Three Shrewsbury schools join forces with police
Three Shrewsbury secondary schools have joined forces with West Merica Police after being selected to be part of a new scheme aimed at promoting school safety.
The Grange School, Sundorne School and Sports College and Belvidere School are all part of the project which also strives to prevent crime and to support educational achievement.
The Safer Schools Programme is a partnership initiative between West Mercia Police and selected schools, and also sees police community support officers (PSCOs) based on site at schools to offer support to pupils, teachers and the wider community.
PCSO Jacqui Baldwin provides full-time support to the town’s Academy schools – The Grange and Sundorne – while PCSO Dave Simpson is based at Belvidere School.
Sergeant Ben Tanfield, from the Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: “Both Jacqui and Dave are experienced PCSOs with a great deal of local knowledge.
“They will support and enhance the existing strong pastoral teams at the schools as well as supporting out of school activities, giving talks at assemblies and meeting with parents.
“They will also patrol the area before and after school and link in with feeder schools.
“Their priorities will be encouraging and raising school attendance and building links between the school, the police and the wider community.”
Head teacher at The Grange, Rob Hatch, said he was delighted to welcome Jacqui Baldwin to the school.
“We are very much a community school and I hope this initiative will help to strengthen those links even further,” he said.
A number of other schools in the area are also involved in the programme including The Marches School in Oswestry.
Three other schools in West Mercia, including Ercall Wood Technology College in Telford, were involved in a pilot scheme over the last year.
