To think water safety needs to be made into a bigger thing?

[MeltingPregnantLady]

This summer several young teens and young adults have drowned jumping into or swimming in areas of open water having fun in the heatwave and cooling off seemingly oblivious to the risks involved (as teens and young adults often are!).

I live reasonably near the coast and at no point have any of the schools done any water safety education - even basics - in class. We have because we feel it is important however not all parents will think like us. Should there be some kind of drive either in schools or in the press or at waterfronts telling people just how dangerous seemingly safe areas of water can be?

Fair point but interesting that you don’t mention parents as a source of safety information. Schools can’t be responsible for everything.

I did... but also recognise not all parents do anything about it.

Why is it always the responsibility of schools to teach this stuff?

I didn't say it was their sole responsibility. I do feel in areas near large bodies of water or costal towns there should be some reminders from the council or similar go out in book bags or as an assembly. The rest is parental responsibility yes.

Why is the first thought always “schools need to teach it”? It’s pure laziness. Parents have primary responsibility for keeping their children safe! There’s news reports every single summer about the dangers of jumping into water especially quarries etc so there’s plenty of information available.

Info in book bags? It isn’t primary kids that are recklessly jumping in lakes etc.

I agree water course can be just as dangerous or even more so then roads yet roads are covered extensively yet water safety is not.

Ie when growing up in the lake district we had 1 assembly on water safety but tons about road safety.

I am not saying road safety is bad just that it is done perfectly yet another equally dangerous thing is not covered at all well.

People generally know that it can be dangerous to jump in water. They just don’t think it will happen to them.

I agree I think schools should educate as parents clearly aren't, I grew up near a river which people used to swim in regularly but apart from the odd "you shouldn't swim in the river" fairly half heartedly I don't remember a single adult ever really going over the risks with us as kids. I do remember lots of adults telling us about the fun they had swimming in the river as a teen though . I think despite it being on the news every year about people drowning people go with the "it never did me any harm" line of thinking and adults genuinely don't see the risks. Maybe more should be done to educate adults though as well but I'm not sure how you would do that.

I see you’re point op. Yes parents should be teaching their children this stuff, no one disagrees with that. However, some parents just do not, you can’t get around that. So teaching these things in school children will be exposed to it more than if just left up to lessons at home. I do think it is a good idea. If it saves a life what’s the issue?

We went to see Jurassic Park and there was a water safety film about falling in cold water. I’ve just shared a post on Facebook on rip tides.

My DCs has a surf less where that went into great detail on rip tides.

Do your dCs go swimming with school? I’m sure they must talk water safety there.

You could offer to arrange for RNLI or similar to visit school ... ?

Does need talking about though. The kids I’ve seen in dangerous situations ah e been with idiot parents doing idiot things though. The parent encouraging his kid to play chicken with waves at high tide, the kids allowed out on Lilos into surf, the ones not observing the flags and taking small kids where surfers are....

It is sometimes mentioned in swimming classes I have been to, but only the lifesaving ones, so once a year at primary level (when it’s not the target age anyway).
Every year we see deaths in open water, it’s a tragedy and I wish there was more awareness.
Some people don’t think the very clear information boards around our lakes and reservoirs apply to them - maybe they think they are really good swimmers, I don’t know? When the point is that it doesn’t matter how good a swimmer you are, they are dangerous anyway.
I asked DS if there has been any info at his secondary school. They cover lots of PHSE Plus First Aid etc topics in assembly and Off Timetable days, but not that.

And also people think of schools because where else do you get such a large captive audience of young people?

It doesn't have to be the teachers who run it. The local council (who run road safety courses) or RoSPA or the RNLI or Coastguard could be brought in to give talks.

Schools do a good job of teaching kids not to play on railway lives. We had a train driver come in and talk us through the harrowing experience of having a child go under his train and having to knock on his parents' door.

They could certainly do something similar regarding bodies of water.

In neither case does it relieve the parents of the main duty of care to keep their kids safe. It should reinforce what the children are taught at home.

*Railway lines

In east London, the council has had staff patrolling the docks for several days to stop teenagers jumping in.
There are hundreds of signs telling you it is dangerous.
But they just don't believe it will happen to them. And in their view, no one has actually died doing it so clearly it's just boring adults trying to stop the fun.

Not sure how schools telling them exactly the same thing as the signs will change that. Parents might be a lot more effictive at talking about it and policing it.

Schools do a good job of teaching kids not to play on railway lines

Do they? Not at any school I’ve been in.

There is a don't drink and drown campaign in a city close to me after a number of fatalities of uni students in the river after nights out. There is also adverts at the moment on the radio about not jumping into reservoirs as the shock can kill you. But nothing really aimed at under 15s and living close to a river that's caused numerous deaths, its quite surprising the lack of knowledge about dangers, even by the parents.

We've had leaflets through the door from the local police and council. My children are all strong swimmers but I have spoken to them about the dangers of open water swimming and jumping into places. Something happened within the family which was related to this so they do know more than most would, I imagine.
I think it would be good for schools to do an assembly on it too to reinforce it.

Why don't you write to every school in your town/city and suggest it?

I'm a secondary teacher, it's definitely something we could mention in an assembly etc. As a kid I used to spend the entire summer playing in the river near my house. My parents never stopped me and it didn't occur to me then that it could be dangerous.

Yes absolutely agree with you OP

This is something parents should be teaching their children. Schools already have enough on our curriculum, or where do you stop?

There are national campaigns around this, this week is national swim safe week, it includes info about the circumstances you are talking about. I agree parents also need to take responsibility.

Yanbu.

Of course it’s the parents’ responsibility, but that doesn’t mean schools just shouldn’t be arsed. At school I had road safety, drugs and alcohol awareness, sex education etc drilled into me. Was it their sole responsibility? No. But they still did it. That’s not to criticise schools, as they can’t cover everything, but it’s not a bad idea that they might like to cover water safety in schools too.

We had people come in to talk about things like good toothbrushing technique in primary school as well btw. I don’t think suggesting this is all that .