Health & Wellbeing in Integrated Learning Communities

I was lucky to be invited to a meeting with LTS and the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, SCDEA last week to establish a new way forward in looking at substance misuse prevention and education work in schools.

An article in The Scotsman recently highlighted it and I’d be really keen to follow this up in Highland.

Did you know that..

• Colombia is the most biodiverse country per square kilometer in the world.
• In twenty years, 2.2 million hectares of tropical forest have been cut down to grow coca.
• Contamination of the fragile eco-system due to cocaine production pollutes rivers, forests and leads to the possible extinction of wildlife, including a rare Hummingbird, discovered only 3 years ago.

Cross-curricular approaches are something we have always hoped for as health education professionals, rather than having subjects such as this ’fly-in’ helicopter fashion. A fresh way of looking at things in a cross-curricular fashion has been made a little bit easier by the outstanding partnership work between SCDEA and the Colombian Government. Take a wee minute to look at their Shared Responsibility website to understand more of the affects on their environment and population of cocaine production.

I think it could tap in to a new approach to substance misuse prevention and education. One thing to think about is the way that as a nation we think more about buying organic food, impact to fair trade, exploitation of both men and women, recycling, air miles of the food and products we consume.

So why is it that an eco-conscious person (possibly celebrity) that dabbles in cocaine cannot give any consideration to the devastation of human life and to the planet in this aspect of their lives? Surely, if we are aiming to acheive a culture shift in the way drugs are viewed then this could be a way forward?

Check out the website and let me or my colleague Louise Anusas at LTS know if you would be interested in looking at cross-curricular approach in your authority or school. It could tie in brilliantly with Curriculum for Excellence Health and Wellbeing experiences and outcomes, just a few of mine and Louise’s thoughts..It could also help to deliver:

• Expressive arts - Use drama to promote learning. Art and imagery.
• Health and Wellbeing - All aspects
• Languages - Study of words for different substances and development of street words
• Literacy and English - Debate of legalisation issues.
• Mathematics - Analyse SALSUS data
• Science - Physical health issues, compounds.
• Social Studies - Climate change, Ecological Impact of drug production and trafficking, history of wars.
• Technologies - Internet research, Google Earth, gaming technology, social networking.
• RME - Examine values related to drugs

Let me know what you think…

After a brief spell in Glasgow Royal Infirmary for eating some rather suspect salad (trust me to choose the unhealthy healthy option) I’m pleased to be back! Before my little (ahem) accident, I was priviledged to attend an event in Perth for all the authorities in Scotland trialling the eagerly anticipated Curriculum for Excellence Health and Wellbeing Outcomes.

Highland amongst 5 other LAs will be trialling the Es and Os in 10 schools, a mixture of Primary and Secondary schools working either across an ASG or independently. I must say here that everyone working in all Highland school communities are being encouraged to engage with the outcomes in order to provide valuable feedback to LTS. So I guess what we have developing is 4 different levels of consultation / engagement.

• Official trialling schools using specific trialling questionnaires
• Unofficial trialling schools using generic questionnaires
• A Highland strategic response from our Highland integrated childrens services
• All professionals individually being encouraged to provide feedback via the LTS online feedback

I was bowled over at Teachmeet (Northern Edition) by the encouraging excellent use of a wiki to support collaborative learning by students studying Shakespeare’s Midsummer Nights Dream. I’ve now created a wiki using wikispaces to start the ball rolling for collating up to date information for the official trialling schools. There is an LTS online trialling community site set up, which is going to be really useful to see how things are developing across Scotland, but having our own Highland one to collaborate in the first instance as we start this journey is a good step. Please feel free to view as it develops

I’m really keen to hear from others how they have encouraged colleagues to use their wikis as I guess it will be new to some folk, how do you encourage others to become acquainted with all these new and wonderful ways of working?. Please do let me know your thoughts! I think a good little clip to explain how they work is the one developed by Commoncraft.