Water safety assemblies making a splash at Mansfield schools

The idea for this water safety initiative came from Hayley Kirk, the aquatics lead for More Community Leisure Trust, which runs the centres in partnership with Serco Leisure.

Hayley manages the trust’s Learn to Swim programme and is a passionate advocate for water safety.

She said: “On average, about 400 people accidentally drown in the UK each year. In these assemblies, we want to get across to the children the importance of learning to swim, but we also want them to be more aware about water safety overall.

“In the assemblies, we teach them about beach flags and what each colour means, we also show a video of the HELP [heat escape lessening posture] position and encourage some of the pupils to come up to the front so they can demonstrate this to the rest of the school.

“We’ve already staged two sessions since we kicked off the programme last month and I’ve had plenty of interest from other schools with further dates already booked in the calendar.

“Any teacher who’d like us to come in for one of their assemblies, please drop me an email.”

One of the first water safety sessions took place at King Edward Primary School and Nursery, St Andrew Street, Mansfield.

Sue Bridges, headteacher, said: “We have our swimming lessons at Water Meadows and it was brilliant that several instructors visited us to give children some excellent advice about keeping themselves safe around water.”

Andy Abrahams, Mansfield mayor, said: “This a fantastic initiative as water training is critical to help anyone acquire the essential skills to be confident and competent around and in the water. Learning to swim combined with water safety education at an early age provides the foundations to open up a lifetime of opportunities and confidence with water.”

Schools interested in staging a water safety assembly should email Hayley at [email protected]