Smoking and Vaping Ban

Prevention

Vaping prevention is best managed as part of a whole-school approach to supporting student health and wellbeing. The following strategies seek to support vaping prevention at school.

Student teaching and learning

Deliver vaping prevention in student drug and alcohol education, as part of the Health and Physical Education curriculum:

• Quit Victoria has developed free secondary school teaching and learning resources that focus on vaping health and media literacy, critical thinking and promoting community health. They have also been prepared for adaptation to science, literacy, numeracy, civics and citizenship, and media arts curriculum areas
• Life Education Victoria
• Schools Mental Health Menu including alcohol and drug education – refine search by category ‘1.6 Alcohol and drug education’.

Support for staff

Support staff professional development and learning:

• Quit Victoria – Get the Facts on Vaping.

Healthy school culture

Embed and promote positive behaviours at school in a respectful and inclusive manner:

• join the Healthy Schools Achievement Program – a free program that provides a framework and resources for a whole-of-school approach to health and wellbeing, including smoking and vaping
• promote a positive school environment via:
  • the school’s student engagement policy (staff login required)
  • the school-wide positive behaviour support framework
  • programs that support student mental health and wellbeing.

Leadership and commitment

Engage student voice to inform school vaping prevention strategies such as:

• student-led research or surveys
• peer-to-peer education
• student-led local health campaigns or communications – young people respond well to peer-led behavioural change campaigns.

Refer to the Student Voice, Agency and Leadership policy for more information.

Family and community partnerships

Support and promote parents and carers to talk about vaping with their children. Schools can use the following to support conversations with families:

• Quit Victoria and VicHealth Get the facts on vaping
• VicHealth Talking to your teen about vaping
• Better Health Channel
• Royal Children’s Hospital
• Alcohol and Drug Foundation
• The department’s Smoking and vaping: advice for parents factsheet (DOCX).

Contact local partners, such as Local Public Health Units, local council, or community health services, who may be able to support whole-school approaches.