Our World AIDS Day resources are great tools to help you educate your students about HIV on December 1st. And they’re completely free!

2017 has been a year of breakthroughs for HIV in the UK. Our victory in court helped pave the way for a game-changing HIV-prevention pill, PrEP, to be made freely available in a trial in England and Wales. For the first time, there has been a fall in new HIV diagnoses amongst gay and bisexual men in London. And after campaigning around the issue for years, Relationships and Sex Education has finally been made statutory in schools in England and Wales.

We’ve come so far, but our work isn’t over. Despite these achievements, a lack of understanding about HIV is still a real problem. When we surveyed young people about their understanding of HIV, we found that almost a third were “not sure” if you could get HIV through kissing (you can’t!). 

Teaching young people about HIV not only helps them to protect themselves from HIV, but also helps them to challenge stigma wherever they see it. That’s why our World AIDS Day campaign this year, ‘Let’s End It’, focuses on what students can do to help end the negative impact of HIV in the UK. 

To support teachers in bringing this campaign into schools, we’ve produced an assembly which will help students to:

• Learn key facts about HIV and challenge misinformation
• Develop an understanding of what it is like to be living with HIV
• Learn what actions can be taken to help end the epidemic and the stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV

We’ve also updated our HIV timeline to include the most recent developments in the UK’s response to HIV. 

Many schools also encourage their students to wear an HIV-awareness ribbon on World AIDS Day, in solidarity with people living with HIV. NAT can provide ribbons to your school free of charge. We just ask that you fundraise a minimum of £15 to cover the cost of the ribbons. You can order ribbons here.

Next year, we’ll be revamping our entire schools pack to include lesson plans, activities and case studies. We’d love to have your input to get this right. If you’re interested in reviewing our new resources, please let us know by emailing info@nat.org.uk.

Find all the latest resources here.