Whangarei high schools recognised for smokefree achievements

Five Whangarei high schools have been rewarded for their achievements made as part of the Smokefree Schools Approach. Kamo, Tikipunga, Whangarei Girls and Boys High Schools and Bream Bay College have all made significant progress in working towards a smokefree culture.

Smokefree Schools Approach (SFSA) is a collaborative pilot project between Northland DHB, Health Promoting Schools, Cancer Society Northland and Manaia Primary Health Organisation (PHO). It is a whole-school approach to promoting a smokefree culture and creating a safe and supportive smokefree environment within the school.

It aims to reduce smoking initiation and provide support to those students that smoke to become smokefree. It also promotes a smokefree lifestyle as the norm, develops the social skills of youth and supports youth to resist tobacco use.

The high schools' achievements were recognised at each school's final Health and Well-being Team meeting of the year, when they were presented with a certificate of achievement and smokefree-branded sports equipment by Bridget Rowse, Smokefree Coordinator, Northland DHB, and Bernie Hetaraka from Manaia PHO.

All the schools have held monthly Health & Well-being Team meetings with a regular smokefree focus, with four of the five having student representation on these teams.

"Student participation and representation is important. It is about creating opportunities for young people to be involved in influencing, shaping, designing and contributing to the development of services and programmes and policy," said Bernie Hetaraka.

A number of students and teachers from each of the schools have attended Effective Brief Intervention training, which provides the skills to intervene effectively with someone who smokes in such a way that does not elicit resistance.

"It is important that teachers feel confident about discussing smoking with young people, and are able to do so in a positive and supportive manner. Having a smoking cessation service available to students within the school enables teachers to provide some assistance and support to those students that smoke," said Bridget Rowse.

All the schools have a member of staff and/or a public health nurse who is a trained Cessation Practitioner and is able to provide nicotine replacement therapy patches and gum, advice and ongoing support to students to enable them to become smokefree.

Four of the five schools participated in World Smokefree Day on 31 May, collecting signatures for a petition as part of the ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind' campaign to ban tobacco displays. A total of 2775 signatures were obtained - the highest number from all regions in New Zealand. Whangarei Boys High School continued advocating on this issue and wrote letters to Northland MPs, and a Boys High student was selected as a Cancer Society Youth Ambassador to present to the Parliamentary Select Committee.

Students from three of the high schools also came up with some creative ways to promote No Smoking Day Tai Tokerau, on 1 November. The ‘One day can make a difference' campaign raised awareness and created a supportive environment for students that smoke to feel comfortable about seeking advice from a trained cessation practitioner within their school - 65 students in total sought help to become smokefree.

Bridget Rowse said parents also played an important role: "Parental smoking is a key risk factor for children and young people starting. Teenagers from homes where parents smoke are more likely to be smokers themselves. One third (33%) of students with two parents who smoke are much more likely to be smokers than if only one (19%) or neither parent smokes (8%), according to the Year 10 Smoking Survey conducted by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) New Zealand, and the Health Sponsorship Council (HSC)."


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For further information contact:

Bridget Rowse, Smokefree Coordinator

Phone (09) 430 4101 ext 7908

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Clare Blackburn, Communications Manager

Northland District Health Board

Phone (09) 430 4101 ext 3315