Amy Winehouse charity calls for secondary schools to learn lesson of singer's death via prevention classes

The Amy Winehouse Foundation has called on all secondary schools to adopt its drug and alcohol prevention programmes to stop children succumbing to the same substance abuse which led to the singer's death.

The charity has asked government ministers to support a national roll-out of their Amy Winehouse Resilience Programme for Schools, pointing to a successful trial involving 17,000 pupils.

The foundation was set up by Winehouse's family after the singer's death by accidental alcohol poisoning in July 2011. She also battled a drug addiction, including heroin.

The late star's stepmother, Jane Winehouse, who is the managing trustee of the foundation, said the charity had been a success since it was launched five years ago.

"I am so pleased that it has been so successful, it's obviously touching a lot of young people's lives, and it is making a big difference, and particularly the resilience programme," she told BBC Radio Four's Today programme on Monday (12 September).

"Not only is it educating young people, it's training teachers, it's giving young people who do have substance misuse issues proper support."

This week, the charity published a report into what it said was a successful roll-out of its substance abuse programme at selected schools across the UK.

Describing it as one of the largest research studies of its kind, it saw trained and accredited volunteers use their own experiences of substance misuse and recovery to educate students – a model said to be missing from current school education.

The programme, which 89% of pupils said they found useful, also helps participants develop skills "to manage self-esteem, risky behaviours and peer pressure", which it says can lead to substance abuse.

The foundation said: "We are now calling on the Government to put in place effective, evidence-based prevention work across all schools in the UK. Our research shows that it can improve life chances for young people, and truly have an effect on the problems of drug and alcohol misuse."