We are delighted to announce that we have launched a set of six comprehensive and ready-to-use lessons with accompanying PowerPoints for KS3. These follow extensive piloting by schools and peer review, are carefully mapped to the new RSHE guidance and we are confident that they will meet all your needs and save you hours of time and planning. They are based on the evaluation of our work by The National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) which you can view here: https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/teacher-area/evaluation-case-studies/

The aim of these exciting new resources is to provide teachers delivering alcohol education in KS3 with ready to deliver lessons which will save planning and preparation time but still ensure highly effective and enjoyable lessons are delivered. We hope that this will be especially helpful as you prepare for statutory health education taking effect from September.

Each 50 minute lesson includes a detailed lesson plan, learning objective, intended learning outcome and resources required and covers the following topics:

  • Assessing knowledge: How much do you know about alcohol?
  • Units and guidelines: Responsible drinking
  • Alcohol and its effects – physical and social
  • Alcohol and the law: The consequences
  • The effects of drinking too much
  • Reflect and recap: Making safer choices

The aim is that four lessons will be delivered at age 12-14 (Year 8 or 9 / S1 or S2) with two top up lessons at age 13-15 (Year 9 or 10 /S3 or S4). The initial unit of work of four lessons is designed to be delivered across an academic year and the two top up lessons should follow a year later to build on learning and embed safer decision making as the children get older.

Each lesson consists of selected engaging activities with suggestions for possible variation depending on the individual class and the time available.

You can find a brief description of each PowerPoint below. The Lesson plans are in a separate booklet. To obtain access to the booklet please email kate@alcoholeducationtrust.org. We do hope that you will find these lessons a real help and would love to know your thoughts on them! Please contact Kate with any feedback you might have.

Assessing knowledge: How much do you know about alcohol? In Lesson 1, students explore the myths and facts around alcohol consider the reasons why people choose to drink or not.

Units and guidelines: Responsible drinking Lesson 2 focuses on what a unit of alcohol is and the government advice on low risk drinking. Further, students explore how alcohol is processed by the body and consider the health and safety risks in binge drinking.

Alcohol and its effects – physical and social Lesson 3 looks in more detail at how alcohol affects the body and students explore the consequences of drinking to excess for both the drinker and others around them.

Alcohol and the Law: The consequences In Lesson 4, the students think about ways to resist peer pressure to drink alcohol and learn about the UK laws relating to alcohol.

The effects of drinking too much Lesson 5 revisits the possible reasons for drinking and considers their associated risk and explore how decisions and behaviour affect risk. In addition, students learn about the social norms for alcohol consumption among young people in the UK. They revisit the laws around drinking and buying alcohol and think about strategies for keeping safe when socialising, particularly when drinking and how and when to get help.

Reflect and recap: Staying safe and avoiding risk taking In the final lesson, students revisit their learning around alcohol and alcohol-related risks.