Citizenship: 'We're hoping to have well-informed kids'
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Your support makes all the difference.It is 9.00pm in any village or sleepy town in rural Britain. A gang of kids is in the bus shelter fooling around, or perhaps they are loitering outside the chippy. That much has stayed the same for the past 40 years, albeit with some shocking differences. And one of the is the ready availability of drugs.
Alarmed by the dangers facing bored adolescents, Wymondham College has decided to respond with an unusually explicit drug awareness scheme. The hope is that at least some of the students at this state boarding school in Norfolk will wind up with an informed understanding of substance abuse and the damage it can cause.
Cannabis, heroin, ecstacy, speed and even LSD are all available, and within pocket-money range. Even smack can be £10 a bag or cheaper, as the pupils at Wymondham well know. They are shown samples of all the street drugs, can recognise them by sight and explain what they do to you.
The scheme was founded by Chris Sayer, assistant principal and a head of house at the school, with the help of the Norfolk constabulary and a £3,000 award from Barclays New Futures. It is entirely voluntary, but around a third of each year group gets involved. The students are given information packs, film shows, talks and take part in a series of events. Visits are made to the drugs rehabilitation unit at a nearby jail. A couple from Blackpool who lost their son to heroin have become regular visitors to the school. Former drugs tsar Keith Hellawell has been one of the speakers.
"We're hoping to have 40 or 50 really well informed kids who know what happens if you take this or that drug," says Chris. "The hope is that they will be there in the student body so that when someone starts to say, 'It doesn't do any harm,' they can speak out."
The scheme manages to combine the issues of PSHE (personal, social and health education) with citizenship, as it not only informs young people about the dangers of drug abuse, but it also enables young people to have a better understanding of the whole picture: their own position, and also how it can affect everyone around them.
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