February 2017
We’re pleased to announce Safer Schools, a new resource for senior primary/intermediate schools, based on the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). The resource consists of a structured series of learning activities involving Year 7-8 students, the school and Police. It culminates in student-led recommendations and actions to improve their school environment, for example by designing-out factors that could enable burglary or property damage.
But Safer Schools is not limited to property crime; it can be adapted to address any issue affecting students, such as road safety, bullying, or drug abuse. The ability to adapt Safer Schools to any relevant issue makes this an ideal tool for schools to improve the safety of everyone in their school community. Schools can even extend Safer Schools into their wider local communities to identify and solve common issues and form better connections.
Where can schools obtain Safer Schools?
All the resources that a school needs to implement Safer Schools can be downloaded from our Safer Schools page. There is also a very useful narrative describing how Constable Rob Kennerley piloted Safer Schools with an Auckland school as part of a school-wide intervention to address bicycle thefts.
We would love to hear how schools find Safer Schools, so please do send us some feedback to: schools@police.govt.nz