Page 4931 - Week 13 - Thursday, 28 November 2019
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and harm minimisation education to people referred by ACT Policing through the Illicit Drug Diversion (IDD) program.
The IDD case managers have also attended Canberra College and Hawker College to provide group education to Year 11 and 12 students.
Drug Education in the Australian Curriculum
All ACT schools implement the Australian Curriculum. The Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education (F–10) aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to enable students to access, evaluate and synthesise information to take positive action to protect, enhance and advocate for their own and others’ health, wellbeing and safety across their lifespan.
In the Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education alcohol and drug issues are taught explicitly in the ‘Personal, social and community health’ strand and within their own focus area from kindergarten to year 10.
The ‘Alcohol and other drugs’ focus area addresses a range of drugs, including prescription drugs, bush and alternative medicines, energy drinks, caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs and performance-enhancing drugs.
The content in the ‘Alcohol and other drugs’ area supports students to explore the impact drugs can have on individuals, families and communities. It is expected that all students at appropriate intervals across the continuum of learning from Foundation to Year 10 will learn about the following:
• safe use of medicines;
• alternatives to taking medicines;
• the effect of drugs on the body (including energy drinks and caffeine);
• factors that influence the use of different types of drugs;
• impact of drug use on individuals and communities;
• making informed decisions about drugs (assertive behaviour, peer influence, harm minimisation, awareness of blood-borne viruses); and
• performance-enhancing drugs in sport.
In Kindergarten to year 2 the content does not cover drugs other than medicines.
To support the delivery of the Australian Curriculum, teachers access a range of resources and support agencies that provide teachers information to support alcohol and drug education in ACT schools. For example, Life Education, Australian Government Department of Education and Training’s Student Wellbeing Hub, Constable Kenny Koala and ACT Road Ready program.
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1 2016 National Drug Strategy Household Survey
2 ACT specific data sourced from AODTS NMDS ACT supplementary report 2017-18 published by the AIHW July 2019
3 Methamphetamine use and related harms in NSW: Surveillance report to December 2018, NSW Ministry of Health
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