Eye on Education: SPICED project
A PARTNERSHIP between schools and the police is helping educate youngsters in primary schools about the dangers of drugs.
Recent local tragedies have highlighted the devastating effects which experimenting with drugs can have for young people and their families.
But the Spiced (Schools Partnership In Children’s Education on Drugs) programme aims to ensure youngsters as young as 10 are made aware of the hazards they face.
The programme includes 10 lessons which are led by the class teacher, with support from the police and a parents evening for the parents to gather information.
The Spiced aim is to enable pupils to develop their knowledge, skills, attitudes and understanding about drugs and appreciate the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, relating this to their own and other’s actions.
Pc Sally Baines, from Kirkburton Neighbourhood Policing Team, was Spiced trained in 2010.
She is resolute in not taking the softly softly approach and starts by teaching parents what drugs are available, what they look like and the risks associated with them.
She says this is unsettling for many parents.
“I explain they need to have an open and honest policy with their children when it comes to talking about drugs,’’ she said.
“When the subject is taboo or brushed under the carpet, that’s when children go elsewhere to get their questions answered and can end up with the wrong information, and this could have tragic implications.’’
In her first lesson with the children Pc Baines holds a “pass-the-parcel” session which is a parcel containing pictures of different drugs, with questions on the back.