More than half of Welsh adults who have heard of vapes wrongly believe vaping is as harmful as smoking or worse, new ASH Wales YouGov findings show.
PARENT SUPPORT
Your child has been caught smoking or vaping at school. What now?
It can feel like a crisis when the school calls. It does not have to become one. The useful question is not just “what punishment are they getting?” but “what happened, and what needs to change next?”
Start with the facts
Before deciding what this means, find out what the school actually saw or found.
- Was your child smoking, vaping or carrying a product?
- Was this the first incident the school knows about?
- What does the school policy say will happen next?
- Is the school concerned about regular use, sharing or selling?
Ask for the facts first. You can talk about consequences once everyone is working from the same information.
1. Hear their version
Try: “I know what the school has told me. I want to hear what happened from you as well.” Then listen before you decide how to respond.
2. Is this experimenting or regular use?
Ask how often they use nicotine and whether they get cravings or find it hard to go without. One school incident does not automatically mean dependence.
3. Agree what happens next
School consequences and support at home are separate things. Agree boundaries, decide whether quitting support is needed and set a time to check in again.
Keep home and school on the same side
If the school is offering support, ask what that looks like. If they are only discussing sanctions, it is reasonable to ask how they will help prevent the same thing happening again.
If your child says vaping is common at school, share that concern with staff without expecting your child to identify other pupils.
Do they want help to stop?
If this has exposed regular nicotine use, move away from punishment-only conversations and add proper quitting support.
Worried about where the product came from?
If it was sold to an under-18, looks suspicious or came through an informal seller or social media account, you can report the concern anonymously. You do not need proof and you should not investigate a seller yourself.