Crowthorne and Sandhurst

I and my colleagues in the Sandhurst and Crowthorne neighbourhood policing team have been developing closer links with local schools in recent weeks.

We have arranged with Sandhurst Senior School that one member of the team – either a police officer or police community support officer – will visit the school at lunchtime every Wednesday. The idea is that we will go to the canteen to meet students and chat with them informally, but there will also be a room available should anyone wish to speak to us in private. The initiative started yesterday (9/1) with a visit by PC Amanda Price and PCSO Rebecca Swann. I will be at the school next Wednesday (16/1) and we will continue the weekly visits on a rota during term time.

Also at Sandhurst Senior School, Rebecca and I have been going along to The Spot, an after-school club held on Tuesdays and Thursdays for children from the Nepalese community, whose parents are either currently, or were formerly, based at the Royal Military Academy. We play table tennis with the pupils and enjoy a cup of tea and a chat.

To establish contact with younger children in our area, we have made arrangements to join them for school dinner. I enjoyed a tasty lunch with the children at Owlsmoor School today (10/1), and we also visited St Michael’s School and College Town School at the end of last term.

The children crowd round and ask lots of questions; it’s an excellent opportunity to get to know them and explain what the police do. By making ourselves more familiar and accessible to the youngsters, we hope they will feel able to tell us about any concerns they may have. The visits also give us the chance to get across crime prevention and personal safety messages in an informal setting.

Thames Valley Police ~ Crowthorne