This year’s junior safety officers  are now in place to help promote  road, community and personal   safety.

Working in partnership with  Cheshire West and Chester Council’s  Road Safety Officers and  Cheshire  Constabulary, two special events have  been held to sign  the children up for  their new  role.

Each school has been invited to  nominate two Year 6 pupils as  junior safety officers (JSO) for  this school  year.

The role of a JSO is to communicate  monthly messages and  organise competitions in their  school. The JSOs  have now received their certificate  and badge  of office and will use a  special  school guide to help them  promote road, personal and community safety during their year  in  office.

Messages for October concentrate  on wearing bright clothes  throughout  autumn and winter  so that children  can be seen by  drivers and also how to  stay safe  in the local community.

The overall aim is to communicate  messages regarding road  safety, community safety and personal safety to  all the pupils in  each school who will  then take the  messages home to their  families.

At the end of their year in office  the  JSO can put his or her name  forward  for an award to select  who has made  the biggest impact  to promote the  safety messages to  their school and  local community.

Councillor Lynn Riley the  Council’s  Executive Member for  Localities said:  “It is always  amazing to see so many  children  across the borough getting  actively involved in promoting safety   in their school environment.”

“This year’s launches were well  attended by the newly appointed  JSOs and their families and  friends with many of the teaching  staff attending and getting involved as well.

“This is a wonderful scheme for  delivering practical and fun ways  for our children to stay safe at  school, at home and at play and  the enthusiasm and commitment  that the children bring to the  programme, as well as a range of  new ideas of their own, is always  great to see.”

Inspector Richard Rees of  Cheshire Constabulary said:  “Through the JSO initiative we  are working in partnership with  Cheshire West and Chester Council to show the children how they  can work together to keep their  school community safe.

“The JSOs help us make a difference so that we make sure  everyone stays safe and feels safe  in the area they live.

“Once again the JSOs are all  keen to get started and are excited  to continue the hard work of past  Officers.”