On Monday 15th July a number of Year 9 and Year 10 Unicef Peer Educators met with various members of Hampshire Police Force: Inspector Terry Cuss the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner, Judy Venables, who is an adviser to the Police & Crime Commissioner; and Police Officer Caroline Anson who is very keen to work with schools on the rights respecting programme. Hampshire County Adviser Ian Massey was also present.
The purpose of the meeting was for these members of the police force to find out from our students about the Unicef Rights Respecting School Award and how it works in practice. Hampshire police are considering how this might contribute to their aims to work more closely with schools and in particular on the safer neighbourhood strategy. They are looking at joint police/ schools/youth service projects which have RRR principles at the heart of their work.
Year 11 Unicef Peer Educator Martyn Craggs summed up the meeting: “On Monday we, as peer educators, had a meeting with some very important people in the police. We discussed the rights and how they influence our lives inside and outside of school, and also how they influence everyone around the world. We spoke about how the rights could be used by the police to get across to members of the public how their actions affect the rights of others.”
“e also discussed how many of the peer educators feel that the rights should be used more widely within schools and other areas of the community. From this meeting we all took away a great deal as it gave us an insight to what our peers feel about the rights we have and also what the police feel about it. We learnt the police would like to involve rights more in their work and that we all feel very strongly about getting children’s’ rights more well known. This meeting definitely opened my eyes and everyone else’s to the fact that the rights we all have can make everyone’s lives easier and more enjoyable.”