Click on the Link!
Kick Ash goes to Parliament for Plain Packaging
Posted: April 30, 2012 by kickashcambs in Uncategorized
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
As part of our work as kick ash mentors from St Peters school in Huntingdon, Emma, Mariana and Emily were invited to take part in a protest outside of the British American Tobacco – Annual General Meeting for its shareholders. This included lots of young people who were speaking up for plain packaging of tobacco products.We were collected by Ellen Nicholson, (A member of the kick ash team) from St Peters School at 7:35 am and were driven to the train station and we spent the rest of the day in London. We campaigned from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon, it rained but we continued to chant and raise awareness. Then we all went to the Houses of Parliament where we met MP Jonathan Djanogly from Huntingdon and explained the importance of plain packaging to him and told him all about our work as Kick Ash mentors in Huntingdon. He was interested to know that some people are influenced to think certain types of cigarettes are better for you because of the packaging.
After that Mr Djanogly’s assistant Penelope took us on a fantastic tour of Westminster which was very interesting, we learnt stuff we didn’t know before, like where the term Lobby came from!
The whole day was very exciting and interesting experience.
We would like to thank everyone who participated and who came along and helped us with the campaign.
Author – Emily
Kick Ash Supports Plain Packaging
Posted: April 17, 2012 by kickashcambs in UncategorizedTags: Plain Packaging
Andrew Lansley launched a public consultation into Plain Packaging for tobacco products on Monday the 16th of April.
Plain Packaging for Tobacco Products
The purpose of this consultation is to seek the views of interested people, businesses and organizations on a policy initiative that would require the packaging of tobacco products to be standardized, the aim being to improve public health by reducing the use of tobacco. Within the context of tobacco packaging, standardized packaging is sometimes referred to as ‘plain packaging’.
Plain packaging means that all brand names would have to be written in a standard typeface, colour and size. And all other trademarks, logos, colour schemes and graphics would be banned. This could help make tobacco packaging look less attractive to children and help make the health warnings to stand out more.
Every year in the UK 340,000 children in the UK are tempted to try smoking (DOH 2009) and research has indicated that they are more likely to be lured by designed tobacco packs, than by plain packs. Further to this a recent systematic review into plain packaging for tobacco products indicates that ‘plain packaging would reduce the attractiveness and appeal of tobacco products, it would increase the noticeability and effectiveness of health warnings and messages, and it would reduce the use of design techniques that may mislead consumers’(Moodie et al 2012).
This legislation has been passed by government in Australia and will come into effect in December 2012.
Anna from Swavesey VC said ‘As a kick ash mentor I feel the packaging of cigarettes is an important issue. Currently brands which have memorable and unique packaging make it easier for young people to recognise them and encourage people to purchase them. These recognisable packages are also associated with groups of people who teenagers may look up to. I believe having plain packaging would make smoking seem less attractive to young people and definitely discourage purchasing cigarettes. We kick ash mentors are proud to be smoke free and we are determined to promote this message. Plain Packaging would be an important change, especially for children as it would discourage their initial choice of smoking. It would be a step closer to making more young people proud to be smoke free.’
To respond to the consultation http://bit.ly/J3XEHM
For more information visit www.plainpacksprotect.co.uk
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Bottisham VC mentors managed to talk to over 1500 students from Soham Village college not to mention hosting a very popular stand at Bottisham where I think they gave away nearly 1000 wrist bands.
Swavesey VC mentors worked at Bar Hill Tesco, talking to members of the public about quitting smoking, completing Carbon monoxide testing and giving away lots of balloons!
Sir Harry Smith Community College held assemblies at their college and ran a stall at their local primary school, Alderman Jacobs! Lots of parents attended and they recruited many smokers to the Camquit service.
St Peters School in Huntingdon who inspired joint Kick Ash / Camquit activities in 2011, held a great day at Sainsbury’s in Huntingdon recruiting 20 people to the stop smoking service and giving away nearly 200 leaflets about the service. St Peters school also held a stall at one of their local primary schools, speaking to parents about getting support to stop smoking!
More blogs to follow!
Year 2 Evaluation Report now available!
Posted: February 14, 2012 by kickashcambs in UncategorizedTags: cambridgeshire, nhs uk, prevalence data
Do you need to know more about how the kick ash programme works and how it is evaluated?
Please download our two reports:
Please note we are currently in year 3 of this programme and a comparion of prevalence data will be available in September 2012. If you are reporting about this programme please contact Ellen Nicholson for current year 3 figures.
Cheers
Ellen Nicholson
ellen.nicholson@cambridgeshire.nhs.uk
We visited Bar Hill Primary School at the beginning of the year to run a kick ash afternoon with the year 6s. They learnt about making the right decisions about smoking and different groups in young society who may choose to smoke. All the kids really enjoyed the afternoon and for me it was a great experience too! At one point the Kick Ash mentors did a role play and pretended to be a top girl or a trouble maker boy. Then the year 6′s got to ask us questions about why we chose to smoke and why we stopped- this gave them a better understanding and they were keen to ask loads of questions! Everyone came away very positive and when the year 6′s come up to the college next year, they will have some familiar faces to look up to 
Author Anna Stevenson, Swavesey Village College
Kick Ash Mentors Bid for Local Government Award!
Posted: January 31, 2012 by kickashcambs in UncategorizedLast week, Anna from Swavesey VC and Wrex from St Peters School in Huntingdon went to London to present in front of a panel of judges to help Kick Ash win a national award. ( Local Government Chronicle Awards http://www.lgcawards.co.uk/home)
Both Anna and Wrex did a great job and represented all the Kick Ash mentors with confidence and stlye, well done!
Winners will be announced on the 14th of March 2011 (No Smoking Day). Fingers crossed!
Kick Ash Mentor Receives Diana Award – Amy Courtenay Moores journey..
Posted: January 31, 2012 by kickashblogs in UncategorizedAmy Courtenay-Moore is one of Bottisham village college’s Kick Ash mentors, currently in year 11. Amy has achieved so much, and gained a lot of self-confidence!
Her journey started nearly two years ago when the current year 11′s were approaching the end of yea
r 9, a large number of students applied for training to be a peer or learning mentor in year 10, Amy applied for this role however the teachers running the training felt that amy hadn’t quite developed the confidence that they felt was needed for the role, however the teachers explained to her that if she could work on that over the next year then she may be able to do the mentor training in year 10. Amy took on board this advice and started interacting more in lessons and became more vocal with her peers. During the next year another opportunity approached for year 10 students to become kick-ash mentors this was Amy’s chance to prove that she could take on a role of a mentor and prove that she took on board the advice given from the previous year.
Amy was very successful with her application and gets involved in many activities in the school and across Cambridgeshire, Amy has gained alot more self-confidence.
In 2011 Amy was awarded the Diana award for overcoming some personal challenges and her dedicated work as a Kick Ash Mentor. Amy will be attending an award ceremony in London this March. Congratulations Amy!
Written by Bottisham Comms Team
Kick Ash mentors from Sir Harry Smith School have accompanied Trading Standards Officers over the last 2 weeks visiting shops in Whittlesey. Everyone has been very positive about Kick Ash and said that what the mentors have been doing is very commendable – well done!
Sir Harry Start Making Progress
Posted: December 16, 2011 by xxvickyxx in Communications, The story so farSir Harry Smith communication group mentors have started to spread the word about Kick Ash and start making progress. One of the mentors has set up an Agony Aunt page, so anyone can post questions they would like answering. Also, a box has been created for peoples questions, views and suggestions, this is open to all students and has been placed in reception. I hope we can carry on making good progress!
