The parents of a teenager who died after taking ecstasy at a rave in Hayes are to pilot a drugs awareness programme at his former school.

Fiona and Tim Spargo-Mabbs launched the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation following the death of their 16-year-old son Daniel in January last year.

The foundation will pilot its Safer Choices programme at Archbishop Tenison’s CE High School, in Croydon, from Monday (April 13).

The programme will then be adopted by a second school in Croydon later in the term, before being rolled out more widely from September.

Mr and Mrs Spargo-Mabbs hope eventually to convince the next government to introduce mandatory drugs education in all UK schools – a campaign backed by the coroner who led the inquest into their son's death.

Mrs Spargo-Mabbs, 47, said: “If young people don't have the information and skills to be able to make informed decisions then things like what happened to Dan will keep happening.

"There are risks out there and young people aren't always aware of the risks that they're taking.

“The underlying message that we've got is that this is never going to be something that you can know is safe to do, and the risks that are out there are much bigger than we certainly realised, and I think probably than a lot of schools realise.”

The Safer Choices programme will consist of six weeks of drugs awareness lessons, providing information and encouraging students to think about what drugs are, why people take them, their impact and what the law says.

The programme will also include essential harm reduction advice and will look at resilience, peer pressure and decision making.

Parents and carers will have online access to all of the information and resources via the school’s virtual learning environment.

They will also be able to raise questions or concerns with a drugs specialist from the foundation, at a session to be held at the school at the end of the six weeks.

Alternatively, questions can be posted confidentially, via the foundation's website or in a Facebook message.

Mr and Mrs Spargo-Mabbs, who live in Croydon, have also recorded Youtube video messages for students, parents and carers involved with the programme.

Mrs Spargo-Mabbs, who works for Croydon Adult Learning and Training as a curriculum team manager for English, maths and family learning, said: “It's so important to keep the parents involved, because, as a parent myself, I know what I wish I'd known.

“Also, as a professional working in adult education, working with parents and children in schools, I know that, unless you have a whole family approach, doing things with young people is always going to go so far and no further.”

Daniel was found collapsed at a warehouse at the back of an industrial estate off Silverdale Road on January 18 last year, having consumed 0.5g of MDMA.

He was rushed to hospital with multiple organ failure but, despite doctors' efforts, he died two days later.

The dealer who supplied the drugs, 18-year-old Nicqueel Pitrora, was jailed for five years in August last year.