No Smoking Day is a long-established and very effective health awareness campaign which aims to help smokers who want to stop by providing an opportunity to do so in a supportive environment. The campaign emphasises the benefits of quitting and the help available, and we produce a range of posters, leaflets and promotional materials each year.

Many schools throughout the UK have taken part in the campaign since the first No Smoking Day in 1984. No Smoking Day on 11th March is an ideal time to remind pupils, staff and parents of the huge risks and disadvantages of smoking, and of the help available to stop. The 2009 theme “Take the first step” encourages smokers to have a go, while recognising that quitting is not easy.

Our website www.nosmokingday.org.uk has all the information you need to plan activities, with lots of free resources to download including a guide to using the campaign in schools, sample lesson plans for KS2 and KS3, puzzles, quizzes and fact sheets.

All the promotional materials are in the online catalogue, and you can place an order using our easy electronic order form. Our display pack gives you five posters, ten balloons and 50 leaflets for only £10.00 including postage, and if you want great giveaways for kids we have pens and pencils, stickers, fuzzy bugs, tangle puzzles and lots more. Orders are despatched promptly from our distribution warehouse and can be sent with an invoice if over £50.

No Smoking Day always gets a huge amount of media coverage, so don’t forget to let your local newspaper or radio station know what you’re doing and get a good news story for your school! See our website for tips on press contacts and writing a press release. Then you could enter our “Organiser of the Year” awards – we have a special category for “Best education site activity” but you might also go for “Best homemade prop”, “Best activity on a small budget” or many others, with a chance to win £50-worth of free materials for 2010!

Our 2009 website is live from early December when we start taking orders for materials. Do get in touch at any time if you have any questions or comments – phone 020 7739 5110, fax 020 7739 8176 or email enquiries@nosmokingday.org.uk (if you email, please also provide a phone number as our emails often bounce back from schools!)

HEALTHY CHILDREN + HEALTHY STAFF = HEALTHY SCHOOL!