TWO Kingsbridge Police officers have been to Kingsbridge Primary School to run ‘emergency control rooms’ with the pupils.

PC Rich Loxton and Sgt Ben Shardlow have undertaken a project using an internet-based company in schools to teach pupils about different subjects from sexting to truanting and shoplifting. On Tuesday, they were at Kingsbridge Primary School to teach seaside safety.

PC Loxton said: ‘It works where the children go in groups of two or three and pretend to run an emergency control room. They receive phone calls and messages, like 999 calls, and they have to decide how to best deal with them by dispatching the coastguard, police, ambulance etc.

‘They can watch “live” video clips of CCTV to see how their story is progressing and react to what happens. There is a separate “control room” in London who also pose the pupils questions. Marlin Primary School were also on line at the same time, doing the same activity and interacting.’

The project was viewed and approved by RNLI. We have also run a drawing competition and RNLI have offered prizes for the best ones.

PC Loxton continued: ‘The children thought it was fantastic and said that they learnt a lot. After the exercise, I spent an hour in the classroom answering a multitude of questions about the police and what we do. It was really great to be able to get in to chat with the children.

‘We hope to run some more of these in the next school year.’

You can follow Kingsbridge Police on Facebook: @kingsbridgepolice