Wolverhampton school teams up with neighbour officers to engage with young people in city centre

Officers from Wolverhampton City Centre Neighbourhood Team have joined forces with a local headteacher and a special four-legged colleague as part of ongoing work to engage with young people after the school day ends.

PC Pete McKinnon recently patrolled Wolverhampton city centre and bus station alongside St Regis CE Academy Headteacher Chris Green and the school’s dog mentor, Orla.

The patrol formed part of a wider initiative aimed at building positive relationships with young people, identifying areas where anti-social behaviour can occur, and encouraging early intervention through partnership working.

Orla, who supports pupils as a school mentoring dog, proved a huge hit with members of the public and young people alike, helping to spark conversations and create positive interactions throughout the patrol.

St Regis CE Academy has been at the forefront of the initiative, launched by Wolverhampton's Police and Schools panel, chaired by the school's vice principal for safeguarding and inclusion, Tom Barradas-Lingard, and are working closely with neighbourhood officers to engage with young people in the city centre after school.

The partnership approach has already shown positive results in the city centre and is hoped to become a model that can be expanded to include other schools across Wolverhampton in the future.

Head of School Chris Green said: “We’re proud to be working alongside our city centre policing team on this initiative. It’s about being visible, building positive relationships with our young people and supporting them beyond the school gates. We’ve already seen encouraging results and hope this approach can be developed further with other schools across the city.”

PC McKinnon said: “We hope this is just the start of partnerships with local schools in Wolverhampton and our team. Having local teachers patrol with us allows us to engage with pupils from their schools and gives us opportunities to have positive conversations that we might not otherwise have.

“It’s about working together to support young people, prevent issues before they arise and build stronger relationships between schools, police and the wider community. We look forward to seeing more schools get involved in the future.”

The long-term aim is for schools from across Wolverhampton to take part, creating a multi-agency approach to engaging with young people and tackling anti-social behaviour in the city centre through prevention, education, and positive intervention.