The Alcohol Education Trust - Teacher Newsletter

 Spring Term, March 2017, Ed 31

It has been great to focus this half term to begin our partnership work with the Be your Best Foundation Rock Challenge. With an average of 500 children attending each event, it has been fun to challenge students' perceptions around alcohol with our interactive games, to see how much they know with our quiz and what they would like to learn. We’ve started in Southampton, Portsmouth and Bournemouth and now move North!

To learn more about the diversity and range of things we do as a charity each year, all over England, you can now read our Impact Report here. We’re very proud to be able to support young people with both our early intervention and harm minimisation work for an average of 30p a child.

We’re Finalists for the 2017 Education Resources Awards!

We are delighted to have heard that both of our entries for The Education Resources Awards have been chosen as finalists in their categories! Our online learning zone www.talkaboutalcohol.com and our new full pack of resources, including those suitable for pupils with moderate learning difficulties, have made the short-list.

Patrick Hayes, director of BESA and Chair for Judges for the ERAs said: “We have been flooded with entries this year from many of the UK’s most innovative and dynamic education companies, and our esteemed judges have put in a phenomenal amount of effort carefully analysing each of the applicants and debating their many merits. To be shortlisted as a finalist is an outstanding achievement and one that companies can take real pride in.” The AET is very proud of this achievement and we are keeping our fingers crossed for the Oscar-style awards ceremony in Birmingham in March!

You can learn more about the awards via educationresourcesawards.co.uk/ 

AET gets involved with The Rock Challenge

The Rock Challenge is an international anti-drug and crime prevention initiative that takes the form of a performing arts competition for secondary schools presented by Be Your Best Foundation UK. Our North  and South East Coordinators, Kathryn and Helen, are pleased to have the opportunity to attend these events and to provide interesting activities for the children between their rehearsals for performances. Helen has already attended the Southampton sessions and will soon be going to Portsmouth and Bournemouth while Kathryn will be attending events in Bridlington, Rotherham, Grimsby, Hull and Grantham. This is an excellent opportunity for us to engage with pupils, teachers and parents. We engage the teenagers by offering hands-on activities such as unit measuring so they can learn what a unit looks like as well as an alcohol knowledge quiz with cinema tickets as prizes! Helen comments on the Southampton sessions, "its great to be working with the Rock Challenge Team supporting schools and young people with activities and information to help them to stay safe around alcohol. The events in the south of England have been hugely successful where hundreds of pupils have participated and we've had the opportunity to showcase our resources and promote our interactive learning zone www.talkaboutalcohol.com designed specifically for young people."

David Beal of the Be Your Best Foundation said, "we are extremely grateful for the support of the Alcohol Education Trust at this year’s Rock Challenge events. Partnerships with organisations who share our values and goals adds an incredible amount of value to the experiences of the young people participating. They can benefit hugely from the information available from the AET and our other partners. We are hosting 48 events this year involving around 20,000 young people form 320 schools who will all have access to the information AET provides".

You can learn more about The Rock Challenge via rockchallenge.co.uk/index.php

SHAHRP Training

The first training day for the highly evaluated programmes, SHAHRP and STAMPP is confirmed for the 27th April 2017 at St Saviour’s and St Olave’s School in central London. SHAHRP is an example of a harm reduction education intervention which combines a harm reduction philosophy with skills training, education, and activities designed to encourage positive behavioural change. It is a curriculum-based programme with an explicit harm reduction goal and is conducted in two phases over a two year period.  The training is aimed at those commissioning evidence based harm reduction and early intervention based programmes for young people, local authorities, public health, PSHE leads and Heads of pastoral care. The AET is pleased to be able to offer the training day in April which will be led by Dr Michael McKay with a second date available during the week of the 25th September. Participants will be fully trained in how to deliver the programme, supplied with a teacher training manual and CD of interactive activities and taken through the methodology and practicalities of the programme. For further information and to book a place  at £190 (for training and materials), please book via  Eventbrite. Or  if you require an invoice and would prefer to pay by BACS please email kate@alcoholeducationtrust.org .

Our new online store is now ready!

We are pleased to say that our new online store is now up and running! We are still able to support schools with a copy of our Teacher Workbook but for additional copies, or for our complete resource suite please visit alcoholeducationtrust.org/store/

We have a range of resources which are available to purchase including our new comprehensive folder of resources. The pack is just £90 incl. post and packing and contains the AET Teacher Workbook, the AET SEND Workbook, a DVD of ‘Just a Few Drinks’, full access to the SEND area of our website and lesson plans, PowerPoints, laminated resources and discussion cards for use with the SEND workbook .

What an amazing job your liver does

There is an excellent youtube video suitable for Key stage 4 on how important it is for us to look after our livers. It is very well explained and we thoroughly recommend it! You can view via youtube.com/watch?v=lwFoXxWkT9Y  

Community Fundraising news

Following on from the success of our Made in Dorset fundraising weekend last year, we are really looking forward to this year’s event. On Saturday the 8th April, we will be hosting a cabaret evening with a four-course dinner prepared from local produce as well as a curated art exhibition. The next day, Sunday 9th April, sees another Made in Dorset event celebrating all things made, grown or produced in Dorset. We will have stalls offering a wide range of local produce including flowers, chocolates, cakes, arts and crafts. We are sure these events will be great fun and are really looking forward to welcoming people along! Both events will be held in Cerne Abbas Village Hall in Dorset.

We are very grateful to our sponsors Pardoes Solicitors, Poundbury Wealth management, The Brace of Butchers and Dukes auctioneers for underwriting the event costs, enabling all proceeds to benefit The Alcohol Education Trust beneficiaries. We have had some wonderful prizes donated too, from Ansvar insurance, The Corinthia Hotel, Bride Valley Estate, Sir Oliver Letwin and Neals Yard – thank you so much! If you would like to get involved or come along, please email kate@alcoholeducationtrust.org for further information. We’d be delighted to see you!
 

News from the North - Kathryn Arnott-Gent

I hope you’ve all had a good half term break – it’s going so quickly and it’s very busy in the North.

Lancashire Cadets

I’m so pleased to be working in partnership with the Lancashire Cadets, where we will be able to roll out our Talk About Alcohol training to Cadet Leaders and Youth Engagement Sessional Workers and provide them with our amazing full SEND resources and teacher workbooks.

Onside

Earlier in the year I delivered a great session to staff of Onside at Madhlo Oldham, which combined a train the trainer and a parent session, for volunteers who work on a 1-1 basis with young people. I  have since been delighted to meet up again to help plan how our evaluated lessons can form part of their 6 week alcohol course.

Take a look at powertoresist.co.uk a powerful video on parent influence on young people and alcohol, there’s also a link to our websites.

Cheshire Police Safer Schools & Young People's Partnership.

Thank you to Liz Stanton for inviting me to the PSHE conference hosted by the Safer Schools & Young People’s Partnership, a fantastic event with some excellent speakers and innovative ideas for working with young people. Lots of interest in our new resource and several schools and PRU’s in Cheshire will be receiving the pack very soon. Don’t forget if your school is an SEND school or PRU then you could also be eligible for a fully funded pack, so get in touch with myself or Kate.

Parent Sessions

I’d like to thank Neston High School for inviting me to deliver a parent session at their fantastic Student Wellbeing Evening – what an amazing event over 40 parents attended the evening, where they were able to get advice and information from the School Counsellor on young people and mental health, the police on drugs and of course ourselves with our interactive Talk About Alcohol parent session. Some great feedback from Klaire Costello, Deputy Head, that the ‘parents were delighted and found the session really useful’.

It was great to be back at West Craven High School and Brine Leas High School again, having conversations with parents and challenging their perceptions of young people and their alcohol use. Great feedback from a parent who remembered me from a previous session who said he still talks about the information he learnt last time and passes it onto all his friends!

I’m out and about in the North East this month visiting schools and attending more parent sessions. I’m also at various Rock Challenge events in Bridlington, Grimsby and Grantham so if you’re attending any come over and say hello!

If you’d like me to attend a parents evening or book a bespoke parents session please do get in touch. Email: kathryn@alcoholeducationtrust.org Tel: 07886 532 254

AET resources comprise of www.alcoholeducationtrust.org and www.talkaboutalcohol.com, a Teacher Workbook, booklets ‘Alcohol and You’ for 15yrs+ and ‘Talking to Your Kids About Alcohol’ parent and carer guide. 

We also offer teacher CPD workshops and parent information talks.

For further information on any of the above please contact
Helena Conibear, Founder, Director helena@alcoholeducationtrust.org
Kathryn Arnott-Gent, Parent and Schools Coordinator - N Region kathryn@alcoholeducationtrust.org
Helen Dougan, SE Region & SEND Coordinator hdougan@alcoholeducationtrust.org
Kate Hooper, Schools Coordinator kate@alcoholeducationtrust.org

Trustees
Gordon Redley BEd (Cantab)
Christina Benjamin BSc (Hons) PGCE
Patricia Garven Cert Ed.
Kate Larard MSc, HV, RM, SRN
Victoria Mc Donaugh MA (Hons), PGCE
Keith Newton ACA
Alison Winsborough BMus, PGCE

The Alcohol Education Trust, Frampton House, Frampton, Dorset, DT2 9NH

01300 320 869

Registered Charity Number 1138775

www.alcoholeducationtrust.org