of the impact of alcohol?
Cannabis – Year 6
Why People Choose To Use Cannabis
• Knowing what you know from the Cannabis T/F quiz, why do
you think cannabis is still the most commonly used illegal
drug?
• Note that in 2010/11 just 1 in 6 young people had tried
cannabis, why do they think the rest chose not to?
• Mind map possible reasons why teenagers don’t use drugs.
Cannabis True or False Quiz
Some reasons young people don’t use drugs …
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Important people in their life disapprove of drug use;
Fear of the law;
Want to stay focussed and achieve their goals;
Don’t want to affect their physical fitness;
Too busy in their spare time with hobbies, part time jobs and voluntary work;
Those who wanted to be parents thought it would be bad for their children;
Previous bad experience with cannabis use;
Fear of damaging health now and in the future;
Fear of addiction;
Not wishing to lose control of themselves and do something they would regret;
Have alternative sources of getting the ‘buzz’;
Have other forms of stress relief like supportive relationships, going for a bike
ride or going to the beach or park to ‘chill out’;
Some or all of the above.
Could be done as a
Could be applied to
diamond 9 ranking
tobacco, alcohol, antiactivity.
social behaviour etc.
Resisting Peer Pressure
• See Cannabis Scenario cards
• Volunteers to share their drama with the whole class.
• Which strategies were used for resisting pressure.
• Peer Pressure Strategies handout - what difference did using the
strategies made to the outcome of the role play.
Peer-pressure strategies
Transferrable skill – what other
situations might this be useful in?
Problem Page
• Carousel the problems adding one possible
solution each time.
• Pass around the group until you get your
original problem back again.
Different Perspectives
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The aim of this activity is to explore the range of different views people might have about drinking
and taking drugs and to gain some understanding of why they might feel as they do.
Work together in small groups.
Remember relevant team-working skills and the ground rules agreed at the beginning of the lesson,
particularly in terms of respecting each other’s opinions.
Look at your group’s Photo Cards and consider the following questions:
– What do you imagine this person feels about drinking/taking drugs?
– Why do you imagine they feel that way?
– Do you agree with their viewpoint? If not, why not?
– Each group to feedback what they have discussed in their group
about their picture.
– Was everyone is in agreement, if not why not?
– Is it easy to stereotype people’s views because of their occupation?
Influences on Behaviour …
Draw around your hand. The five digits represent five key influences on a person’s life. In pairs,
identify who or what might influence a 16 year olds attitude to taking drugs and write these onto
their drawing.
Possible responses: family, friends, culture, the media, a GP, the law, religion, sports coach.
There is a recognised pattern for how people’s habits can develop into addiction:
1. Experimenting e.g. first few times someone tries smoking, drinking or taking drugs
2. Recreational drinking or drug use e.g. sometimes having a drink or smoking cannabis at a
party, with friends or relations
3. Recreationally dependent e.g. someone drinking or taking drugs every time they go to a party
or get together with friends or relations
4. Dependent/addicted e.g. someone who is physically and/or psychologically addicted to a
particular drug or drugs and cannot control their intake.
Look at the cards on your table – where is each of these people in terms of their level of
dependency? Who is more likely to become addicted? Who or what is likely to influence their
behaviour? What might change as they get older?
CW doc
Spiral Curriculum
Evaluations
• [email protected]