We do hope you've had a wonderful break and are feeling ready for the new term! We’ve been busy finishing the pilot of our full drug, alcohol and nicotine education resources for Key stage 3 over the Summer, being evaluated by Masters students at Bournemouth University and UCL Institute of Behaviour Change. It’s been so useful analysing the post pilot recommendations from staff and students in the trial and means we know it will be absolutely fit for purpose and will really help improve outcomes for young people – please do email kate@talkabouttrust.org if you would like to join our growing list of schools wishing to use them when they are ready later this term – together with training and full implementation guidance of course!

Read on to catch what our Regional Coordinators have been up to during the last few weeks, read about the shocking level of contamination of vapes with SPICE confiscated in schools and view Rhiannon’s brave spiking testimony. Rhianna is one of four new ambassadors and advisors that we welcome to The Talk About Trust with lived experience or a strong area of expertise to guide us with.

As always, we are looking forward to supporting you with resources, training, youth workshops and parents talks again this year – provided by our wonderful regionally based expert team! For a reminder of the wonderful range of resources we have on offer, please visit Order your resources for the new school year now! (mailerlite.com) and email kate@talkabouttrust.org with your orders or queries.

Kathryn has kept busy over the school holidays delivering a range of alcohol, vaping and cannabis workshops to settings including A Wilderness Way and Street League.

Kathryn delivered a fabulous full day of support at Rosscon Training which involved looking at all our interactive resources that can be used to support young people from the age of 11 right up to 25! There were some great discussions around alcohol, cannabis and vaping and lots of fun pouring units and playing the alcohol clock game. Kathryn introduced our characters to illustrate how to use a distancing approach, discussed social norms around drug use and also spiking including vape spiking - there were some genuine surprises around what constitutes a 'legal' vape and what can be in an illicit vape.

To book sessions for your school or organisation if you are based in the North, please contact kathryn@talkabouttrust.org .

Karen has been busy (as always) over the past few months with training, conferences and networking! Here are some highlights from her recent work in the South West and Midlands.

Karen was delighted to be invited to the Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning Conference, which was a great chance to network and deliver training sessions.

August has given Karen time to evaluate the impact of what she does across the South West. A word cloud of training evaluation clearly demonstrates that we are providing what is needed to upskill and support teachers and professionals supporting children young people to make safer more informed choices day to day.

Research carried out by the University of Bath has shown that out of nearly 600 vapes confiscated from 38 schools across England, one in six contained spice (synthetic cannabinoids) and one in 100 contained THC.

These findings of course are of great concern and there is also the worry that children could get into debt with drug dealers and being caught up in crime.

Spice is a class A drug, and inhalation can lead to collapse, sickness, heart palpitations and serious health effects. We have extensive resources available on vaping, dope vapes, nicotine pouches - including detailed advice on how to help someone cut down or quit vaping. Please do email kate@talkabouttrust.org

You can read the full report via Synthetic cannabinoids consumed via e-cigarettes in English schools | medRxiv

The recent Health Trends in England report produced by the Department of Health and Social Care has shown a fall in the hospital admissions of under 18s for alcohol-related incidents, which have halved in the last decade. This is very encouraging and you can read the full report via Health trends in England (phe.org.uk)

Please order your resources or see if we have a member of staff able to come and talk to students directly by contacting kate@talkabouttrust.org