Collective Letter from West Sussex Schools Regarding Drugs
October 2019 Dear Parent and Carers This is a collective letter from the headteachers and principals of all of the schools and academies listed below. It concerns the access to, and potential use of, illegal drugs in the local area and seeks your support to work alongside Police, Social Services and schools to tackle this menace together, thus keeping all of our children safe. We have all become increasingly concerned about the amount of drug-related incidents that are being reported to us by our students. Our approach, first and foremost, is to address this through education by providing a strong and wide-ranging Personal Development curriculum. We are, of course, extremely vigilant in schools and it remains rare for drugs to be in the possession of students at school. However, when such incidents do occur they are very serious breaches of our behaviour policies and always merit serious sanctions when investigations have revealed concerns to be valid. Such sanctions range from fixed-term exclusion to permanent exclusion depending on the severity of the issue in question and the policies of the individual schools. In view of this, we have collectively agreed to draw your attention to the risks that direct or indirect involvement in drug-related activity can have for your child, and the potential repercussions that follow such involvement. We are very proud of our young people and we take our roles in keeping them safe very seriously. We know that you do too and that is why we request your support in discussing the contents of this letter with your child.
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