The preventive project Police officer Leon advises was designed at the former Slovenj Gradec Police Directorate. The Ministry of Education and Sports also participated in the substantive preparation and evaluation of the project.

It was implemented first in the area of Koroška in 2007, however, due to large success among pupils and support of parents and teachers the project was expanded in October 2008 to the entire territory of Slovenia. The project is intended for fifth-grade pupils of the nine-year primary school program, which means that approximately 20,000 students are expected to participate each year.

The holder of the project is the Uniformed Police Directorate, and it is implemented by police directorates or police stations in cooperation with elementary schools.

The project intends to inform children about the dangers they may encounter in everyday life and to teach them about appropriate self-protection or preventive behaviour and respect for the rules in different areas. The Slovenian Police are aware of the importance of education on safety; that's why many prevention projects are intended for children. In addition, they want to increase the visibility of the neighbourhood police officers and strengthen partnership cooperation between children, teachers, parents and the police.

The course of the project

The central teaching aid in the implementation of the project is the workbook Police Officer Leon Advises. It deals with safety content, which is divided into five sections and covers several topics, also adapted to the time of year:

• traffic (safe way to school, safety belt, pedestrian safety),
• pyrotechnics (consequences of using pyrotechnics, vandalism, safe skiing),
• violence (peer, domestic, meeting strangers...),
• crime (home alone, home burglary, property protection...), and
• bicycle (safe cycling, cycling test, safety at swimming pools...).

The introductory part of the workbook is intended to present the work of a police officer. Individual topics are described in an imaginary story, followed by questions and advice from police officer Leon. Pupils get the notebook as their personal possession. At home, they answer various questions related to safety together with their parents. Other people who can contribute in any way to the upbringing and ensuring the general safety of children can also participate in solving the assignments from the workbook.

The project is carried out in such a way that the neighbourhood police officers explain students the listed safety content from the workbook during class hours. In the classroom, the teacher is also actively involved in the discussion and encourages pupils to participate. Pupils must actively participate all the time and look for solutions to problems or prepare in advance for the next lesson already at home. The neighbourhood police officer spends five school hours in each class or one lesson for each section to present all content.

In order for pupils to be as motivated as possible to work in class, the police prepared attractive prizes. After each lesson, pupils fill in the coupon on the back of the workbook and put it in a special box. After the completion of all five lessons, the neighbourhood police officer draws three pupils in each class, who receive prizes. All pupils receive acknowledgments, and principals and teachers receive thanks for their cooperation.

As part of the project, there is also a competition for the best writing, drawing, poem or other author's product on the following topics:

• my experience with the police officer,
• how safe I am on the road,
• I was left without my wallet, mobile phone, watch...

Attractive awards await the best, and participation in the competition is optional. If the school decides to participate, the teachers choose the best author's work in each class and send it all together to the Ministry of the Interior - Police by the end of the school year. At the General Police Directorate, an informal working group of representatives from different services selects the nine best products and awards them. In addition, award winners also receive various prevention materials. In order to assess the success of the project and the satisfaction of the participants in the project (as they also did in the area of Koroška), a survey was prepared for school leaders, teachers, parents and neighbourhood police officers.

Pupils 5th a and b from Primary School II Murska Sobota recorded the films Accident and Gang for the competition in the school year 2008/2009 and received symbolic awards for them, as they were among the best products. Project manager Jasna Perš also participated in the creation of the films, while teacher Marko Wolf took care of the technical implementation. With their permission, the two films are published on the Police website, as an incentive for further participation of pupils and schools in preventive activities aimed at improving their safety.

Related content

Accident (wmv, 10 MB) 
Gang (wmv, 12MB) 
Prevention projects
Police for children