Noreen Wetton

Citation

McWhirter, J. (2006), "Noreen Wetton", Health Education, Vol. 106 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/he.2006.142106caf.001

Noreen Wetton

Noreen Wetton

A reflection on a life of service to education

It is with great sadness that I have to report that Noreen Wetton died on the 17 January, 2006. She was, among her many and active roles, a founder member of the Editorial Advisory Board for this journal.

Noreen worked with teachers and drug education practitioners all over the world and inspired good practice in personal, social and health education (PSHE) through her research and related publications, through in-service training and at countless conferences.

Noreen spent almost 60 years in classrooms – she still taught in the primary school where she was a Governor (with responsibility for PSHE of course!). It amused her that because of her age she could no longer be insured and so needed a teacher “to watch over her”.

At 80 years of age Noreen retained the energy and enthusiasm of a teenager, working nationally and internationally until just before her death. Her career included the roles of deputy head teacher in a secondary school, head teacher in a primary school and eight years running an early years teacher training course at Sheffield Polytechnic. Noreen’s official retirement at 60 lasted just a few weeks, before she embarked on a second career in the Health Education Unit in the School of Education at Southampton University. At Southampton she pioneered the “draw and write technique” for which she became justly famous, including “Jugs and Herrings” which revealed so much about the way children make sense of the whole world of drugs. She continued as a Senior Research Fellow and then Senior Visiting Fellow at Southampton until her death.

Noreen fundamentally changed how we approach drug education, showing us that if we start where children are, we can deliver relevant and appropriate drug education for children and young people of all ages. She showed how children make sense of the world of drugs by reference to what they already know, half know and think they know. She taught us that what they know may be non-sense, but it is never nonsense. Noreen was a gifted and creative researcher, but above all she had the ability to transform what children and young people told her into practical classroom materials which could be used by specialists and non-specialists alike. Her 25th book was published just before her death.

Noreen is probably best described in her own words “a working mother and grandmother who was addicted to finding out how children of all ages and abilities viewed their world”.

Noreen will be greatly missed by her colleagues throughout the world – many of whom became close friends – for the experience, wisdom and sensitivity she brought to every aspect of her life.

Jenny McWhirterHead of Education and Prevention, DrugScope, London, UK