LITTLE ones loved it when armed police stopped by their pre-school to talk about their role in the community.

Three officers brought two police cars and police dogs Elvis and Baxter to Blunsdon Pre-School for a rare face-to-face with toddlers.

PC Tim Rich said: "It's important for kids to meet the police at a young age, though armed officers usually try to keep a low profile - the public should only see us when we are needed.

"Normally, PCSOs visit pre-schools while we visit older pupils for a program about gun and knife crime but this was different.

"Our talk was about safety aspects, making children aware of different specialisms and how we can help them."

Pre-school deputy manager Louise Pike said: "The children absolutely loved it, they have been great. The day was all about teaching them not to be scared of police officers because the police are there to help people and keep us safe.

"We do talks on stranger danger but we also need to make it clear to the kids that police are strangers they can approach if they're in trouble."

The visit is part of a series of talks organised by the pre-school about safety and the emergency services, many of them in the same week.

First, a paramedic from Great Western Hospital talked about the importance of dialling 999 in an emergency and let pre-school pupils explore an ambulance. The next day, a nurse talked about the heart and lungs, measured pulses and did breath tests.

A road safety day followed, with youngsters practicing ways to cross the road safely outside their pre-school and receiving certificates for their efforts.

The armed police visit ended the week.

The fire service will visit the pre-school later this month after being too busy to pop in during the week.

Ms Pike added: "We did this week themed around people who help us last year and this year, we brought it back on a bigger scale. It's a fun week to have before they go off to big school and it teaches them important advice.

"The children have been excited all week, they loved seeing inside the ambulance and things like that.

"We have had really good feedback from parents about it, which is nice."