What do we do?
Making Safer 
Choices: drug and alcohol education
Our evidence-based drug and alcohol education programme incorporates a spiral curriculum of age-appropriate planning and resources for teachers to deliver to students in Years 7-8, Years 9-11 and Sixth Form. We also deliver workshops for students and for parents and carers, and training for staff. Everything is mapped to an international evidence base of what is most effective in drug and alcohol education, and on European standards of good practice, and is reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis to ensure it’s all current, relevant and addresses the priority issues for young people.
See our current offering booklets here – England & Wales and Scotland.
For further information, please email us at admin@dsmfoundation.org.uk
Assemblies, talks and workshops – direct ‘in person’ delivery
Our team can deliver assemblies, talks and interactive drug and alcohol education workshops at the start of PSHE lessons and form time sessions. We deliver them to schools, colleges and community groups within reasonable reach of our South London base. We have a team of trained and experienced drug educators who will plan delivery in discussion with key staff to make sure it meets the needs of students and the priorities of the setting, and fits best around timetables, prior learning and other commitments. We’re as flexible as we can be, and want to plan something that is effective for each individual school, college or community group.
“… additionally, I overheard many saying that previously they were in the ‘likely’ to try drugs sort of category, whereas now they would class themselves as part of the ‘unlikely’ category, which you can obviously see is a massive impact on a room full of teenagers.”
Teacher
Live-streamed and pre-recorded delivery
During 2020/21 we adapted everything we do to enable us to continue to reach young people, their parents and education professionals through a range of flexible resources and models of delivery. This approach continues to be welcomed by many schools with feedback from students and teachers showing that our indirect delivery sessions can be as effective and impactful as our direct delivery.
- Workshops for students can be delivered online via live-stream or through pre-recorded talks.
- Training for teachers and other professionals working with young people can also be delivered online via live-stream or through pre-recorded talks.
- Parents’ workshops are mostly being delivered via online webinars (see the parents’ page for more details).
- We have a suite of home-learning drugs and alcohol education units for students to work on independently, aimed at year 9 – 10s.
- Our Mission Transition workshops for year 6 pupils preparing for secondary school are now available as blended learning resources, with elements for pupils to work on at home combined with teacher-led sections which can be delivered in person or remotely.
PSHE/PSE resources for teachers to use – free to download
From 2021/22 our full programme of PSHE/PSE resource packs are available free-of-charge to all schools. Mapping diagrams for England/Wales and Scotland enable teachers to plan the full programme. The resource packs can easily be downloaded from our webshop.
Planning and resources are available to schools and colleges to deliver effective, interactive and engaging drug and alcohol education as part of PSHE, either in lessons or in shorter, bite-sized form time sessions, for all secondary year groups. Sessions combine age-appropriate information about:
- drugs and alcohol
- the effects and risks
- what the law says
- harm reduction (for older students).
Sessions also include discussion around issues such as:
- motivation
- the teenage brain
- peer influence
- resilience
These resources have been adapted for the Scottish curriculum, year groups and context.
Making Safer Choices for students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Students with SEND can be especially vulnerable to taking risks with drugs and alcohol, and so in addition to our own specially adapted workshops and teacher resources, we have been working with SEND teacher and author Mark Harrington to develop creative specialist resources for students and teachers. Mark has written a simple graphic novel and short play, both based on Dan’s story, and designed for students with differing abilities. The novel is beautifully illustrated by Eve Yarnton.
Mark has also produced a six-week scheme of work and student resources to use with both of these, which cover the key elements of information and understanding young people need to make choices safely. These will be published in Spring 2021.
An initial discussion is recommended before booking a session to ensure we’re able to meet the needs of your students most effectively.
Transition to secondary school
Our Mission Transition resources provide a programme for Year 6 and 7 students using drama, research, discussions, games and an age-appropriate version of Dan’s story to prepare pupils for secondary school. Pupils develop a toolkit of ideas, tips and techniques to strengthen their resilience, explore their own core values, learn how to choose friends wisely and be a good role model to others.
Storytelling
“Dan’s story made it real.” The story of Dan is woven into everything we do, giving a relevance and reality to the information and life skills included in the PSHE programme. This is told in an age-appropriate way, either by drug educators, or through a powerful short commissioned documentary, or directly by Dan’s mum, Fiona. This is always moving and powerful, and has a huge impact on its audiences. Storytelling can be an incredibly engaging and effective means of communicating an important message, and the story of Dan, a young person like any of them, gives a relevance and context to all they’re learning.
