And while being on or in or by the water offers fun and thrills and relaxation in various measures, it can also provide a range of hidden dangers for the unaware, with tragedy only a matter of minutes away for the unprepared.
It’s why ensuring children and young people are equipped with the necessary life skills for water safety and staying safe in and around pools, beaches, rivers, lakes or while boating, is a responsibility for all of us.
It’s also why the Australian National Maritime Museum and Royal Life Saving Society Australia have joined forces for two special primary school online workshops – one on December 9 for K-2 students and another on December 10 for Years 3-6 students.
In a fun and informative way, the children will receive guidance on how to identify safety hazards, respond to imaginary scenarios, and understand how to keep themselves safe around water.
Alicia De Audney is digital education projects officer at the Australian National Maritime Museum and looks after its online education services.
“We are the Museum of the Sea or the Mu-sea-um as our branding has it,” De Audney laughs.
“We interpret that really widely. Because we’re a national institution, we like to think about all of the waterways across the country, because water is something that’s so essential to our history, to our present and to our future.”
Mathew Sloane, head of education at the Australian National Maritime Museum, says his organisation is thrilled to be partnering with the Royal Life Saving Society Australia to bring these important workshops to children across the country in time for summer.
The workshops are in partnership with the Royal Life Saving Society.
“We’ve been planning this for about three months and it’s really tied into that timing just before the summer holidays, so for teachers, we’re thinking that reports are done, it’s a tricky time for teachers,” De Audney says.
“It’s about getting these messages to kids right before the summer holidays, having those ideas, those images fresh in their minds, and we hope the teachers will see the appeal of getting them to do that in our last week or two of school for the year.”
The workshops are highly interactive.
“So we’ll get them to type in all of their messages to us, we’ll have lots of questions for them, they can type in their answers, but they can also ask questions as well.
“If there’s something they don’t understand, something they want to know more about, or maybe they’ve just made a connection they can type in, and we’ll be reading out those comments live during the workshops.”
The workshops will dive into the risks that children might face in different places, such as pools, farms, rivers, lakes and beaches.
Source: Summer Drowning Toll report 2023-2024
“…and the sessions are really age appropriate. So it’s not about trying to scare the kids, we’re providing factual information about how they can mitigate the risk and how they can get help if they do wind up in a dangerous situation.”
As mentioned, the sessions are separated into two sessions – one for the K-2s, and once for Years 3-6s.
“We’ve split them up because the Royal Life Saving has different messages for the two different groups.
“The K-2 session is more focused around the home and about making sure there’s adult supervision.
“That’s something that’s always important for all kids, but in the older years, they tend to be more independent, so it’s more about looking at all of the different things that they can do and how they can participate in identifying dangerous situations like rips, submerged hazards, water flow, wave size etc.”
Migrant families are often at greater risk due to English not being a first language and signage issues, along with a lack of water safety education in their previous country.
While the sessions will be delivered in English, Zoom has a capacity to include closed captions in a range of languages.
“...and depending on what the classroom situation is like, they might have somebody available to help them translate live, as well.
“We’re also sending out lots of follow-up resources for teachers to do in their own time, hopefully for the whole rest of the week and so that’s really going to help kids who have English as an additional language reinforce that knowledge and look at it in different ways as well.”
Alicia De Audney, pictured above, says “the sessions are really age appropriate. So it’s not about trying to scare the kids, we’re providing factual information about how they can mitigate the risk and how they can get help if they do wind up in a dangerous situation".
The importance of water safety knowledge, particularly during summer was brought home again with Royal Life Saving Society annual research showing a consistent peak in fatal drowning cases during these months.
Each year, to better understand the increased risks during this time of the year, it publishes the Summer Drowning Toll from December 1 til the end of February, which charts drowning incidents across the country.
Last summer there were 99 reported drowning deaths in this period, with 14 per cent of that total being people under the age of 19.
Thirty-two per cent were swimming and recreation-related, with 41 per cent at the beach, 24 per cent at a river or creek and 18 per cent in a harbour or on the ocean. Eight per cent were in a lake or dam, and 5 per cent involved a pool.
Between Christmas Day and January 2 was the highest period of drownings incidents, representing 26 per cent of total drowning fatalities over the summer.
Males represented 71 per cent of drowning deaths over last summer.
“The report shows us that for children aged five to 14 years, drowning deaths most frequently occur in a river or a creek,” De Audney says.
“And that’s actually 43 per cent of the drowning and most of these are happening from an unintentional fall into the water, but many are also happening when they’re intentionally swimming in the water as well.
“Penny Larson, the education manager at Royal Life Saving, taught me that it’s people from disadvantaged and regional areas that are drowning at higher rates than those from higher advantage areas, particularly for this age group, children aged five to 14 years.”
The Royal Life Saving Society of Australia has a huge range of educational resources, all of them completely free for teachers to access.
“Their website would be the first place that I would be looking – there are printable worksheets, unit plans, everything you could possibly want, it’s age specific,” de Audney says.
To register for the Years K-2 workshops on December 9 at 2pm (AEST), click here.
To register for theYears 3-6 workshops on December 10 at 2pm (AEST), click here.
