By Miss Dawson (Head of Year 9)

On Friday 14th June, Year 9 joined Bedford School for a Citizenship morning. The idea for the now annual morning came from students of the two schools attending a Police Crime Commissioner’s Conference in March 2023, looking at the crimes that impact students of their age, including peer-on-peer abuse, knife crime, and exploitation, as well as the support available to tackle them. Despite the conference not taking place this year, the benefits of the joint morning last year, meant that we wanted to keep it in the calendar moving forward. Students from the two schools have met a number of times over the last few months to plan the content and prepare the resources for the morning.

The morning began with an introductory session from Mrs Swallow (Bedford School) and me about the values of the morning, with an ice breaker activity to start the students from the two schools speaking and interacting together.

The groups from Bedford School and BGS then came together to deliver the materials they had produced in mixed groups. This was an opportunity to discuss challenging topics and think about the impact of crime on young people their age.

The final session was led by PCSO Emily Hurst from Bedfordshire Police. It focused on the impacts of crime on both those involved and their communities. The session included materials from the Just Drop It campaign, featuring Roseann Taylor, who shared the story of her son AJ, tragically killed in a stabbing in Luton in 2018. Her moving account made a strong impression on the students. Emily also discussed stop and search and joint enterprise, and there was a Q&A session for the students.