Tina's top tips for water safety - remember SAFE!

Last week I gave an assembly about Water Safety at my local primary school, having been inspired by the RLSS Water Safety Awareness campaign. 

120 children with ages ranging from 5 – 11 (reception through to Y6) meant it needed to be very visual with lots of props to help represent the four areas where water safety lessons can be applied:

(1) At home
(2) Out and about near rivers, canals, lakes, reservoirs etc
(3) at the swimming pool
(4) at the beach

I had fun scouting around looking for things to show: rubber gloves, bonsai tree, football, inflatable ring, bucket & spade, swimming hat & googles to name just a few! The bonsai was a stroke of luck – one of the teachers volunteered it as a prop from home and it was great to represent our countryside area.

By the time I came into the hall, the children were already taking their places – gulp!! I was apprehensive but once I got started it all went very smoothly. The children were very attentive as I spoke about the SAFE message using some large red letters as reminders, held by my teacher “volunteers” who were adorned with their relevant water safety area props! Lots of hands were raised when I asked questions – the children were really engaged!

We covered all the bases:

S – Spot the dangers
A – Take Advice
F – always go with a Friend
E – what to do in an Emergency.

It was great!  I really think the children got the message as I had children from reception through to the top year group getting involved and hardly anyone fidgeting – always a good indicator of being interested. It was brilliant.

I am really pleased with how it all went and will definitely do it again. I'm already thinking about next year and the possibility of having a Top Trunks day at school, i.e. wearing our swimming costumes over our clothes for day to raise awareness of the importance of water safety. I think the children will really love doing that – makes a change from pyjamas!

If anyone would like someone from Puddle Ducks to do a talk on Water Safety at their school, why not ask us?