DRED UK Presentations

Date: Friday 26 September 2008

On the Friday afternoon before the exeat weekend, nearly all of the Senior School staff faced an afternoon of 'Inset' - in service training - on the topic of 'Raising Classroom Achievement'. At the same time the whole of the pupil body were freed from normal Friday Activities in order to listen to, and take heed of, the advice given by Mr Barry Evans, one of the directors of DRED UK, a company dedicated to raising drug awareness amongst children of secondary school age.

There were two separate, and quite different presentations during the afternoon, and both hit home hard the specific educational messages which all teenagers need to take on board when considering experimenting with both legal and illegal drugs - particularly at a time when there is serious thought being given to the reclassification of Ecstasy, and cannabis has been upgraded to a Class B drug.

Mr Evans, with his pacey, punchy, and utterly sincere delivery held both groups almost captivated with the welter of information about issues as varied as caffeine-addiction from too many 'Red Bulls' to the reality of the effects of driving under the influence of drugs rather than alcohol. His interaction with members of both groups - Jamie Tutt, Daniel Gladwin, et al - made the whole afternoon personal.

The sessions were part of St Edmund's annual school lectures on health-related issues; it was a pity that the evening session for parents had to be cancelled, given minimal response to the invitation to attend. Mr Evans has pledged to return to talk to a bigger audience in the future: let me know if you would like to come to a talk later in the year.