Quit Victoria has released a range of free Victorian curriculum-aligned vaping education resources to teach young people about the harms of vaping.
Primary school teachers and health educators of grades 5 and 6 students will now have access to the evidence-based vaping education material, which was developed in partnership with Monash University, VicHealth, Victorian Department of Education, Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER) Victoria and Independent Schools Victoria.
Data from a 2022-23 ASSAD survey showed 13 per cent of 12–15 year old students reported vaping in the past month, demonstrating the need for preventative education at a younger age.
The new material is titled Seeing Through the Haze and was developed specifically for late primary-years students.
Quit director Rachael Andersen said the new resources are designed to equip younger students with critical thinking skills as they approach early secondary school years.
“Our hope is to prevent nicotine addiction in children by giving them the knowledge on why and how to say no to vaping,” Ms Andersen said.
“Beginning this type of preventative education in primary school is crucial at a time when kids are curious and starting to be more heavily influenced by social media messages. And aligning these resources to the new Victorian curriculum will allow for easy integration by teachers and health educators,” she said.
Acting Health Minister Ingrid Stitt said that children in grades 5 and 6 are at a crucial stage of learning and development.
“Schools are rightly concerned about the impacts of vaping on the physical and mental health of their students and are keen to be part of a broader, community-wide solution,” Ms Stitt said.
“By educating Victorian kids from an early age about the dangers of vaping, we can help them make healthy choices and avoid the peer pressure often experienced during secondary school,” she said.
The resources are broken into activities across several modules, aimed at helping students get the facts on vaping, to understand how social factors contribute to vaping, and to develop vaping education campaigns to make change.
Seeing Through the Haze education resources are now available for free for years 5–6, 7–8, and 9–10.
Details: vapingfacts.org.au/for-schools-and-health-educators
