South Lakes Neighbourhood Policing Team, along with Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service, held a series of Junior Citizen days for local primary school children in Ulverston, Windermere and Grange this week.
Junior Citizen is a programme designed to deliver training and education to children to help them appropriately deal with a range of situations they may find themselves in in their lives.
The programme, designed in partnership between Cumbria Police and the Fire Service was held at the Ulverston Blue Light Hub on 17,18 and 19 April. Inputs were provided by Cumbria Constabulary via the NPT and Cybercrime team as well as the Fire service, CADAS (Cumbria Drug and Alcohol Service), Network Rail and the NFU.
Further sessions were also held at Windermere Fire Station on 22 and 23 April, with a final session at Grange Fire Station on 24 April.
The event is aimed at year 6 pupils and inputs were provided to almost 20 schools across all the sessions, with almost 300 children attending in total.
The topics covered over the days included:
- Antisocial behaviour
- Internet safety
- Road safety
- Water safety
- Home and fire safety , with use of virtual reality headsets
- Alcohol, vape and drug misuse
- Dangers of trespassing on railways
- Enjoying the countryside safely and responsibly
Sergeant Paul Mellard, Ulverston and Lakes Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “This is a great initiative, and it was great to see so many young people attend the sessions and engage with the facilitators.
“The children asked many questions and really got stuck in! We have had some excellent feedback so far from staff.
“The inputs they received from ourselves and our partners will hopefully provide the children with some tools and knowledge which can be used throughout their lives to help keep themselves and their communities safe.”
Station Manager Jamie Coward said: “It was a pleasure to welcome the pupils to Ulverston, Windermere and Grange and our crews very much enjoyed sharing important advice on fire, road and water safety with them.
“The level of engagement from the pupils was tremendous, and their sessions using our virtual reality headsets to simulate some real-life scenarios proved to be a real highlight for them.
“Thanks to the schools for taking part and thanks to our crews and partners for delivering such an interactive and informative course.”
