Mini police officers celebrated a year’s service at Beaufort Primary School this week with an assembly in which they were presented with certificates.
Derbyshire Constabulary ran the Mini Police scheme with the school’s Year 5 pupils each week for the full academic year.
It is aimed at children aged nine to 11 years old and designed to give them the opportunity to learn about their safety, their role within their community and how the police work to keep them safe.
Just like Derbyshire officers, the newly appointed Mini Police ‘Officers’ wore a uniform during each session which consisted of a hi-vis vest with the mini police and force crest, a Mini Police cap and pocketbook.
During the sessions, led by their local Police Community Support Officers, children looked at road safety, forensics, community policing, and more.
They presented some of their work to parents, officers and even the Assistant Chief Constable of Derbyshire Police, James Abdy, at an assembly last week.
PCSO Catherine Potter, who has been working with the children throughout the year, handed them their certificates and badges at the assembly and thanked them for working so hard.
“It has been my first year running the programme so thank you so much for being so helpful to me and for working so hard throughout the year,” she said. “I’ve really enjoyed it, and I am already looking forward to working with the next group of mini police here next year.”
The sessions help to forge links between police and the community and have proved so popular they have expanded. The Derbyshire Mini Police programme started in 2021 with three pilot schools, increasing to 13 in 2022 and now includes 20 schools.
Fiona Clancy, Mini Police Co-ordinator for Derbyshire Constabulary, said: “The Safer Neighbourhood Teams choose the schools they work with and go in every week to run the sessions, so they form really good relationships with the children who then often spot them out and about in the community.”
At the assembly, children spoke about what they had learned through the scheme, from testing speed cameras to taking fingerprints, understanding the role of police dogs and tackling cyber crime. They also received pin badges and the police presented a ‘community officer of the year’ award.
Matt Ball, a Key Stage 2 teacher at Beaufort Primary School, part of the Odyssey Collaborative Trust, said the sessions had been popular with the Year 5 pupils who had done them.
“They have absolutely loved doing the Mini Police,” he said. “They have got to know their PCSOs and they see them out and about and they talk to one another. I know one of the children said they’d seen PCSO Potter at an event where she was working at the weekend and went to say hello to her. It has given them and understanding of what police do in the local community.”
This story was written and shared on behalf of Odyssey Collaborative Trust by Kirsty Green. Can we share your news and get you in the headlines too? Find out how we can help by getting in touch.
