2014 Teacher Conference Sharing Best Practice: Substance Misuse, Internet Safety and Safe Relationships
Conference to Update Teachers on Current Welsh Trends and to Promote Best Practice Personal and Social Education (PSE).
Did you know?
1. In 2011, a European survey of youth attitudes, which interviewed more than 12,000 young people (15–24), estimated that nearly 10% of British young people had used ‘psychoactive substances at some time.
2. The number of new psychoactive substances rose by 51% from 166 at the end of 2009 to 251 by mid-2012.
3. There are approximately 75 thousand domestic abuse victims in Wales.
4. In 90% of domestic abuse incidents a child is present, or is in an adjacent room.
5. Reports to the Police of sexual abuse of under 11’s rose by 16% in 2012-13.
6. Over 1/3rd of 3 to 4 year olds go on line in the UK (2012)
7. Under 4’s are more likely to watch video clips while over 4’s show an increasing interest in playing games.
8. Virtual world access is increasing, particularly with children aged 3 to 11 years.
9. 64% of UK children are using social networking functions.
10. Use of teenage social networking sites by children in the UK is increasing e.g. 10% of 6-9 year olds reported having their own Facebook profile, 30% of 7-11 year olds increasing to 80% of 12-15 year olds.
11. A ¼ of 8 -11 year olds communicate with people online they don’t know in the real world.
12. Facebook is the most common social networking platform and young people are twice as likely to be cyberbullied on Facebook than any other social networking site.
In January 180 primary school teachers attended 3 conferences across Wales, funded by the Welsh Government. The conferences focused on best practice education in substance use and misuse education, domestic abuse and internet safety as part of the PSE curriculum. Each day was organised as a round robin to raise awareness of the rapidly changing nature of substance use and misuse, responsible relationships and internet safety within Wales. The training was delivered by the All Wales School Liaison Core Programme, the Welsh Network of Healthy Schools, Hafan Cymru and Wise Kids with the support of CEOP the Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency.
Topics such as the growth of the use of New Emerging Drugs (NEDS) or psychoactive substances, drug identification, domestic abuse, how to empower young people towards safe and positive online experiences and the methodology and resources to assist with teaching these sensitive topics in the classroom were all explored during the day. The days proved very successful with 100% of the delegates rating the overall training as excellent or very good. Teachers stated they were going back to school with the intention of updating their PSE schemes of work and policies and feeding back to other members of staff as part of a whole school approach.
