MORE than 2,500 schoolchildren will watch antidrugs play Wings to Fly at the Blackwood Miners’ Institute this week.

The play has been seen by more than 26,000 schoolchildren aged ten and 11 in the past 16 years and is one of the Caerphilly council’s key tools in educating young people about substance misuse.

Written by Margaret Rooney, a former arts development officer at Caerphilly Borough Council and funded by the substance misuse action team, the play tackles the real consequences of substance misuse through the story of a 14 year-old Penguin who succumbs to peer pressure and experiments with drugs.

It was initiated by the Blackwood Crime Prevention Panel as part of a multiagency response to drug use which includes the local authority, Gwent Police, schools and support groups.

Wings to Fly is performed by young people from Caerphilly Youth Theatre and has achieved huge success as part Gwent Police’s schools education programme, and has been taken up by other authorities and police forces across Wales.