Water Safety Talks for quintet of Kalgoorlie schools

Royal Life Saving WA Aquatic Trainer Gayle Cruden visited five primary schools in Kalgoorlie during March to deliver a series of Water Safety Talks to students thanks to funding from Principal Community Partner BHP.

Royal Life Saving WA’s Water Safety Talks offer an interactive classroom workshop for school children to gain water safety knowledge and skills they need to stay safe in the water. The talks also cover safe rescue techniques for a range of aquatic environments, with students given the chance to practise these techniques in a dry setting.

Gayle spoke to more than 900 school children from Pre-Primary to Year 6 during her tour, which included Boulder Primary School, CAPS Coolgardie, South Kalgoorlie Primary School, St Joseph’s School Boulder and St Mary’s Primary School.

Gayle said the students at each school loved role-playing the dry rescues and were really engaged with the program's content.

The Water Safety Talks occurred just before many of the schools had their swimming and lifesaving carnivals and reiterated the survival skills that the students had been learning in their swimming lessons.

“The presentation covered a range of aquatic environments, not just the pool where they do lessons and play,” said Gayle.

“When the kids attended our ‘Have a Go’ day on the Saturday after they had their Water Safety Talk in school they were saying how much they learnt and that it was great fun.”

If you would like to learn more about hosting a Water Safety Talk at your school, please visit the link below.