KIDS AND COPS WEBSITE FIRST FOR WEST MIDLANDS
- Details
- Written by Editor
- Hits: 1083
Police urge youngsters to join them on a stroll down Safe Street
A CARTOON cops interactive website is set to send primary school children on an exciting stroll down Safe Street.
The new West Midlands Police website, the first of its kind for a UK police force, has been designed for children aged from five to 11.
The fun-packed site – www.safestreet.info - includes games, videos and click-to-see facts about how to stay safe.
The website is unlike anything previously produced and underlines West Midlands Police’s commitment to using new media to engage with different audiences and to increasing confidence in local communities.
Safe Street is an imaginary road with loads of clickable areas including a park, police station, house and telephone box.
Each area features its own related safety, support and citizenship games, videos, information and scenarios.
Young users are encouraged to think about the best methods of staying safe and being responsible citizens all in a safe and fun environment.
The site also features lots of recognisable elements for the region’s children such as a West Midland Travel branded cartoon bus offering safer travel advice and characters with regional accents.
Children from across the area have been involved in the development of the site, including pupils at St Johns C of E School.
Deputy Head teacher of the Sparkhill School, Tim Somersby, was keen to join the project and launched a focus group to advise on the effectiveness of Safe Street and a video highlighting the benefit of the region’s parks.
Tim said: “As a school, St.John's were delighted to be asked to support West
Midlands Police in developing this excellent 'Safe-Street' website.
“Children from a range of year groups were involved in various aspects of the website, from giving suggestions for improvements, to being filmed for some of the short video clips.
“It's been a fantastic learning experience for them. I would encourage all primary schools to have a look at the 'Safe-Street' website as there are some great links with citizenship, healthy living and helping children make wise choices"
Children from Dorrington Primary school in Handsworth, St John Fisher School Coventry and children in Walsall also featured in a video to explain the role of the police force.
The online Safe Street concept, funded and developed by the Police, complements a real-life full size safety village run by West Midlands Fire Service in Nechells called Safeside, which has just welcomed its 10,000th young visitor since opening last year.
Safeside Education Co-ordinator Rob Hattersley said: "We were pleased to provide support to the Safestreet development team because we are addressing the same issues for children of safety and citizenship.
“ The online activities provided by this new Police website will be a perfect follow up for children visiting our realistic street scene with full size house, bus, train, car and shop."
“Even though they were not linked, the website complements our mock village at Safe Side and it can only enhance the learning opportunities for our young visitors if they can visit Safe Side and then visit www.SafeStreet.info when they get home.”
West Midlands Ambulance service provided staff for the filming of a video about the dangers of hoax calls and helped with scripting scenarios so they were accurate.
Crime prevention, online safety and fire safety experts where also consulted to ensure the safety messages where appropriate.
Aneka Anderson, Police Communications Manger, said: “Children are a precious and integral part of our society and we think the site is a fantastic support to parents, officers and anyone who works with children and would like to teach them about being safe.
“As a city we see the importance of in investing in our children and instilling values such as respect and responsibility from an early age.
“Safe Street is fantastic and we hope children enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed creating it.”
Register and Join Us - Help Provide more information from your area. BlackCountryNews.com
