NEWS FOCUS SecEd: On Your Side


The child victims of our drugs problem


Between 250,000 and 300,000 UK children are estimated to be exposed to drug abuse in the home. Some 60,000 Scottish under-16s live with a substance- abusing adult. There is evidence of parental substance abuse in 57 per cent of social work case reviews of child abuse and 25 per cent of children on child protection registers are registered because of parental drug or alcohol abuse. In Scotland in the late 1980s there were 9,000 known drug addicts. Today there are 33,000. These figures were revealed at a recent Glasgow University conference on the impact of substance misuse on children’s educational attainment. Joyce Nicholson, of Glasgow University, said that to


Alex


Wood Guest


Editorial


tackle the issues of drug and substance abuse in Scotland we also require to tackle poverty and inequality which are fundamentally linked to drug abuse. Securing the educational attainment of children from drug abusing families however, requires first and foremost safeguarding their welfare. Such children are characterised by neglect, poor attendance, lateness, undone homework, concentration problems, anxiety, attention- seeking behaviour and bullying, both as perpetrators and as victims. The harm they are suffering is frequently, however, hidden – indeed often self-hidden. To safeguard children’s welfare, teachers require to be trained to spot the symptoms. Glasgow GP, Dr Douglas Robertson, advocated the


maintenance of the methadone programme. In Glasgow between 1986 and 1994, seven young adults died from drug overdoses. Since the introduction of the methadone programme in 1994 there have been no such deaths. He also suggested that the methadone programme gave GPs a control over addicts which made practical an insistence that addicts’ children were brought for regular medical checks and that family addiction clinics could operate. Sarah Wilson, of Stirling University, described the reality of


family life for such children. They faced regular and recurring crises in households characterised by angry exchanges and continual shouting. Parents often seek to hide their drug use from their children, but such children, especially older children, frequently understand the reality only too clearly and attempt to protect younger siblings from it. As a result such older siblings often find it hard to prioritise their own needs as they assume the carer role. Their aims are normality, safety and security, occasionally


found in extended family networks. In school what is often required above all else is a place of quiet safety and a trustworthy, supportive, listening adult. School transitions, especially from primary to secondary, but also from school- to-school, can be particularly difficult since such moves often lead to the loss of trusted individuals and painfully created relationships. Schools require to link with wider family networks to help sustain the child through these traumatic years. Fraser Shaw, a consultant psychiatrist, spelled out that


impaired patterns of parental care and unpredictable routines lead to early behavioural and emotional problems in children and increased risk of emotional and physical neglect and of abuse. These children suffered repeated patterns of separation and shouldered inappropriately high responsibilities. Their subsequent difficulties in developing good, supportive peer relationships meant that they were more likely to become involved in criminal activity and to misuse substances themselves. Clinical psychologist, Patricia Mooney, advocated priority


strategies to support such families and such children – parent skills training for the adults, play therapy to compensate for the lack of nurturing for the younger children, and social support, the teaching of coping skills and the provision of a specific trusting adult for all such children. The conference offered little on how to raise the educational


attainment of children in substance-misusing families. That may be partly because of the total dearth of practising teachers among the speakers. It did however describe the problems and the issues in gripping and graphic terms.


• This guest editorial has been written by Alex Wood, headteacher of Wester Hailes Education Centre in Edinburgh. Pete Henshaw is publisher and editor of SecEd. Email editor@sec-ed.co.uk, visit www.sec-ed.co.uk and follow us at www.twitter.com/SecEd_Education


6 SecEd Writing wrongs


SecEd is supporting the Amnesty International UK Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year competition this year, which offers curriculum-linked resources for teachers and a golden opportunity to budding young writers and journalists. Mike Blakemore explains


THIS yEAR will see Amnesty International UK host its 20th Media Awards. The event celebrates the very best of human rights journalism with 11 awards covering the full range of media outlets – from national newspapers to websites, and from magazines to radio documentaries. Journalists are often at the


forefront of defending human rights. It is their dedication and resolve that can help uncover unfolding atrocities. Atrocities that some governments would prefer to be kept out of the public eye. In recent months, stories about


Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Burma have been firmly in the public eye. And all because of the hard work and dedication of brave journalists. However, the path to human


rights journalism does not begin from the moment an individual becomes a professional reporter. And that is a point Amnesty International has been keen to recognise. Last year, we piloted two


competitions – one for upper primary school and another for lower secondary – to highlight the excellent work teachers and pupils produce in the field of human rights. Far too often the views and


opinions of young people are not celebrated – and yet they can be among the most thought-provoking and creative. The winning Upper Primary


School entry this year came from Florence Potkins, a pupil at Drayton Park School in London. She wrote the following about yarl’s Wood Detention Centre inyorkshire: “She wakes, as eight men in


dark uniforms barge through her front door. Her mother screams, but she stays riveted to the spot, shaking uncontrollably. The men hand her mother some paper and ignore her screams of outrage. The men search the house. It is turned upside down. Abruptly, they are both frogmarched to the back of a van. They don’t know where they are going or how long they will remain in this dark, enclosed space.


This is not Nazi Germany; this is September 2009 in Leeds.” After the success of the


competition, this year we have launched three new awards – one for upper secondary, one for 6th form and the third for students at UK universities. The first two are being run in


conjunction with SecEd, and all three are aimed at encouraging Britain’s young people to become the human rights journalists of tomorrow. The Upper Secondary category


is open for years 10 and 11 in England and Wales, years 11 and 12 in Northern Ireland, and S3 and S4 in Scotland. The 6th Form category is for


years 12 and 13 in England and Wales, years 13 and 14 in Northern Ireland, and S5 and S6 in Scotland. In each of these categories


pupils are asked to write their own report of up to 500 words. The competition officially


opened on Tuesday (January 4). Amnesty International has


produced some brief teaching materials to help teachers introduce the competition to pupils in lessons. The materials are available now. Pupils can write about their


own experiences or their take on an existing human rights issue. Some of the issues pupils could


write about include bullying, refugees, world poverty, child labour, a profile of a human rights campaigner, freedom of expression, the death penalty, and the human rights record of the governments of countries like China, Iran or Burma. The competition is also designed


to fit neatly into the four nations' various curricula and subject links are available from Amnesty International UK. The top three in each category will


be invited to an awards ceremony at Amnesty’s headquarters, along with their teacher and up to three of their classmates, on May 19. A parent or guardian will also have to accompany them. The winner of both categories will also be given a week’s work experience with SecEd.


Amnesty’s first Media Awards


were held in 1992 – before most of the entrants for the new competition would have been born. One of the first regional journalist


winners was Ian Cobain who won for a piece on the manufacture of leg irons in Birmingham in the Express & Star. Last year he won the national newspaper category for a piece on Britain’s complicity in torture in Pakistan in the Guardian. Two decades from now, who


knows what accolades the winners of the 2011 young Human Rights Reporter of the year competition will have earned.


SecEd


• Mike Blakemore is media director of Amnesty International UK.


Further information


For more on the competition, visit http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content. asp?CategoryID=11828 and to receive the teaching resources, email student@amnesty.org.uk or visit www.amnesty.org.uk/ education


Powerful: Florence Potkins won the 2010 Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year with her piece about Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre in Yorkshire


www.sec-ed.com


Global issues: A Frontier Corps soldier stands guard as school girls fleeing the fighting between government forces and the Taleban in north west Pakistan reach Timergara in April, 2009. This is one example of a global issue that could be used as part of citizenship teaching around the Amnesty competition


SecEd • January 6 2011


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