Police opens school portal
Police opens school portal
Police has unveiled a new section on its website to help school communities work with Police to achieve their educational and safety goals.
The School Portal (schools.police.govt.nz) provides resources, information and links to help school staff, parents, students connect with Police’s School Community Services (SCS), formerly the Youth Education Service.
New Zealand Police has about 120 School Community Officers – previously known as Police Education Officers – working in partnership with school communities in 2500 primary, intermediate and secondary schools throughout New Zealand.
School Community Officers are uniformed police officers who specialise in working in partnership with school principals, staff, students and parents/whānau to enhance community safety through school-wide interventions, classroom education programmes and effective school traffic safety teams.
Though some schools may not have a local School Community Officer, every school in New Zealand will have member of Police appointed to the role of Lead Police Contact to share information and agree on activities and issues.
Schools will appoint a Lead School Contact (usually a staff member within the school), to ensure there is a consistent, steady flow of information between Police and their school community.
While all schools are encouraged to share information about crime and crash concerns, the level of police involvement will be tailored to the individual circumstances of an individual school.
"The programmes on the School Portal are all aligned to the New Zealand curriculum and designed to help children and young people lead confident and safe lives," says Lawrie Stewart, Coordinator Schools.