Social Norms in Schools

That the Parliament congratulates the New South Wales Department of Education in Australia for employing a consultant to develop alcohol-focused educational resources/activities for teachers of secondary students with the aim of providing interesting and challenging educational activities regarding alcohol and alcohol use that go beyond the common risk and fact-based approaches, cut across different areas of the curriculum and assist students to question their taken-for-granted assumptions about others’ alcohol-related behaviours and attitudes; notes that the social norms approach to substance abuse has been proven to be highly effective in young people across the world and that the Australian project is likely to build on the successful European Drug Addiction Prevention Trial, a significant component of which is social norms-based, and calls on the Scottish Government to consider implementing similar projects in Scottish schools.