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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.

• 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.

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.

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.

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

• 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.

• 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 .