The vision of education in New Zealand is to have young people who are confident, connected, actively involved lifelong learners.
Murrays Bay School on the North Shore of Auckland has been instrumental in achieving this goal by actively engaging students in improving their local environment by applying CPTED (Crime Prevention through Environmental Design) principles and understandings normally reserved for the Police, town planners and criminologists. Incidentally, CPTED, which has been around for 4 decades, has also been applied to the planning and development of the city of Saskatoon in Canada, and during the rebuild of Christchurch, New Zealand, after its many earthquakes. The teaching of CPTED is also included in Police training in New Zealand and Australia. CPTED is fundamentally about creating safe environments for people, from a visual, emotional and psychological perspective.
Fleur Knight introduced CPTED to the year 5 and 6 students at Murrays Bay School because she recognised that in order for young people to be responsible citizens of future communities, they needed to be actively involved in their community at a young age. This meant they needed to be part of the solution to problems, rather than the cause. And so, the students Fleur has worked with have applied their understandings of CPTED to pre-schools, bus stations, a retirement village and primary schools as a way of improving how people use each of these community facilities on the North Shore of Auckland.
Initially, this involved the students learning about the principles of CPTED which are:
Natural Surveillance or “eyes on the street” is making a place unattractive for offenders who wish to create crime with impunity. This also includes mechanical surveillance such as CCC TV and organised surveillance such as security companies.
Access control refers to controlling who goes in and out of a neighborhood, park, and school. This focuses on entry and exit points and signage.
Image refers to the appearance of a place. An environment that looks cared for indicates to criminals that crime in that area will not be tolerated.
Territoriality is about creating areas that are private, pubic and semi public. These spaces can be achieved for through landscaping example.
These principles were taught to the students using their school as a starting point. The students audited their school during the day by walking around it with hand drawn maps which show familiarity with the area being audited.
The day audit was then analysed using the CPTED principles. Areas with a star were very safe, orange areas could be improved and red areas needed improvement to maximise safety.
The students then audited Murrays Bay School at night. This enabled the students to see the effect lighting has on what they see and think they see. The students also identified how movement predictors, such as paths look and feel in daylight and at night, and ascertained their safety at these different times of day.
After conducting an audit the students then presented their findings to the Murrays Bay School staff and the Board of Trustees, and included explanations of their findings and future recommendations to improve safety at Murrays Bay School.
After hearing of their work, the Auckland Council approached the students and asked them to audit two bus stations on the North Shore of Auckland. This involved the students travelling by bus to the Sunnynook and Constellation Bus Stations and auditing them.
Their findings were then presented to members of the Council and the recommendations made are going to be used in the development of the next 3 bus stations in Auckland.
The students also audited a local retirement village. One of the recommendations made in this instance was to include pathways for the elderly to improve interaction between residents and widen their circle of acquaintances and friends; therefore adding to their feeling of belonging and safety.
A local pre-school that was audited used the audit as part of their ERO report.
These audits, presentations and recommendations led to stronger social cohesion between users of each of these facilities, and built connectivity between Murrays Bay School and its surrounding neighbourhood. The students are now involved in auctioning their recommendations to these community spaces, including working with the community to produce large murals for Sunnynook Bus Station.
Members of the Local Council, Baptist Church, teenagers from a local basketball team and residents who live on the road near the Sunnynook Bus Station are involved in designing and creating artworks to make this facility more appealing to their young people, reducing congestion on Auckland’s roads and making stronger connections in their local neighbourhood.
The teaching of CPTED principles and understandings have not only promoted the intellectual, physical, social, emotional, moral, spiritual and wellbeing of the students at Murrays Bay School, they have also led to social cohesion, and the resolution of some complex environmental, economic, health, security and social justice issues.
In Issue 29 Fleur will share the story of how students from Murray Bay School developed a relationship with Starship Children’s’ Hospital through the use of CPTED.