Thanks to all of you who completed last year’s evaluation questions. Your support and comments are extremely valuable to ensure the success and continuation of Choices for Life in the future. We were particularly pleased to hear that the majority of you felt that Choices for Life fitted within your school curriculum and was seen as a positive addition to substance misuse education.
Choices for Life supporting materials include classroom activities and discussion topics you might find useful before and after attending the event around the key messages pupils will hear.
Please see the following document which shows links to level 3 experiences and outcomes within Curriculum for Excellence – substance misuse.
The framework was completed by a development group from the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Learning and Teaching Scotland, teachers from Girvan Academy, Alcohol Drug Partnership Orkney and NHS Health Scotland.
We wanted to explore interdisciplinary learning around substances and links that schools could make to other partners, local and national. The Choices for LifeTM events form a major community safety initiative run by the police in Scotland. It is supported by the Scottish Government as well as other key strategic partners including Learning & Teaching Scotland and NHS Health Scotland. They are designed to give children information about drugs, alcohol and smoking through a series of live, pop concert style events. The aim is to equip young people to make positive, healthy lifestyle choices and resist peer pressure at a time when they are making the transition from primary to secondary school. The emphasis is on increasing knowledge and understanding to help enable pupils to make informed decisions, rather than telling them what they should think or do. Choices for LifeTM seeks to contribute to the wider personal, social and health education by providing credible information, raising self-esteem and developing decision-making skills.
One of the development aims of Choices for Life is to ensure progression of learning for pupils and it is important that these messages continue to be developed throughout S1, S2 and beyond. With that in mind, the SCDEA, along with partners from NHS Health Scotland, Learning and Teaching Scotland, teachers within the primary and secondary sectors and the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership Orkney worked together and produced the attached framework relating to third level outcomes and experiences within curriculum for excellence. The document is not prescriptive, but includes options and ideas that can be taken forward within health and wellbeing – the responsibility of all.
We will have further information regarding pilot projects relating to the above, in the coming months and hope to also have regular updates from those schools that have chosen to participate.
CEOP
CEOP is the UK police agency for tackling child exploitation online and offline.
By clicking on the CEOP Report button you can access lots of information regarding online issues and risks that affect young people online such as cyberbullying, grooming, viruses, hacking and illegal content. You can also report a problem to specially trained officers at CEOP if you are worried about someone’s behaviour towards a child or young person online.
