To think water and wildfire safety and education need to be made mandatory?

[TheCactusSpokes]

We are well aware our climate is changing yet there appears to be very little action from the government to educate children on the impacts of both water and fire, and the associated education on how to stay safe with both of these?

I'm just wondering at what point the loss of human life and environmental destruction we've already seen tips to a point when the government will actually start educating the general population (mainly kids).

I teach at primary level and we do teach about environmental destruction. What is your evidence they don’t?
Parents can teach these things too.

"Swimming and water safety is a compulsory part of the National Curriculum at primary school to make sure that children are well equipped to enjoy swimming and know how to keep safe in and around water". Googled it so you didnt have to

People need to make sure they and their kids can swim. I’m always amazed and appalled by the number of people who still can’t.

As above. They are already do teach it.

It's not just being able to swim that is the problem though, it's cold water shock and people diving or jumping where it's not safe, or swimming in unsafe conditions.

Well yes, but schools can't exactly boot kids into shopping trolley filled frigid water to make a point. That's on parents to explain and educate, with the ultimate aim being "don't swim unless it's a swimming pool or a lifeguarded beach"

Climate change has been on the curriculum for literal decades. I was taught about it and my kids were taught about it.

swimming and water safety is also on the curriculum. Swimming is usually taught at primary although there’s not enough time to really teach it properly to everyone.

most secondary schools will have some kind of water safety assembly in the spring where the local fire service/rnli/whoevet point out again that water is dangerous.

You can tell kids anything you want, the problem is, the group who most need to hear it (teens) don’t want to and peer pressure is real.

I bet most primary pupils could tell you jumping in a river is a bad idea and wouldn’t dream of it. They also won’t get the opportunity as always with a parent. Teens must also have had these messages (and seen deaths on the news) but they see their mates doing it and 99% of the time there’s no negative consequences so they think it’s fine.

Most teens could tell you why drinking, smoking, drugs and vaping are a bad idea. Yet they still do it.

This is one of those things that I think is down to parents to teach. By government, you mean via schools right? Why is it up to schools to teach children basic life skills? There is nothing stopping people from teaching their kids about fire and how to swim (though I'm fairly certain swimming IS part of the curriculim).

Exactly this!

It's more than just having one week of swimming lessons in year 4 (here, in an area where we have recently had several drownings).

Fire safety, things like not to open an internal door etc

But parents cannot teach it if they don't know themselves.

I agree, OP. It is known that most wildfires are caused by humans - cigarette ends. BBQs etc - so clearly more education is required. I thought you meant government advertising campaigns like in the 1970s. Also people have been drowning in rivers and lakes in the recent heatwaves. Parents in my area clearly do not know about the risks of drowning because they are dropping their teens off at a nearby lake and swimming is not allowed in it.

There are always safety talks, assemblies etc in all UK state schools about not setting fires, not going into unknowns water, care cycling and on the roads. Teenagers think they're invincible though, and don't apply the safety talks to themselves

What about emergency first aid? Staying safe with electricals? Online safety? Financial literacy? Healthy relationships? Escaping submerged vehicles? Breakaway techniques for girls? Food safety? Etc etc. These are all things I see suggested for governments to teach, and you cannot just teach it once if you want it to actually stick, so it ends up falling on schools. It just isn't possible to teach everything being requested outside of the curriculum. You can't just stick it on tv anymore because people watch Netflix and YouTube. Maybe they need to give a 'basic life skills' booklet to parents when their kids are born...

People do know the risks. They just choose to think their children will be ok. It’s like anything, drinking, smoking, driving, flying.

What outside of school (as it’s already covered) do you think would be effective?

You've read the 2025 PSHE curriculum guidelines?

At what point do you, as the parent, decide to take responsibility for making sure your children know things that you deem it crucial for them to know?

Do you think children absorb every iota of information in school? And that they can immediately recall advice in a pressured situation?

Or is it perhaps more pertinent to try to stop your children going into waters they shouldn't be in, and to stop twatting about with fireworks, disposable bbqs and lighting fires?

'The government will fix it' is also such a fallacy. Making a few hours of classroom teaching compulsory in these subjects doesn't magically make children into these expert survivalists and I wonder if it would actually end up with kids who are less educated on the topic because parents will think 'well that's that box ticked' when in reality with kids and teens, the info needs to be repeated (a lot!).

Bring back the public information films from the 70s … that one about not swimming in deep water was terrifying.

But they do teach all this as much as is reasonable and practical! They can’t parent for you though. What do you do at home to support this important learning?

That excuse just doesn't wash any more. We have near universal smart phone ownership in people under about 70. Just about every parent has access to all this information so if they choose not to educate themselves, that's on them.

Perhaps we should have compulsory public safety videos that can't be skipped on TikTok, Instagram etc. If you don't watch them, they don't get to watch the content they are interested in.

There are lakes across the country that can be used for safe swimming year round. Schools could take them both in the summer when the water is fairly warm and at times of year when it's colder for the experience and practical safety lessons.

Although I can imagine the AIBUs from snowflake parents 'AIBU to not let my DC go on a cold water swimming school trip'.

People in other countries swim outside as a matter of course, often with worse weather than the UK, so I don't know what's different about why it can't happen here.

Outdoor or wild swimming is increasingly popular and the government have (fairly sensibly) chosen to educate on safety rather than say don’t do it.

there are now many many organisations that offer a lifeguarded introduction to open water swimming - brief plug for one I am volunteering at next month - like this:

https://brecks.org/events/intro-to-outdoor-swimming-adult-and-13/

there are literally hundreds of these around the country and if anyone reading this is nervous about their teen or child swimming in open water please do google to find your local one and do the course.

there are also loads of venues that offer regular swimming sessions in a lifeguarded, water tested lake that is safe. Many venues are members of
https://nowca.org/
and most venues run some kind of introductory session.

sea swimming can also be dangerous - tides, etc but the correct response is not to forbid people from going to the beach.

We used to have those fucking terrifying public info films, remember Death waiting by the pond? We should have more of those. Ireland did some absolutely brutal road safety adverts, I'll never not wear a seatbelt again after seeing those.

People are fucking clueless. It doesn't help that we dont have real wildfires here. We have fires, but not the ones we are seeing in France or the US. The absolute ferocity and speed of those isn't something we know about. So people are complacent. Look at how many have died in the water over the past few weeks. There does need to be a massive push to educate people about the dangers of water. You can't just jump into deep water and rescue a drowning person like you see in the films. Years ago, I attended a water safety course at work and it was explained that you cant just reach out and grab the hand of someone who is caught in a current or tide. The force of the water dragging on their bodies is immense. You'll end up either being pulled in with them or having your shoulder ripped out.

I absolutely agree OP. We need a proper coordinated response.

Should schools just give in and do every part of parenting?