Lesson 6 – 30 minutes

  • Recognise unsafe behaviours at the beach
  • Identify the actions of a beach user in an unsafe situation
  • Develop an understanding of preventative actions

Preparation

  • Whiteboard and markers (optional)
  • Butcher paper and markers (optional).

Discuss

Ask the participants the following questions:

  • What do you think an unsafe behaviour is (eg behaviors that could hurt somebody)?
  • Can you think of an unsafe behaviour at home or school? (ie putting hand under hot water, leaving an element on, hanging a towel over a heater, etc.)?
  • Ask participants to describe some unsafe behaviours they have witnessed, then prompt for:
    • What the person could have done to prevent this unsafe behavior?
    • What the participant could have done to help?
  • Bring the discussion to the beach environment by asking the participants to list unsafe behaviours at the beach, like:
    • Jumping off rocks
    • Fishing on rocks in large surf
    • Not swimming between the flags
    • Swimming in a rip
    • Swimming alone
    • Swimming out of their depth/ability
    • Being too tired to swim

Using examples provided by the participants, discuss how you would go about identifying people who need assistance, for example:

  • Washed off rocks and can’t get back up
  • Swimmer has raised their arm for assistance
  • Swimmer is ‘climbing the ladder

Using examples provided discuss how these unsafe behaviors could be prevented.

Discuss

  • Discuss and give examples of lifesaving ‘preventative actions’ on a patrol (preventative actions are actions that a lifesaver takes to prevent or stop an emergency situation happening, i.e. stopping a swimmer entering a rip, picking up sharp objects from the sand, talking to a group of beach users about beach safety etc.).

Need more help with this?
Don’t hesitate to contact us here.

Was this helpful?

Yes No
You indicated this topic was not helpful to you ...
Could you please leave a comment telling us why? Thank you!
Thanks for your feedback.