Youth Education Information for Parents
The Police Youth Education Service (YES) makes education programmes and Police Education Officers available to schools free of charge. There are programmes for early childhood centres, primary, intermediate and secondary schools. The programmes are all designed to help children and young people lead happy, safe lives.
The programmes are planned and taught by the classroom teacher and the local Police Education Officer, working in partnership. They also evaluate them to see how much students have learnt.
Parents and caregivers have an important role in all YES programmes. This role involves:
- helping the school decide what programmes need to be taught;
- reinforcing the messages that the school is giving, for example about bullying and crossing the road;
- taking part in classroom lessons, especially in early childhood centres and new entrant classes;
- helping with take home activities;
- being a resource person;
- being a good role model for children and young people, for example always wearing a safety belt, not misusing alcohol;
- taking part in evaluation of learning.
Youth Education Programmes
The Police Education Officer takes YES programmes to the school and the school decides which ones they would like to use. You can ask your school which ones they are teaching. If there are programmes you would like your child's school to teach, ask your child's teacher or the principal. For example, if your child is being bullied you could ask the school if they are using Kia Kaha, the anti bullying programme.
The programmes are organised into four themes:
• Crime Reduction and Social Responsibility - eg Doing the Right Thing, Bugrlary-free
• Drug Education (DARE) - eg DARE to make a Choice
• School Road Safety Education - eg Stepping Out, DARE Drive to Survive
• Violence Prevention - eg Keeping Ourselves Safe, Kia Kaha
Crime Reduction and Social Responsibility
The New Zealand Police believe that children and young people should grow up with a sense of what is right and wrong and be able to take their place as responsible adults concerned about the safety of people and their property. In this programme students learn strategies to help keep their own and other's property safe and so reduce the risk of crime.
Find out more about this programme...
Practical things you can do as a parent
How can I help my child protect their own and other's property?
You can teach your children to:
- put things back in the right place
- always ask if they can borrow something and return it promptly with thanks
- treat possessions with care
- talk to them about how they would feel if one of their possessions was damaged or taken
- follow your example of looking after property well
- lock up possessions like bikes.
Find out more about this programme...
Doing the right thing
Police are concerned that a number of young people frequently display negative behaviours, such as disrespect for other people and their property, dishonesty, bullying and stealing. Doing the Right Thing is an attempt to help children clarify and develop their own values, which in turn will lead to a change of behaviour.
Practical things you can do as a parent
What can I do to prevent my child stealing?
- explain that stealing is wrong
- expect and show honesty
- help children to recognise and overcome the temptation to steal
- talk to children about how we feel when someone steals our possessions
- show them sensible alternatives to stealing to get the things that they need or want
- help them to sort out what things they can't have
- ask police to run a parents' discussion meeting on stealing, at your local school.
What do I do if my child steals?
- keep calm and talk it through together
- decide on the consequences as a family
- assist them to return stolen goods and to apologise to the owner.
What do I do if my child vandalises?
- keep calm and talk it through together
- decide on consequences as a family
- go with your child to apologise to the owner of the property
- help them to put the damage right.
What can I do to stop my child vandalising property?
- teach children to take care of their property from an early age
- show children how carefully you look after your own property
- talk about what vandalism is and how it spoils the environment
- explain that all property belongs to someone
- talk about how people feel when their things are damaged and destroyed
- help children to find positive ways to use their leisure time
- give them skills to resist pressure from their peers.
DARE - Skills for Life
DARE programmes are designed to enable children and young people to avoid illegal drugs, to make sensible choices about their use of alcohol and other drugs and to seek help when needed. A number of programmes are available, some are managed by the DARE Foundation and others by police.
Find out more about this programme...
School Road Safety Education
Children are very vulnerable road users. Every year children are killed and injured on the road, as passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, and other road users. Children are at risk on or near the roads because they:
- do not see and hear things in the same way adults do
- have undeveloped eyesight, especially peripheral vision
- are easily distracted by noises and such things as animals
- are short and can't see over or round things easily
- can't judge safe distances and make poor decisions about crossing the road
- may forget road rules if something unexpected happens, like a ball bouncing on the road.
As a parent, you have a very important role in practising and reinforcing road safety skills, whether it is walking, cycling or driving.
"The first, most powerful and ongoing ‘teaching’ is by modelling safe behaviour. Parents/caregivers set the pattern for the child’s own later road use behaviour. They model pedestrian, passenger AND driving behaviour. Young drivers have 15-18 years of exposure to their parents’ driving."
Joan Adams, VicRoads
Find out more about this programme...
Violence Prevention
The PoliceYouth Education Service has two violence prevention programmes - Kia Kaha and Keeping Ourselves Safe (KOS). Kia Kaha is an anti-bullying programme and KOS is a child protection, or child abuse prevention programme.
Kia Kaha
In Kia Kaha students, parents, caregivers and teachers are encouraged to recognise that bullying is unaccpetable in both the school and the wider community. They will develop strategies to stop bullying and replace it with acceptable behaviour. Kia Kaha promotes a whole-school aproach to reduce bullying.
Find out more about this programme...
Keeping Ourselves Safe
Keeping Ourselves Safe is a positive personal safety (child protection) programme that aims to provide children and young people with the skills to cope with situations that might involve abuse. It will help them keep themselves safe in their interactions with other people.
