Term 2 2018 Teachers
Positive Choices Issue #12: Keeping you up-to-date with evidence-based drug prevention.
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The aim of this e-newsletter is to provide our subscribers with information about new research findings and drug prevention resources, and to share relevant news, conferences and events.
Thank you for subscribing to the Positive Choices newsletter, and welcome to our Term 2 issue for 2018.
In light of the launch of the new NSW PDHPE syllabus, this issue will focus on how school staff from all states can use Positive Choices to find curriculum-aligned resources. We are also pleased to announce: 
 Please help us spread the word by forwarding this newsletter to colleagues in your school or networks, and encourage them to subscribe at www.positivechoices.org.au. 
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How Positive Choices can help school staff find Australian curriculum-aligned resources.
If you are a teacher in NSW, we're sure you have not missed the announcement of the new NSW PDHPE syllabus! We have found the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA)'s Guide to the New Years 7-10 PDHPE Syllabus document very helpful in understanding the key changes. Some are summarised in this newsletter issue. 


What has changed?
The new syllabus is based on five propositions:

1. Focus on educative purposes
2. Take a strengths-based approach
3. Value movement
4. Develop health literacy
5. Include a critical inquiry approach

Content is organised into three strands:
  • Health, Wellbeing and Relationships
  • Movement, skill and performance
  • Healthy, safe and active lifestyles
Australian curriculum content is identified by codes included in content subheadings.

What is the plan for implementation?

2018: Continue teaching the current PDHPE syllabus for 7-10. Familiarise yourself with the new syllabus.
2019: Implement the new PDHPE syllabus for Years 7 and 9.
2020: Implement the new syllabus for Years 7-10.
Positive Choices can help to make finding curriculum-aligned resources easier.

Did you know that Positive Choices has an Australian National curriculum filter?
This lets you search for resources that align to a particular curriculum item. Curriculum items are organised by Year level, ranging from Foundation/Kindergarten to Year 10, so if you're not looking for a specific item you can select all for your year group.
To use the filter, go to the teacher landing page and click into the type of resource (e.g. videos, factsheets) you would like to find. Then, on the left-hand side of the page, click the drop down menu "Links to Australia Curriculum".
Hover your cursor over the curriculum item for a description of the content, or click it to be taken to the Australian curriculum website.
Try it for your lesson planning today!
In case you missed it...
The latest webinar in the Positive Choices webinar series is now available on demand, so you can watch it anytime that's convenient for you. Check out our other webinars on demand here.
Effective Drug Prevention for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth
Dr Mieke Snijder & Ms Briana Lees
Available on demand on Positive Choices.
NEW RESOURCES

Recently added: two new educational games

Two new games have recently been added to the Positive Choices portal.
The first is an interactive quiz that tests users knowledge on a range of drug and alcohol-related questions. Faster responses score highly, but three incorrect answers and you're out!
The second educational game is a standard drink pouring test. Users choose from a range of different serving glasses, different types of alcohol and different strengths. They then need to pour one standard drink.

Take the quiz.
Use the standard drink pouring tool.
LATEST NEWS AND EVENTS
Positive Choices is pleased to announce the winner of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Story-telling competition! Drum roll please...
Congratulations to:

Emily (14 years old from TAS) - first prize (receives a MacBook Air)
Emily wrote a beautiful story about the cultural strengths of her community, how the elders teach the young people about cultural practices, such as making shell necklaces and that she enjoys participating in this. Emily’s story was about how she is looking forward to sharing her culture with younger people when she is older.

Jacob (14 years old from NSW) - runner-up (receives $500 JB HI FI voucher)
Jacob shared how he looks up to Ricky, an Aboriginal Year 12 student in his school who is strong in culture and teaches other students about Aboriginal culture. Jacob’s story was about how he wants to be like Ricky when he is in Year 12.

Clair (13 years old from NSW) - runner-up (receives $500 JB HI FI voucher)
Clair’s story was about the positive choices she made in choosing schools. Because of a hard time at her current school, she wanted to move school. She made the positive choice to discuss this plan with her mother who was supportive of her. But in the end a kind act from her friends helped her make the positive choice to stay at her current school, with all her friends.
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Click Read More to view their Positive Stories. You will not regret it!


Emily - 14 years old
Flinders Island is my home, and has been the home to many Aboriginal people for thousands of years. I am directly from the pair-a-beena people and Manalargenna and his people as well. The connection of me and Aboriginal culture and history is why I love where I live. My story of my family’s connection to the last great Tasmanian chief, Manalargenna, is just one of them. I love living on Flinders Island because it is filled with so many amazing activities to do, no matter what your age is. Our community to me is one of the nicest communities to be in; if you need help they will help you.

Flinders Island is just one of the 52 Islands in the Furneaux group.

One of the traditions of the women from the pair-a-beena people is making shell necklaces. Shell necklace making is very close to my heart. Shell necklace making has been passed down from many of my Elders, which makes me proud to be an Aboriginal woman. My Aunty has passed on the tradition to me. Some people misunderstand what shell necklace making really is. It is definitely not just something that you rush and definitely not just shells on string. It is a tradition that Aboriginal
women wear and cherish. There are many patterns that have been passed down from my Elders and many different shells to remember. Some are black crows, maireeners, rice shells and gulls. Making shell necklaces takes time so you need to be patient and the end result is beautiful.

On Flinders Island we do not have cinemas, malls and big activities, but we teenagers entertain ourselves. We have many things to do such as pony club, gun club, karate and much more. My big brother has recently left and gone away to school. When he went, I was gifted with some amazing shells. My good decision was to start making shell necklaces and it has connected me to thousands of years of my history. This has made me feel that I belong and very happy that some day I will pass this tradition down to my family.

Jacob - 14 years old

A Person I Look Up To.
Let me tell you about Ricky, my hero at school. The reason Ricky is my hero is because he is proud to be Aboriginal and I look up to him for advice about my culture. He is in Year 12, his Country is Kamilaroi. I am in Year 9, and my Country is Darug. Ricky is a great leader. Last year, he taught the Year 8 boys at my school the Aboriginal War Cry. He was really good at it, and also really good at teaching it. The whole school was so proud of him. The teachers and the kids and everyone. He was really proud and excited to teach us and was offended when some of the boys were mucking around and mocking it. He taught them how to be respectful of Aboriginal people, and how important our culture is, not just to us, but also to them. They don’t mock it any more.

Ricky taught me that the War Cry was important because it is a big cultural dance. It’s a huge thing for Aboriginal people to show off their pride andculture, because people have told us to not be proud for so long. Iit was amazing to watch non-Indigenous people learn it because it shows that we are proud to be Aboriginals, and they are proud to share it with us.

He also does the Acknowledgement of Country at my school at assemblies and on special occasions, which I personally think is very brave, because you have to get up on stage in front of the whole school. Even some teachers are scared of doing that. Kids used to be mean to him about it, but he still did it because he knew that it was important to teach people about us. After he taught the War Cry, kids are more respectful. Ricky wants to train me to do it, and hopefully this year, I’ll get a chance. Our school is on Darug land, and I am Darug, so I will get to do a proper Welcome to Country, not just an acknowledgement. I’m not quite ready yet, though. I am hoping that I can be trained and do it at Ricky’s graduation to show him how much he has taught me and how proud I am. I think that would be pretty good.

Ricky is an all-round awesome person. He is kind to me and everyone else at our school. He is a laid back, cool guy who loves being an Aboriginal and he is respectful towards all people, including his elders and his culture. I hope that one day, I can be just like him.

Clair - 13 years old

We all make bad choices, mistakes and heaven knows I make mistakes all the time with drawing, writing and even talking to new people but that’s beside the point this is about the time I made a positive choice in my life....

Actually earlier this year I was considering changing schools, I was considering this because all of last year I was often being bullied by people in my class for just about everything like answering the teachers questions wrong or trying to be myself and talking to my friends and girls would snicker and laugh as they talked about me, behind my back and this year really didn’t look like it was going to get better at all for me so that’s why I wanted to change schools.

The worst thing was the fact that I knew that I wanted to change schools after the first day of Year 8. That day started with me being put in a class that not only is the single handedly the most loud and obnoxious class in my year but I had none of my friends in my class and I don’t actually know anyone else in my class. School was on a Wednesday so I had to do sport in a school dress and while playing a game of netball I went to pick the ball up of the ground and my school dress ripped halfway down the side under my arm so I had to get spare clothes from the school and I had to return them after I washed them at home but as usual I was being made fun of by the other girls who saw it happen and I was really really embarrassed by this so I kept my head down and kept quiet until the end of the day.

Finally I got home after a very very noisy bus trip and I walked inside looking for my mum and I had found her out the back just finishing a conversation with someone on the phone and she greeted me with the warmest greeting a mother could give and she smiled at me and at that exact moment I burst into tears right in front of her nearly about to fall to my knees she came over to me and gave me a big hug and asked what happened. So I told her the whole story still wiping away tears as I relive the day as I speak.

Later that evening my mum called me from out the back on the veranda to talk to her at first I wasn’t sure what it was about but then we started chatting and my mum asked me if I wanted to change schools, I said yes and my mum said to me " I want you to spend at least 1 week there before we enroll you just so you’re really sure about this."

Mum and I were getting ready to enroll me to my big brothers school and I went to school for about a day before I had to take the day off to see the principals of both schools but luckily enrollment day wasn’t until Thursday so I took Tuesday off by mistake. So instead I went school supply shopping with my parents and I was thinking and thinking about my friends and the pros and cons of changing schools.

A longtime friend from school was sad to hear that I was deciding to move schools so he decided to get a large group of my friends to write on a piece of paper that they would be very sad to see me leave my high school. I was shocked and overjoyed that someone would take the time and effort to do this for me, so Wednesday 31st January, I had to decide whether I would stay or I leave and I walked out to talk to my mum and I took a deep breath and told her “I’M STAYING!”

I felt pretty sure that I was making the right decision.

Come the following Friday I was catching the bus to school and got off at school and walked into school to tell my friends the great news and since that day I have been going to my high school ever since and I have never been happier.


Thank you to our three judges, Sam, Rachael and Simon. These wonderful judges were incredibly impressed by all the entries and genuinely wanted to reward everyone who submitted. There was an overwhelming response and it was a joy to see all the positive stories. You are all winners! Everyone who submitted a complete entry will receive a goodie bag from Positive Choices.

The positive stories will be published on the Positive Choices website. 

Thank you to those subscribers who helped by passing on the competition details to their students.
Above: Emily's "Stringing Culture" acrylic on watercolour paper artwork.

The Alcohol and Drug Foundation (ADF) is developing a series of toolkits to guide Local Drug Action Teams (LDATs) in the delivery of their projects.

LDATs are encouraged to consider these toolkits when developing their Community Action Plan, and use the evidence-informed approaches outlined in these toolkits to plan, deliver and evaluate their projects.

These resources are open to anyone, not just LDATs, and community members are encouraged to take a look.
The ADF has put together a series of accompanying webinars, which can be accessed for free by anyone here. Once the live time has passed, the webinars can be accessed within the relevant modules on demand here.
 

The webinars will cover the following topics:

  1. Providing peer support
  2. Mentoring
  3. Positive parenting for early childhood
  4. Education in schools
  5. Alcohol and pregnancy.
New mobile app from Cracks in the Ice

Access trusted, evidence-based information about crystal methamphetamine (ice) for the Australian community via the new Cracks in the Ice app. The app has targeted resources for health professionals, schools, community groups, family members and friends of someone using ice. Download it today and see for yourself!
Download from iTunes.
Download from Google Play.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Listen to the Positive Choices team present, or catch up with us at our booth/display, at these upcoming events.
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