It’s great to be back in schools and delivering classes to our children and young people. It’s not just about the Law and Policing, but about helping our young people be good citizens, and keeping them safe. I did promise recently, that I would blog about what I teach in your schools, so you as parents, guardians, families and the community can see what we as School Community Police Officers are all about.
This week, I have been in High Schools, teaching older students about safer relationships and consent. This class teaches young people to understand what is meant by consent and exploring the concept and the consequences of not respecting consent. It also helps young people to be assertive and resist unwanted peer pressure and other influences, and to have a responsible attitude toward personal relationships. It teaches about the importance of sexual health and the risks involved in sexual activity including potential exploitation, and we also help advise how to access health advice and personal support. The issue of peer-on-peer abuse has been highlighted recently and classes like this will help educate our young people and our citizens of tomorrow to be respectful of each other and develop and maintain good, healthy relationships.
I have also been in primary schools, teaching our younger learners about the emergency services, teaching them all about 999 and to explore the differences between what is and emergency and what isn’t. It’s a great class as it teaches young children to understand the police and other services who can help in an emergency and who can help in what situation.
I have also delivered classes around the issue of Anti-Social behaviour, where pupils have learned about what kinds of behaviour constitutes ASB, how it impacts on our communities, and the consequences of such behaviour if people continue to act anti-socially.
It’s not all delivering classes though, and we SCPOs also deal with police related criminal matters in school, from assaults and bullying, to damage and abuse, sometimes with our colleagues from Local Policing but always involving the schools themselves. I have already had to deal with matters in relation to students and social media sites this week, so I helped provide advice and information relating to the offences that have occurred, and how the students involved can avoid such a situation in future. We, as SCPOs, try to help young people stay OUT of the criminal Justice system, if we can.
I hope you find this post useful and can see the kind of work we do with the schools to help provide positive influences on our young people.
Remember for more information, you can always visit the [www.schoolbeat.cymru]www.schoolbeat.cymru website.
Message Sent By
PC 2458 Manus Sheridan
North Wales Police, School Community Police Officer