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.).
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