While recovering from snow and storm Bert at our office and as we near the end of November, we remain as busy as ever with lots of exciting new developments to report! We are delighted to announce that our new drug education resources for KS3 are ready to roll out across Dorset in the Spring term, and for other schools who would like to participate in evaluation next year. You can find out more about them below. We are thrilled to have won a prestigious award for our Talk about Alcohol programme and to announce that our CEO and Founder has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate for her work. Find out more about our fifth Alcohol and Drugs Education Conference on the 18^th June next year (booking will open in the New Year!) As ever, we are here to support you so please do get in touch via kate@talkabouttrust.org or via the Regional Coordinators whose details are below.

We were so honoured to hear recently that our Talk about Alcohol teacher Workbook has won the free resource category in The Teach Secondary Awards 2024!

Our SEN Activity Box has also been highly commended in the Special Educational Needs category. You can have a look at the full list of winners via Teach Awards .

Save the date! On the 18^th June 2025, Bournemouth University are kindly hosting our 5^th Alcohol and Drug Education conference. During the morning, we will welcome speakers including:

• Escape Line talking about county lines and safeguarding
• Professor John Malcaulney speaking on approaches for young people to address problematic gaming and gambling
• Face2Face talking about additional risks around substance misuse for the neuro diverse
• Ferndown Upper School PSHE lead looking at a whole school approach to successful RSHE, keeping staff upskilled and engaged
• Respect Ed. talking about alcohol, drugs and consent
• Talk About Trust on KS3 Drug Alcohol and Nicotine Education including the potential effects of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill on vaping and illicit supply
• Addressing vaping and nicotine use in primary schools – what approaches work?
• LGBTQ+ informed approaches to drug and alcohol education

In the afternoon, we will have CPD and practical workshops with resources to take away.

Full details on how to book will be sent out in January. To register your interest please email kate@talkabouttrust.org

As you may know, we have been piloting a drug education programme for secondary schools in Dorset. It was informed by Year 9 and Year 11 focus groups of pupils on what they wanted covered (Year 9) and what they wished they’d learnt (year 11). The resulting lesson plans, activities, short films, worksheets and sequential lessons were piloted at The Thomas Hardye School and at The Atlantic Academy during 2023/2024 and evaluated by UCL and Bournemouth University. We’re very pleased to say the pilot findings showed an improvement in knowledge and a decline in likelihood to try illicit substances or vaping among the pupils surveyed.

Having implemented the post-pilot recommendations into the resources, we are thrilled to be able to make available staff training and access to a comprehensive suite of resources and lesson plans, with full implementation guidance and mapped to DfE and Ofsted requirements for KS3 and KS4 of all abilities to Dorset schools, thanks to funding from the Dorset Crime Commissioner. If you are a Dorset school and interested in these resources, please email kate@talkabouttrust.org . If your school is outside of Dorset, please do email helena@talkabouttrust.org if you would like to take part in our wider evaluation trial – in return for using a questionnaire with your pupils (before and after delivery), you will have full access to the 100 pages talk about drugs, alcohol and nicotine education workbook!

Helena was humbled to be awarded with an honorary Doctorate from Bournemouth University for her services to education which she received during a graduation ceremony on 8th November. Helena is pictured above with Pro Vice Chancellor of Bournemouth University, Alison Honour here. In this role Helena has enjoyed lecturing psychology students at Bournemouth University as well as Masters Students in Behaviour Change at UCL during November.

It is always a pleasure to visit Ripon Grammar and deliver sessions to their 6th formers. There were 160 students at the session and as we are approaching Christmas, there will undoubtedly be Christmas parties and festivities taking place. We focussed on staying safe, how important it is to look after yourself and also look after your friends, sensible drinking, units and spiking, including vape spiking and needle spiking. This was such a fabulous session with volunteers taking part in the activities and students staying behind to ask questions and take away information and spiking resources.

I am so pleased to be working in partnership with Safer Rossendale, who provide safe spaces across Rossendale for anyone feeling vulnerable. Due to reports of spiking incidents in Rossendale, we joined forces to deliver an awareness session (including vape and needle spiking) to venues and organisations in Rossendale. We discussed the roles and responsibilities of venues, signs of spiking, what to do, how to help the victim and how to help the police. I am looking forward to further partnership work with Safer Rossendale in the New Year.

It was therefore very timely that our CEO Helena contributed to a round table at the Home Office on spiking with Minister Jess Philips MP last week. It’s heartening that the police and university settings are doing such good work in addressing spiking, but there is still much to be done as prevalence is shockingly high and under reporting still a key issue. With funding awarded in Cheshire from Crime Beat and our PCC funding in North Yorkshire specifically to address spiking, we are thrilled to be so proactive in the North in addressing spiking. 

You can contact Kathryn via Kathryn@talkabouttrust.org .

On Friday, 15th November, I had the pleasure of visiting Southampton University for their Health and Wellbeing Conference. During the event, I conducted training sessions with PGCE students on effectively delivering information about alcohol to young people during PSHE lessons. We focused on educating young people about alcohol norms, by centering discussions on binge drinking and the factors that can delay the age at which young people start using alcohol. We also emphasised the importance of the spiral curriculum design in PSHE.

The students were introduced to techniques for assessing knowledge and had an engaging experience with our 16+ Alcohol Clock Game, which helps illustrate how alcohol units affect the body. Additionally, we explored the consequences of drinking and interactive strategies for initiating these conversations with school students to empower, build resilience, and boost confidence, helping them to make informed decisions about alcohol, and navigate peer pressure effectively.

The workshop was followed by a stall where PGCE students could participate in our True or False Vaping Emoji Quiz, explore our website, and ask questions. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day! Thank you to the University of Southampton for inviting us back and to the PGCE students for their enthusiastic engagement during the sessions.

You can contact Sophie via sophie@talkaboutrust.org .

The Chief Medical Officer’s recommendation for alcohol and young people is “An alcohol-free childhood is the healthiest and safest option.” With statistics https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/smoking-drinking-and-drug-use-among-young-people-in-england/2023 showing that parents are the biggest supply of alcohol to underage drinkers, a key part of our work therefore is providing parent/ carer workshops which support adults in being good role models, setting boundaries and learning more about alcohol and teenagers, such as the effect on the immature brain. We cover vaping and cannabis use too as well as parties, festivals and leaving home. I thoroughly enjoy delivering these sessions, where parents and carers think they are going to be lectured and then relax and feel so much more confident about talking to their teenagers in an informed and supportive way.

It was a pleasure to deliver training in the use of our resources around vaping, open to all forty School Nurses in Cornwall. There was lots of interaction and great feedback emphasising the ever-increasing need.

I had a great time at Dorset Youth Training Day where training sessions on alcohol, cannabis and vaping were delivered. These sessions were open to all youth professionals throughout the county.

You can contact Karen via karen@talkabouttrust.org .

November has seen momentum build in working with our partners from the Youth Action Fund across Scotland. Ailsa’s had the pleasure of clocking up some miles visiting Glasgow, Edinburgh, Motherwell and Aberdeen. This month Ailsa has been working with colleagues from Action for Children, Enable and Aberdeen Foyer. Those attending training have varied daily roles: supporting young people aged 16 – 25 with wellbeing, employability, sustaining engagement in Further Education at College and working with those young people facing the challenge of homelessness/housing issues. Ailsa's role is to equip staff with the knowledge, skills and confidence to support the vulnerable young adults they work with day to day around alcohol, vaping, cannabis and other substances and to provide them with the resources to make this possible.

The Talk About Trust training ensures that everyone is fully confident to support the health and wellbeing of our young people by facilitating workshops and conversations to reduce prevalence and risk around alcohol, vaping and cannabis. Feedback gathered from everyone participating showed a healthy increase in knowledge, understanding and confidence around these issues.

Local schools in the central belt are looking forward to training at the very end of this month. Following a really engaging visit to Denny High School’s Careers Fayre, formal training for all Falkirk secondary schools will take place on their upcoming staff training day. Our training supports teachers to make best use of the fabulous resources available from The Talk About Trust.

After retiring as the CEO of mental health charity Dorset Mind at the end of 2021, Marianne has been leading work across Dorset to implement the Dorset Women's Charter with a particular focus on creating strategic collaborations and partnerships to create opportunities for organisations to work together to end discrimination.

Marianne prioritises support for young people and prevention of violence against women and girls. She brings her experience of working across the public sector, passion for mental health and tackling inequality, as well as her personal insight into the challenges faced by looked after children to the role of Trustee.

We are so grateful to The Dorset Health Trust and Dorset Local Alliance Groups (Weymouth and Portland and Dorchester) for their generous funding which is allowing us to develop vaping resources to support teachers in primary schools.

Huge thanks also to Crimebeat in Cheshire for their kind funding which will support our provision of resources and training across Cheshire.