Active Black Country officially launched their Water safety programme at the Bert Williams Leisure Centre in Bilston. It will deliver education around water safety to over 4,000 pupils at 80 schools in the Black Country.
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00:00ExpressAndStyle.com in Bilston at the Burt Williams Leisure Centre. We're with
00:04Ian Carey, the Chief Executive of Active Black Country, and Gary Gentle, the
00:09headteacher of Bilston's CofE Primary School, at the launch of the Water Safety
00:15Programme today. There's been a pilot programme, it's based around safety in
00:21open water and learning life-saving techniques. Ian, you gave a speech
00:28earlier to launch the programme officially. How's it gone so far?
00:33You're teaching in 80 schools, 4,000 pupils in the black country. The initial delivery
00:38has been really well received. We're very fortunate to have some fantastic school
00:43partners, the like of Gary as a headteacher here at the local primary school,
00:48who've really embraced the programme. It's such an important skill that we need to
00:52teach, how our children can be safe in water, how they can get into water and
00:57get out of water, and they know what to do in a difficulty. The Water
01:03Safety Programme as a dry side intervention is a really critical part
01:07of teaching children how to be safe in water. And Gary, you spoke of the
01:11resources you put into taking the kids swimming and how proud you are of the
01:16the numbers who can swim 25 metres or more, but it's more than that isn't it,
01:22you mentioned in there? Yeah, absolutely. So the national curriculum requirements are that children by the end of their primary school career, at the age of 11, can swim 25 metres, that they can actually execute a fine stroke, but it's so much more than that in swimming. It's about self-safe rescue and teaching children how to actually, when they face difficulties, if they face difficulties in water, how to perform those
01:51self-safe rescue techniques that's really, really important in the teaching of swimming. And you referenced the tragic death of a lad in Ettingshaw, that hit home hard to you didn't it?
02:03Yeah, absolutely. When you hear of any devastating news in your local community, it obviously hits you. And it certainly brought home to me the key message that all the work that goes into promoting water awareness, water safety,
02:19within our pupils of our school, is really, really, really important. In the end, as one of our families said, it can save a life. And two of your pupils in there gave an enthusiastic talk. How has it been received by the school's pupils? Absolutely, the pupils in the pilot stage have really, really taken to it.
02:39So have the families, they've been down here to observe the children being taught by the expert tutors, the actual safe water self-rescue techniques. Families then obviously have learned something as well. They can go and teach their children when they take them swimming lessons, etc. So really, really important. Well received by children and well received by the community and the parents as well.