First school in North East Lincolnshire becomes ‘smoke-free’

A local school has become the first in the area to become entirely smoke free as part of a pilot scheme by Public Health.

Thrunscoe Primary and Nursery Academy have worked closely with North East Lincolnshire Council’s Public Health team to deliver a package of measures, working towards becoming a smoke-free school.

The Academy created it’s own policy setting out how they would teach a smoke-free curriculum, along with signing up to the Breathe 2025 pledge. The school have worked with children to encourage them to ‘say no’ to their first cigarette, as well as writing to parents to discourage them from smoking outside the school gates.

Councillor Stan Shreeve, portfolio holder for health, wellbeing and adult social care at North East Lincolnshire Council, said:

“This has been a great piece of work and I’d like to commend our Public Health team and the staff, students and parents at Thrunscoe Primary and Nursery Academy for working with us.

“The school have really committed themselves to becoming smoke-free, from teaching children through the curriculum about the dangers of smoking, to putting up banners around the school site and drafting a policy for staff.

“This pilot is about preventing our children from seeing smoking as ‘the norm’.

“The most impressive feat is that the school gates will be smoke-free. This is a huge achievement and I’m really pleased that children will no longer have to walk through a cloud of smoke as they leave school.”

Thrunscoe Primary and Nursery Academy headteacher, Simon Bate, said:

“The physical and mental health, well-being and safety of our pupils is of the utmost importance to us at Thrunscoe.

“We are delighted to be the first school in the area to become Smoke Free. After hearing the local statistics for smoking prevalence in North East Lincolnshire, we decided that taking part in this pilot scheme could make a real difference to the pupils of our academy and their futures.

“We delivered a series of lessons and held a competition within the school to design banners that could be used to promote our commitment to becoming a smoke free environment. 

“We thank all our parents and carers for supporting us and ensuring that we provide the best environment for our Thrunscoe Family and visitors.”

Mr Bate extended his thanks to Wellbeing Lead and Key Stage 2 teacher, Katie Holness, for driving forward the initiative.

The adult smoking prevalence for North East Lincolnshire of 16.5% is above the national average of

12.1%.

Need support to quit smoking? Visit: Wellbeing Service – LiveWell (nelincs.gov.uk) or call 01472 325500.

Schools that are interested in finding out more about the smoke-free initiative should contact Public Health Wellbeing Programme Lead for Schools, Laura Peggs, on [email protected].