Count the tips

Lesson 4 – 60 minutes

Learning outcomes

• Identify and understand the 10 SLSA beach safety tips.
• Recognise the importance of communicating with beach users.
• Identify ways to communicate with beach users.
  

Preparation

• Picture/poster of a rip.
• Whiteboard and markers (optional).
• Read through the Surf Safety Tips before the lesson to familiarise yourself with them.
  

Discuss

• Start by having the participants recall the F.L.A.G.S. acronym.
• Write the first letter of each safety tip (i.e. ‘F’) on a whiteboard/butchers paper and ask the participants to recall the safety tip and what it means.
  

Discuss

• Introduce the final five safety tips that focus on what beach users should ‘never’ do, discuss each one of these tips focusing on why they shouldn’t be done:
  

Activity 1

• Split the participants into 10 groups and assign an adult parent/helper to each group.
• Give each group a different tip to act out in a role play.
• Give the groups 10 minutes to work on their role plays.
• Ask each group to act out their surf safety tip role play in front of the rest of the participants.
  

Discuss

• Discuss the importance of delivering effective communication as a lifesaver to beach users.
  

COMMUNICATING AS A LIFESAVER
As an organisation providing expert advice and service to the public, it is essential that surf lifesavers use effective communication to:

1. Inform and Educate.
2. Provide warnings.
3. Offer assistance.
4. Give advice.

Ask the participants to brainstorm the kind of messages that lifesavers could communicate to beach users (write answers on a whiteboard/butchers paper):

1. Making the public feel welcome at your beach.
2. Advising the public as to who the Patrol Captain is that they can approach if they have questions etc.
3. Advising the public of patrol times and club services.
4. Advising the public of current and forecasted conditions.
5. Advising the public of their proximity to a hazard or their breaching of a beach safety regulation.
6. Ask the participants to discuss the different ways in which we can communicate with the public:
   1. Information boards/PA announcements.
   2. Roving patrols/talking to the public.

*AGE MANAGER TIPS

Let the exercise be fun – give feedback without being too critical.