An education in smoking

A school in Australia is permitting students as young as 15 to have a smoking break at lunch and other recess periods, according to an independent.co.uk story.

Carolyn Blanden, principal at The Warakirri College in Sydney, said she believed that relaxed rules would encourage the students to keep attending school.

“At my school, you can come with bright blue hair and metal in your face,” Blanden told Australia’s Daily Telegraph.

“And if you need to have a smoke, that’s OK too.”

Blanden said she would rather her students smoked cigarettes, with all the health risks that involved, than have them “floating around the streets or in detention”.

The principal has previously worked at fee-paying private schools but says her current job is the “most rewarding work I think I’ve ever done”.

Many of the school’s students are from broken homes, with many of their parents either in jail or battling drug addiction.

Under Wreaker’s curriculum, students can study three subjects per year rather than six for two years.

The school is said to be similar to an adult learning environment, with no fees or uniforms. There is a gym and students are allowed to leave the campus grounds when not in class.

Many of the children who graduated Year 10 (age 14-16) in 2016 were the first in their families to achieve a Record of School Achievement