Abstract
The Basic Preventive Programme (BPP) refers to a general/model framework for a school-based prevention programme. The authors sought to draw up a model structure and scope of the BPP as an option for a comprehensive long-term programme for basic schools (attended by children aged 6–15) intended to promote healthy lifestyles among students and their personality and social development, and the development of their social and communicative skills, including components addressing specific forms of risk behaviour.
The documentation pertaining to programmes carried out in the Czech Republic, the laws and by-laws relating to schools, and published guidelines on the prevention of risk behaviour were analysed for this purpose. Using thorough content analysis of all the school documentation with relevance to the BPP (such as the documentation related to the framework educational programmes), legal norms, and the documentation pertaining to the programmes that have been implemented, in combination with a literature search, the authors designed and developed a structure, content, and scope for a programme intended for basic schools.
The structure and scope of the BPP as proposed are based on encouraging students’ own activities, using diverse forms of prevention work with students, involving all the school’s teaching staff, and working with students’ statutory representatives. In general, the BPP is to comprise at least three components: a set of rules to enhance children’s safety at school and at school events, programmes intended to promote the development of life skills, broken down into programmes focused on the development of social skills and self-management, and, finally,programmes specifically aimed at addressing the individual forms of risk behaviour.
The BPP is expected to comprise a total of 86 lessons during the years of basic school attendance from the first to the ninth grades (i.e. approximately from the age of 6 to 15).