Did the police (or other public services) visit your school?

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I have lots of memories of this. They’d show us films about road safety (actual films, on a reel-to-reel projector, in the 1980s). They also passed round a truncheon for us to feel, handcuffed the teacher, and demonstrated how a police dog would catch a burglar; unfortunately they couldn’t get the dog to let go when it was meant to!

We once had a policeman visit our secondary school to talk
about more serious matters. One of the boys insightfully asked him if he loved his job.

More recently, I’ve seen the police at my local school with a speed detector, surrounded by children in hi-vis.

Yes! We had a local police officer visit our primary school regularly in the 90s. Unfortunately he was killed in a burglary I think it was so our school hall had a plaque put up for him. No idea if it’s still there.

We had police visits in the 70s who told us not to go off with strangers. We also had warning films about electricity pylons, water safety and fridges.

We had a sergeant do our cycling proficiency. He was sort of the local visiting copper. Still remember his name & face!

1980s.

Didn’t have the police visit mine, but I remember the fire brigade coming out in junior school with the truck and we all got to sit in it and try on the helmets etc.

Don’t recall any such thing.

But I do remember dds in the upper 6th being given a very sobering and hard-hitting talk about the danger of cults, especially if they were perhaps feeling lonely or vulnerable during their first weeks or months at university. He particularly emphasised how adept they were at psychological manipulation, and how people who assumed they could never be caught, and went along to some session ‘for a laugh’ could be sucked in.

In the infant department we regularly arrange visits from "people who help us in our conmunity". This ranges from paramedics, nurses, police officers, fire brigade, as well as people who work for charities, vets and vet nurses, shop workers etc. We also have a jobs week where parents can volunteer to come into classes to share their experiences. Older children often get basic first aid training from professionals and visits from police (often centred around cyber bullying and Internet safety). And the police usually visit for age appropriate road safety assemblies too. I always love their visits as do the children.

I remember having visits from policemen/ firemen and paramedics in school back in the 80's.
My own DS's school (Primary) has just had a visit from the local " People who help us" team which happened to be policemen. All the kids really enjoyed it.
They also had a first aid course last year which he of course loved practicing on mum and dad to show off his new found skills!

They visited my school to talk about things like road safety and stranger danger. Now they visit secondary schools to talk about knife crime, county lines, drugs, sending and receiving nudes or inappropriate photos on social media. How times have changed.

My uncles were in the police - one came to do our cycling proficiency and one came to talk about stranger danger/not playing in the quarry/catching baddies. I just remember being weirded out that my daft uncles were in my school and looking like sensible and serious grown ups! 😄

Yes they did in ours, primary and secondary.

I remember it being quite interesting and wished they'd have more people coming in and talking about their jobs and the world outside school.

I don't know any kids who've had this at school in the last 15 years though

I had to google mine further after I posted.

This was ours. Everyone knew him locally as he would also be cycling around saying hello and stopping to chat. Even though I was in primary school, I could still remember how shocked and upset everyone was.

https://thepolicememorialtrust.org/pc-patrick-dunne/

Yes we had occasional visits at both primary and secondary for talks on road and personal safety. A visit from a WPC to talk to us about stalking in Year 9 will always stay with me, I will never forget her practical advice.

In year 6 we had a day out to the local police station where we did this incredible day of activities like escaping from a smoke filled room, a role play of adults trying to entice us into a car (obviously we all went with them), dangers around water etc. I really hope this kind of thing still happens.

I recall a policewoman visiting my secondary school, probably about 3rd year so around 14 years old. She was really inspiring and I wanted to be a policewoman after her visit, then discovered the height limit in place at the time!

Secondary schools in our area have specific Police officers that work in schools liaison and work with all the schools in the area. They do the fire safety video, cyber bullying etc and are a frequent presence so students are familiar with them, can ask them careers questions or confidence in them.

Visits from the armed services are much fewer than they were when I was younger and often came in for criticism even when promoting cadets and similar which are fantastic for teens even if they have no interest in signing up.

Fire engine tended to rock up at Primary schools but could be called away.

Had the Police and indeed Fire Service visit my junior school.

We also visited the police station in year 2, saw the control room, police cars, cells, and horses. We got fingerprinted as well.

We had the police visit our primary school. I think that it was more to put the fear of God into the few kids who were starting to go off the rails than anything else.
We also had visits from the Green Cross Code man (David Prowse) to do road safety talks. He lived very close to the school and knew the staff.

I vaguely remember a road safety visit from a policeman in junior school - early 80s - but nothing else.

When we were shown safety films, as far as I recall, the teachers played them to us in the assembly hall - I remember a 'don't go with strangers' one where someone was lured into a car with the promise of seeing puppies; and railway safety classic 'Billy's Boots' about a young footballer who had his feet severed by a train.

We had the fire service come out. To talk about arson and fire safety. They gave us stickers that that said 'stop drop and roll' on and told us to sleep with our bedroom doors closed to reduce the risk of dying from smoke inhalation or burning alive while we slept.
During his demonstration on not playing with matches or lighters, he showed us how to strike a match and operate all the different types of lighter- which I hadn't known how to do until then.

We had a PC who came to visit our primary school, maybe termly? Possibly more often. We were close to a big, old police station in central London. We took part in a quiz about the police that the Met ran, the Panda Quiz. We quizzed against other schools, had rounds etc. we were knocked out in the semis.

London, 1980s

Yes, I remember getting a similar demo in the 80s - I remember the PE teacher running across the field with a big padded arm protector as the dog hared after him. We knew the village bobby, he'd come in quite often, probably whenever someone had reported antisocial behaviour.

My kids know the local PCSO for the same reason, they go into the primary and secondary schools to speak to the kids and get them doing interesting things.

We had the fire service and St John ambulance in too, but maybe only once.

I remember another one: a man in full Roman soldier costume, who talked very seriously about his armour and weapons, explained carefully what each part of them was for, and that the police would arrest him if he carried his spear in public.