PRIMARY schoolchildren from across Craven were given valuable lessons in safety at the North Yorkshire Police led Crucial Crew event held near Gargrave.

A total of 555 year six - 10 and 11 year olds - from 36 primary schools attended one of the days at the week-long event held at the Play Away Centre, Eshton Grange.

Crucial Crew , which has been going for more than 20 years and is staged at different centres in North Yorkshire, is a multi-agency event, supported by the fire service, giving children lessons in how to keep safe.

Using a range of activities and talks, the children are taught to think about their behaviour and given lessons on how to stay safe in a range of situations.

Paul Stephenson, school liaison officer, based at Skipton Police Station, said: “All students experienced a ‘real’ inter active multi-agency event learning about how to keep safe, thinking about their behaviour and consequences. They also learned about family relationships, water safety, electricity safety, and fire safety. There also talks about stress and anxiety , drugs and alcohol awareness and countryside safety.

It was a fun day for the students, but with real life consequence and safety messages. “

The police have produced a Crucial Crew online game with the digital agency Plump. The lively and colourful urban adventure game is aimed at challenging children, in a fun and interactive way, to test out the life skills they have learnt while attending the sessions.

Anyone who would like to talk to Paul about school visits to talk about safety issues, can email him at: Paul.Stephenson@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk