Doddinghurst Junior NHW

Doddinghurst Junior Neighbourhood Watch has now been running for around two years and has proved to be very poular with the children. In the first year, they contributed to preparing and installing the street signs and helping to decide where they should be placed around the village. The children learned about hidden property marking at one meeting. At another, they astonished the adults present with their powers of observation, when twelve of the children visited the Police Museum at Chelmsford and enjoyed an excellent session run by the museum's curator, Becky Wash. Becky also arranged a fascinating visit to the nearby central police control room. We repeated this trip this year on 15th July, this time taking two minibusses and visiting not just the museum and control centre, but also South Woodham Police Station where we tried to give the children the idea of the functioning of one of the better designed stations which are accessible.

At a our meeting on June 24th 2010,  we organised a session on burglary by distraction and were delighted that after the adults had read through an example script for a playlet, the children were able to create something very different, very much to the point, and probably more amusing. What is more, they did it in an incredibly short time. Bill and Peter from NHWand Emma and Dave from the police were amazed and delighted by what the children achieved.

Mrs Cooper, the headmistress of the Junior school recently hosted a meeting to plan events for the forthcoming year. We aim to have two events per term, one before and one after half term, and have what we hope will be an interesting further development from the 2009/10 programme.

Above are some photgraphs taken in the classroom whilst the children were reading some hidden messages and Moira was explaining more about each one. These photographs were taken when we had to use the Chuckles portable building for the meeting during lunchtime. From autumn 2009 we have been able to use one of the new classrooms in the school after lessons, which is much more convenient.