About the Project
Don’t Touch – Tell! is a specialist drug and alcohol education programme, designed specifically for primary age children in North Wales. Our experienced and skilled performers visit schools across the region to deliver effective messages for young children through a variety of mediums, instilling them with the confidence they need to keep themselves safe. The programme is tailored to each school, is age-appropriate, and is delivered sensitively and with inclusivity in mind.
Information for parents
Our team of performers – including magicians, ventriloquists, storytellers– draw on specialist expertise in their field to deliver an intervention which meets the needs of children, their teachers and the wider curriculum. Our current programme satisfies the requirements of the current National Curriculum for Wales and the six areas of learning. Each school has access to a comprehensive teacher resource pack to be used for future learning sessions, reiterating the key messages and encouraging further learning.
Typically, we deliver two shows to children during their years at primary school. Schools can contact us if they require further sessions, or in response to emerging situations locally.
The programme provides evidence-based drug and alcohol education sessions addressing:
- risks associated with handling discarded needles and paraphernalia
- dangers of taking medication that is not intended for them;
- dangers of household substances (cleaning products, etc.);
- how peer pressure works and instilling the confidence to say “No”;
- reasons why drugs and alcohol are harmful to young people;
- emerging topics including county lines, and recognising grooming techniques used to target children.
These topics:
- increase awareness of the dangers associated with drugs and alcohol;
- provide relevant and appropriate facts and information to help keep children safe;
- are delivered in a visual and interactive way to support effective learning and knowledge retention;
- empower children to make informed choices;
- support continued learning through teacher resource packs, encompassing all six areas of learning and experience (expressive arts; health and wellbeing; humanities; languages, literacy and communication; mathematics and numeracy; science and technology).
Don’t Touch – Tell! is approved and funded by the North Wales Area Planning Board on behalf of education authorities throughout North Wales. We work closely with Healthy Schools Coordinators, headteachers and teachers across the region to deliver our programme in schools. The programme has been delivered by Adferiad (previously known as CAIS for 20 years.
If you are concerned about your drug or alcohol use, or the drug or alcohol use of a family member, you can contact info@adferiad.org. If you require further information about support services in your area contact DAN 24/7
Resources for teachers
Our teaching resources are fun for children and are structured to meet the requirements of the curriculum – including the new Curriculum for Wales 2022. You can return to this collection of worksheets as often as you like, reinforcing the important messages delivered during the Don’t Touch – Tell! performance.
The worksheets are available in English and in Welsh. Simply download the master files, enter the password which was sent with your teacher resource pack and photocopy for use by the children in your school.
If you have any difficulty accessing these resources, please email us or call using the contact details above
➡️ Click here to access the Don’t Touch – Tell! teacher resources
Safeguarding and data
All our performers are fully DBS-checked, and operate under a rigorous safeguarding procedure. Performers will only attend a school under supervision and will not be left alone with a child or group of children. No personal data about children will be held by performers or by the service, unless a child makes a disclosure which may raise a safeguarding concern. Such disclosures will be logged in line with our safeguarding procedures, and recorded in line with policies in place at the school. Schools will be asked to complete a short, anonymous quiz both before and after our performances – enabling us to measure how Don’t Touch – Tell! has helped children increase their awareness of the harms associated with drug and alcohol use. This information will be used to measure outcomes, support our performance reporting, and tailor our service appropriately. We may share the results of this research with individual schools, but will only do so on an anonymised basis. Anonymised results will only be published, or otherwise made widely available, once aggregated with results from other schools in the same local authority area.
Eligibility / Referral Process
Who is eligible?
All children in mainstream primary schools, special needs schools and home educated children.
How to Apply
Schools are contacted by our performers when they are due to receive shows on a three-year cycle.
Exclusions
The project does not include public schools