| priority
& funding |
Aberdeen City accords high priority to drug
education in the city as part of the Drugs Action Team’s efforts to combat drug
misuse in the city. Earlier this year Aberdeen City
was awarded a grant by the Scottish Executive specifically to develop drug education in
schools. You can find below (click here) the full details of the work
covered by the grant. |
| Development
Officers |
As part of this
initiative, we have appointed two Development Officers to assist schools on this area.
They are
- Elaine Forbes, Cornhill Primary School, who will work with
schools who have students in the 3-11 age range
- Aileen Kirkwood, a health educator with wide experience,
who will assist schools working with students age 12-18
Both Development Officers will work with Terry Ashton, Adviser (Guidance and Careers)
within the wider context of policy development in PSE. |
| How the
Development Officers can help schools |
The Development Officers
will be working part time between now and Christmas, and will be contacting schools very
shortly. Their major tasks will be to assist schools in ensuring that they provide an
effective programme of drug education to every pupil in line with local and national
guidelines
- considering the appropriateness of materials and methods used for drug education
- choosing appropriate drug education resources to update their present resources
- ensuring that drug education is progressive from P1 to S6 through ASG collaboration.
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| funding
for resources |
An average sum of £145 per school will be
available for the purchase of resources to develop drug education. The resources will be
purchased centrally between now and Christmas 2002 after discussion of a school’s
needs with the relevant Development Officer or Adviser (Guidance and Careers). As this
project must finish by December 2002, schools are advised to take advantage of the
expertise of the Development Officers as soon as possible |
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| DETAILS
OF THE WORK TO BE DONE: The successful bid to SEED |
Aberdeen City Council
accords high priority to drug education in schools, and is at present reviewing and
extending its handbook on Guidance/pastoral care and PSE, which will further address
issues of drug education within Personal and Social Education (PSE) and as part of a wider
whole-school approach to pupil welfare.
The proposals that follow will be
implemented within this context and within that of the Health Promoting School.
All the proposals feature in or are
complementary to the education section of the strategy of the Aberdeen City Drug Action
Team. |
| 1
ENSURING EFFECTIVE DRUG EDUCATION |
Aberdeen City intends to
1 ENSURE THAT SCHOOLS PROVIDE AN
EFFECTIVE PROGRAMME OF DRUG EDUCATION TO EVERY PUPIL BY 2002 AND ASSIST THEM IN ACHIEVING
THIS
To do this it will
- produce an outline authority drug
education programme as part of the Handbook on Guidance/pastoral care and PSE. The
handbook will include
- a statement of the features of effective drug education to
assist schools in their planning
- areas of drug education to be covered at different stages
of schooling 3-18, together with suggestions for further work. This will be a flexible
programme which schools can modify according to the needs of their young people and
communities (a core + options approach).
- guidelines on working in partnership to deliver drugs
education
- a list of external contributors
- guidelines on use of external contributors in drugs
education
- initiate a programme of support for schools
(prioritizing schools according to existing survey results) to assist them in
- auditing their drug education programme
- developing further their drug education programme
- using drug education materials appropriately according to
stage of development
- working with support agencies
- provide updated resources for schools, both at
school level and through the Aberdeen Curriculum and Resources Centre as appropriate.
- further develop the drug education element of the Aberdeen City website on
Guidance/pastoral care and PSE at www.aberdeen-education.org.uk/guidance
- discuss available national and local survey results with schools - challenge
schools not meeting national and local authority criteria
- assist associated school groups in ensuring that drugs education is progressive
from P1 to S6
- monitor at local authority level the practice of schools through the use of an
annual survey (an extension of the Scottish Executive annual survey).
- devise instruments if identified as necessary. |
| 2
MANAGING DRUG INCIDENTS |
2 ENSURE THAT EACH SCHOOL HAS
AN EFFECTIVE WELFARE POLICY ON THE MANAGEMENT OF INCIDENTS OF DRUG MISUSE
Aberdeen City Education Department already
has a policy for dealing with drugs incidents in schools, which applies to all schools,
but intends to do the following:
- Review and develop the policy even further in partnership
with the police
- Assist schools in further developing their awareness of the
policy through visits and/or staff development activities
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| STAFF
DEVELOPMENT IN DRUG EDUCATION |
3 CONTINUE ITS STAFF
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME IN DRUG EDUCATION
- Aberdeen City will continue its staff development programme
to complement the work outlined. During session 2000-2001, the focus was on providing
staff development for at least two teachers from each primary school, and six courses were
run in conjunction with health promotions. During 2001-2002, there will be three courses
on drug education for secondary staff, followed by at least one more in the autumn term of
2002. Thereafter it is intended to offer continual staff development and periodic
refresher courses for primary, special, secondary and community education staff.
- While these events are not included in the costed
proposals, they are an essential part of the overall plan, and feature on the Aberdeen
City Drug Action Team strategy.
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The strategy to achieve sections 1 and 2
above will be to |
| STRATEGY |
- second a teacher from a secondary school to wok as a
Development Officer with the Adviser (Guidance and Careers) for 20 days between January
and June 2002.
- second a teacher from a primary school to wok as a
Development Officer with the Adviser (Guidance and Careers) for 40 days between January
and June 2002.
- to provide a sum of money for each school to purchase
updated drugs education materials after discussion with the relevant Development Officer
and/or Adviser (Guidance and Careers). The provision of drug education resources is
different from the provision of resources in the rest of the curriculum. Drugs education
and information is such a rapidly changing field that resources need to be updated more
often than in other areas of the curriculum.
- to provide a sum of money for the Curriculum Resources and
Information Service to purchase materials for loan to schools.
- to produce in-house materials to supplement existing
resources where necessary.
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| This page was last updated on 01 October 2007 11:37 +0100 |
