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The world building game Minecraft has been used to teach pupils how to stay safe.
The video game, which is the best-selling of all-time, was used as part of an educational pilot with Gwent Police.
This saw pupils of Derwendeg Primary School, in Cefn Hengoed, create their own digital world with replicas of local landmarks and even their own school building.
This world was then populated by characters created by Gwent Police Community Safety Officers for pupils to interact with and learn about things such as online safety, how to report a crime and even awareness of how to spot exploitation from county lines drug gangs.
Gwent Police is the first force in Wales to use Minecraft in this way.
Alex Donne, a community support officer with Gwent Police, said: “By using technology like this, we can build great links with young people across Gwent, and highlight how the police and the community can work together to increase safety in our neighbourhoods.
“The project’s enabled us to deliver community safety advice in an engaging and fun way – something we hope sticks with the pupils in Derwendeg Primary School.
“Throughout the project, learners have been encouraged to take pride in their community, think about how their streets could be made safer and speak about local concerns.”
The aim is to now roll the project out to more than 100 schools in the Gwent force area.
Every pupil in Wales has access to Minecraft: Education Edition through the Welsh Government’s online learning platform Hwb Cymru.
Sarah Snowdon, Hwb Minecraft Learning Centre Programme Manager, said: “It is fantastic to see how technology, community and policing can be brought together and come alive in a really relevant way to the benefit of so many learners and adults.
“To think that Minecraft: Education Edition and creative young people can change perspectives on how policing and community have common aims and share similar ambitions is incredibly powerful.”
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