DARTA is regularly contracted by school communities from across the country to deliver presentations on a range of alcohol and other drug issues. To ensure best practice is followed, DARTA will not present to just students. Instead, presentations must be provided across the school community targeting the following three groups to ensure that all receive the same information:
- Students (Year 10s and above)
- Teachers
- Parents
DARTA is committed to best practice drug education and all workshops are aligned with the new Australian Health and Physical Education Curriculum. Year 9 is an important developmental stage and this cohort responds positively to interactive and group-based learning. This is best achieved by classroom teachers, however there are schools that believe they need more support in this complex area. In response to this, we have developed a separate Year 9 workshop that ‘value adds’ to existing school programs, whilst providing a lead in to the DARTA Year 10-12 package.
A series of sequential school presentations have been developed for students in Years 10, 11 and 12 and it is recommended that the three talks are delivered over the final three years of a student’s school career. DARTA also offers a full or half-day workshop for Year 10s, which, together with a series of group activities, incorporates the presentation developed for that year group.
Teacher presentations can be tailored to suit the audience and the time available. Sessions can be delivered during ‘pupil-free days’ and last for a number of hours, or be fitted into a staff meeting time-slot.
The delivery of high quality and accurate alcohol and other drug information to parents is essential if a community-based approach to drug education is to be adopted by the school. DARTA parent information sessions cover a range of issues, including resilience and the importance of connectedness. They accentuate positive norms and aim to empower parents in this controversial area.
To assist schools we have also provided organisers with information to assist in the preparation for, and promotion of a visit, as well materials and resources to support the presentations. These can be found at the following links:
