This briefing paper is aimed at informing teachers and practitioners involved in the delivery of alcohol and drug education and prevention.

Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered devices designed to deliver nicotine in a toxin-free vapour. These devices generally tend to simulate tobacco smoking.

An effective programme of alcohol and drug education needs to be tailored to meet pupils’ requirements and priorities, meaning that both pupils’ needs and learning processes must be regularly assessed.

The growing popularity of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) is causing wide confusion among the public. This briefing paper is intended to provide basic information for teachers and practitioners willing to include these substances in their alcohol and drug education programme.

When delivering alcohol and drug education in multicultural settings including classrooms, teachers will need to tackle sensitive issues. Not all pupils are comfortable discussing certain topics, and some parents are reluctant to allow their children to explore certain themes.

The World Health Organisation, amongst others, recognises that adolescent men have a vital yet neglected role in reducing teenage pregnancies and that there is a pressing need for educational interventions designed especially for them.

This briefing paper sets out what schools need to know about caffeine use by children and young people. It includes case studies of two schools (primary and secondary) who found that caffeine and energy drinks use was a problem for their pupils and how they addressed this.

When schools and teachers think about ‘drugs’, they may often initially focus on incidents on school grounds and how to respond to them, students at risk of using substances, or perhaps about drug education.

This two-sided briefing paper lists the most important questions that governors should be asking head teachers. 1) How does our PSHE provision match up to Ofsted’s standards? 2) How does our curriculum prepare pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life?

This reports’objective is to assess the work directed at reducing unplanned teenage pregnancy and to look at what else can be done to support young people at risk of pregnancy or who have a child very young.