VANDALISM, graffiti and dog mess are just some of the offences that prompted York schoolchildren to take action after spending a day on the beat with local police.

As part of the annual Job Swap Week at Carr Junior School, Year 6 pupils joined police community support officers on patrol to learn how crime and vandalism impacted on the local community.

The children, armed with a camera, took photos of the issues that bothered them and then wrote to local figureheads, including councillor Tracey Simpson-Laing, voicing their concerns.

Caroline Ryder, head teacher, said: “We have a very good working relationship with the local police in our community so as part of Job Swap Week children went out on patrol with the safer neighbourhood team.

“It was a two-way discussion in that the police showed the children how vandalism, such as graffiti, broken glass or dropped litter-can have a negative impact on the community and the pupils then raised their concerns about what they felt were problems that needed to be tackled.”

The children collected more than 300 signatures on a petition and handed it into the council appealing for extra dog bins in the area.

Ms Ryder said the children received dozens of letters of support for their project.

She said: “The children received really positive feedback and I am really proud of them for being so committed to the project. We have put all the photos they took and the letters of reply up at the school to display the children’s hard work.”