Alfred Says - Teacher's Notes

West Midlands Police / Lamp Productions - Joint Project Introduction

After the well documented James Bulger affair and the subsequent comments from both the government and the media as to what the Church in Britain could do about morality of our young people, Lamp Productions Director, Rev Peter Green decided to respond to these please.

Rather than try to set up a new initiative in this area, Peter thought it would be better to make contact with those who were already responding to these concerns. A friend and former colleague who works for the Probation Service put Peter in touch with the Police Schools Liaison Department. After some initial attempts to see if joint efforts at working together with young people were possible, both Peter and the Police were thrilled with the success of these joint ventures. In addition the response from the schools was almost overwhelming!

The media soon heard about the successful partnership and were quick to testify to the effectiveness of this inter-agency approach. It was important to start by responding to the expressed needs of those schools calling on our specific services. They requested that we should cover the problem of 'Stealing.' This was very well received, and then through a process of discussion with school staff we prepared a special programme entitled: 'Be Good - Stay Safe!' 'Stranger Danger' and 'Road Safety' soon followed.

By introducing the subject in an Assembly situation it is also possible to include an additional Spiritual Application. This helps schools fulfil their legal obligations under the Education Acts. It was particularly gratifying to receive very encouraging responses from multi-ethnic schools.

The success so far has been far beyond our original expectations, and we could not foresee what repercussions would occur nation-wide. As Rev Peter has travelled around the country and had opportunity to share some of the materials with other schools there have been requests for us to present our 'Moral Message Assemblies' in schools as far apart as Leeds, Liverpool, London, Fleetwood, Sussex & Avon.

There is no way that one Minister and one Police Officer could ever hope to respond to such a wide appeal. We never went 'looking for a market,' but found ourselves striving to respond to what is obviously a nation-wide need for this type of input. We then faced the question, 'What is the next step?' It become apparent to us that the only way in which we could respond to these pleas was to film the sessions so that they will be available to be used by all schools.

This Video Resource has been produced in order to fulfil this aim.

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