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Bryan Slater Director of Education |
Distribution |
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Primary Schools Middle Schools High Schools Pupil Referral
Units Special Schools Colleges of Further
Education |
The
attached document is provided for your information:
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INFORMATION |
Title
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DRUGS GUIDANCE FOR
SCHOOLS |
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Summary of contents |
New DfES guidance
document will be sent to schools 9th March 2004. This letter outlines: 1.
Summary of
key messages 2.
Action
points for schools 3.
Implementation
of the new guidance |
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Associated documents |
Drugs: Guidance for
schools DfES/0092/2004 |
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Date |
9th
March 2004 |
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Effective from |
Immediate effect |
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LEA Contact |
Barry Gibson |
( |
01603 433276 |
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E-mail address |
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Norfolk Self Review reference |
2. How effective is the school in developing pupils’ attitudes, values and personal development?
5. How well does the school care for
its pupils? 6. How well does the school work in
partnership with parents? 7. How well is the school led and managed? |
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Document reference |
MI 62-04 |
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Director's Office Education Department County Hall Martineau Lane Norwich |
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Director of Education: Bryan Slater |
Norfolk NR1 2DL |
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Tel: 01603 222146 |
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Fax: 01603 222481 |
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Minicom: 01603 223833 |
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Please ask for: |
Mr Barry Gibson |
Your ref: |
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Contact Number: |
01603 433276 |
My ref: |
BCS/BG |
9th March 2004
To: All Schools/PRUs/Colleges
of Education
Dear Colleagues,
Re: Drugs: Guidance for schools (DfES/0092/2004)
New guidance, contained in the above-named document, is due to be sent to all schools (and Pupil Referral Units) on 9th March 2004. This is an extensive document but the guidance may be outlined as follows:
Summary of key
messages:
- All schools to have a drug policy
- All schools to have drug education
- Schools need an agreed response to
drugs
- All staff should receive training and
understand their role
Actions points for
schools:
- Review existing drug education provision
- Review school drug policy
- Consider the needs of vulnerable young
people
- Consider staff training needs
Implementation of new
guidance:
- Good practice principles need to be
implemented
- Whole school community needs a shared
understanding
- Local support (the LEA School Drugs
Adviser, Barry Gibson, will write to you soon with details of briefing
sessions for head teachers)
You will be aware that the issue of drug testing in schools has been widely discussed in the media (as well as “sniffer dogs”, which I wrote to you about on 12th July 2003, reference MI 152/03): this is covered in section 4.10.2 and Appendix 10 of the new guidance document.
In spite of some media reports that head teachers would be “urged” or “encouraged” to deploy such tactics, the actual guidance urges great caution and the Home Office would expect this only to be used in secondary schools where there is evidence of a “serious drug problem”.
Such tactics would only be appropriate after “full consultation with the school community”. This, and other related issues, will be dealt with at the upcoming briefings and I would, therefore, advise any head teachers who have queries to discuss them there. Certainly, I would regard it as good practice that even consideration of such tactics would be discussed with the LEA School Drugs Adviser at an early stage.
If you have any queries in advance of the briefing sessions, please contact Barry Gibson (01603 433276).
Yours sincerely,
DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION