2019 is the AET’s 10th anniversary year and the final celebration took place on the 7th November at the House of Lords. We had a very hurried change of venue due to the dissolution of parliament and we are so grateful to The Lord Speaker, Baroness Stedman –Scott and The Baroness Rock for providing us with the most wonderful alternative venue of The River Room. Students from the Atlantic Academy came all the way up from Portland in Dorset to speak about why alcohol education is important to them and students from the Greycoat Hospital School performed a brilliant short drama called ‘We drink because…’ Both brought the important issues around alcohol to life and were fantastic! It was the first time our Trustees and staff had all come together and CEO Helena Conibear made it clear that the success of our work is only due to the dedication and hard work of staff, trustees, volunteers and friends. The AET’s achievements would also not be possible without our wonderful patrons, funders and supporters. A huge thank you to all who helped organise this memorable occasion and all who attended! You can read Helena’s speech via https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/HMC-AET-10th-Birthday-report-2019.pdf and watch the drama performances via https://youtu.be/X08_QohdA3s ... read more
We are delighted that, thanks to the support of so many, we have now raised enough money to build the Pavilion in the Park (PiPs) – our new café, community space and office. PiPs will be located on the Great Field in Poundbury, Dorset – you can read all about it here: https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/pavilion-in-the-park/ Our work isn’t quite done yet as we need to find £20,000 for fixtures and fittings. If you can offer any help, either with materials or by offering your time, we would love to hear from you! All being well, the build will start in March 2020 and we hope to be open during the summer holidays... read more
Embargoed until midnight 10th June The Alcohol Education Trust is delighted to have received £10,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund during this, our 10th Anniversary year. This grant is to support the building of the Pavilion in the Park (PiP’s) in Poundbury. The project will help enable the development of a wonderful new community space and café situated on the great field and provide us with an office. The park itself will soon host a mile running track, parkour equipment for teenagers, an outside gym and will be planted with 1,000 trees making it a hub for local people across Dorchester, including children in the five schools close by. The cricket pavilion style building with a veranda will offer shelter, refreshments and public toilets to all those enjoying the park, with an outside ping pong table and picnic tables outside. It will also house a community space to host activities and holiday clubs for young people as well as a vital training space and office for the Trust. This will provide the ideal home for The Alcohol Education Trust, which works nationally helping 500,000 young people in 2,100 schools, youth and sports clubs, including over 50 across Dorset make safer, healthier choices, improving their resilience and life chances each year. Helena Conibear CEO and founder commented ‘Following our wonderful crowd funding campaign earlier this year which raised £22,000 for our project, thanks to the support of over 100 people on and off line with match funding from The Dorset Youth Opportunity Fund, and due to local groups and other grants we are getting ever closer to raising the capital amount... read more
In the March issue of the Education and Health Journal, Helena Conibear, CEO of the Alcohol Education Trust, gives an update on the vision of the charity and the developing objectives of the evidenced-based Talk About Alcohol Programme. In the past week, the House of Commons voted in favour of including PSHE as a ‘must teach’ subject by September 2020 with alcohol education becoming a formal part of Health Education. Further guidance in the form of new NICE guidelines on alcohol education in schools (currently out for consultation) is expected to provide a recommended framework of “a whole school universal approach, incorporating social norms and avoiding scare tactics or highlighting extremes of behaviour.” The Talk About Alcohol programme will help schools to deliver on these requirements. To read the report, click... read more
We’re thrilled to announce that The Alcohol Education Trust (AET) has established a Scottish office, located in Glasgow City Centre and kindly hosted by The Wise Group and so is now able to support schools across Scotland with its highly evidenced and award winning programme for young people ‘Talk About Alcohol’. Every secondary school is entitled to a free copy of the teacher workbook, which contains over 30 lesson plans for 11-18 year olds, games, activities and fact sheets, especially adapted for Scotland and fully supported online. For the last ten years, the AET has supported over 1000 schools, youth and sports clubs and ½ million children EACH year with its training, resources and regionally based experts free of charge – at a cost of under 50p a child. Our vision is to strengthen the effectiveness of our work in Scotland by establishing a local office with a dedicated trainer to support schools and youth organisations nationally. 2019 is the 10th Anniversary of the Alcohol Education Trust and the charity has been successful in securing grants from Foundation Scotland and others to enable us to offer our award winning and highly evidenced Talk about Alcohol schools programme to schools in Scotland free of charge, which you can view here: http://alcoholeducationtrust.org/download-teacher-workbook-scotland/ Helena Conibear CEO of The Alcohol Education Trust commented: “The AET is a charity dedicated to reducing alcohol related harm for under 18s across the UK, and currently we already work with 90 schools in Scotland. It was always our ambition to have a permanent base in Scotland and this will be led by our newly appointed Scotland Director... read more
Planning your scheme of PSHE for the year? Looking for interesting ways of reaching young people in informal settings? The www.talkaboutalcohol.com online learning zone is carefully built around changing social norms around alcohol and, through games, helps children subconsciously make wise decisions. The site features different ‘zones’ including a Fact Zone, Challenge Zone, Body Zone and a section entitled ‘Who do you Think you are?’ Featured areas Brave the Rave is a really fun (and rather addictive!) game which encourages young people to think about making sensible choices during a night out. Making wise choices such as food and water earn points but points are lost by choosing less wise options such as wine and beer. The game allows young people to learn about the choices they face on a night out and encourages them to pick wisely in a lively and engaging way! Fact or Fiction gives 10 statements about alcohol and young people then have to decide whether these are true or false. Once they have made their selection, further information about the statement is given. This a great way of pupils testing and increasing their knowledge on a variety of issues around drinking alcohol and its effects including the increase in risky behaviours. The www.talkaboutalcohol.com site is primarily aimed at Year 9 but has varying levels of activities suitable for Years 7 to 10 and is designed to appeal to young people in its look and feel. The development of the interactive and fun Learning Zone complements the highly evaluated Talk About Alcohol 100 page workbook of over 30 lessons and activities developed for teachers and community leaders to use... read more
We have recently launched an exciting all-new subscription area of our website, www.alcoholeducationtrust.org. The aim is to support anyone delivering alcohol education to 11-18 year olds who may not be specially trained or who has limited time or resources to prepare lessons. Each topic has a PowerPoint together with easy-to-use lesson plans and full links to all resources needed. By subscribing to the AET members area you will receive access to the highly evidenced Talk about Alcohol ready to use PowerPoints, implementation guidance and worksheets on topics such as alcohol and the law, alcohol and its effects social and physical, units and guidelines, staying safe and 16+. You can view a taster on the subscriptions page via: https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/subscriptions/ There are several options for subscribers including: • Annual individual subscription – £39.99 • Individual subscription for 3 years – £99 • Annual group subscription for academy chains/schools partnerships allowing access for up to 10 people – £250 Click here to learn more or subscribe:... read more
On the 20th June, The AET and Mentor hosted a conference at Liverpool John Moores University for all those working with young people, showcasing teaching methods, psychologies and evidence-based approaches that reduce children’s negative risk taking. Read the conference report with links to presentations... read more
The National Alcohol and Drugs Conference 2018 was held on 21st June 2018 at Liverpool John Moores University The welcome address was delivered by The Public Health Institute Director Mr Jim McVeigh. Keynote addresses by Rt Hon Nick Gibbs, Minister of State at DfE and Victoria Atkins, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State. PCC Amy Fletcher, Youth Officer for Cheshire Police Safer Schools partnership, spoke on school based projects targeting more vulnerable populations across Cheshire and on dealing with some of the problems faced regarding drugs and alcohol in schools. Dr John McAlaney, a principal academic in the Department of Psychology at Bournemouth University delivered a talk entitled ‘Are you Normal? (Mis) perceptions of alcohol and drug use in adolescents’ Dr David Regis, Research Manager for the Schools Health Education Unit in Exeter presented on trends in drug and alcohol use in young people and some connections. For all presentations and video clips of the keynote addresses, please visit http://alcoholeducationtrust.org/conference-presentations/ ... read more
Thanks to the support of the Herts Community Foundation, we are delighted to be able to offer our full Talk about Alcohol resource packs and training free of charge to schools across Hertfordshire. The award-winning resource packs include lesson plans, implementation advice, a DVD and pictorial rich sheets for less able students all indexed by subject and year group. Attendees will receive a full pack of resources worth £90 to take home (one per school). In partnership with Herts4Learning, we will be offering teacher training sessions and parent talks to schools in the county. The first Talk about Alcohol teacher training session will be held on Wednesday 6th June from 9.30 to 12.30 at Aspley Campus, Brindley Way, Hemel Hempstead HP3 9BF. This session will demonstrate best practice use of the resources and provide a range of activities for effective and enjoyable alcohol education. If you would like to book a place on this training or are a school in Hertfordshire and would like to see how we can support you, please contact... read more
