how can we stop our citizens from drowning?

I don't know if there is a direct link, but our Council closed many swimming pools, so how are people to learn to swim? There was a young swimmer on TV recently talking about this situation. Of course I realise that even swimmers can drown if they get into particular difficulty. However, if there is nowhere to learn in the first place, makes it difficult.

Homestead62

I don't know if there is a direct link, but our Council closed many swimming pools, so how are people to learn to swim? There was a young swimmer on TV recently talking about this situation. Of course I realise that even swimmers can drown if they get into particular difficulty. However, if there is nowhere to learn in the first place, makes it difficult.

Yes, our town centre pool complex has been demolished, since apparently the roof was beyond repair - and it wasn’t many decades old. There are two others, but they’re both at least a couple of miles away, and if you don’t use public transport, you have to pay a few ££ to park.
It was already expensive enough for anyone with young children who isn’t comfortably off.

It’ll be at least 5 years before a new pool complex will be operational.
What local schools do now about swimming lessons I don’t know.

I used to fish a very large upland reservoir where bathing was strictly forbidden. There were currents, underwater hazards and places where the bank was so soft because of streams running off the hills that undermined it and if you tried to get out of the water your legs would sink. There were notices all over the place. Very cold water. Strictly no bathing. No wading. Young people walking in the forest would frequently see this as an opportunity to cool off on a hot day, strip off down to their shreddies and get in. The fishery management team would patrol in a boat with a loudhailer but they couldn’t be everywhere.

I think practically and given financial and practical limitations about being taught to swim in a pool (less pools, expensive for schools to take to lessons) and water. health safety (water currents, shock and icy cold water)

Realistically the vest we can do is have a couple of really good videos that are shown in schools and put out on SM - put out on TV for parents at key watching times - or a good drama based on it (like Adolescence did for other aspects of Sm and youth)

it may cut the numbers, after that there isnt a lot you can do.

the best we can do not the vest)

But we never had swimming lessons at my school nor my children’s or grandchildren’s it was up to the parents
I paid for my kids to learn to swim and dive and life save the same as they did with my grandkids but they were all taught to be aware of things and not to be stupid
Wyllow I think that’s a great idea to have a big old drama with the like of Stephen Graham paying a grieving father and lets boys see that dads cry for them too

We are required to teach water safety in school. Certainly at Key Stage 2. Apart from the actual swimming skills, the National Curriculum requires that by Year 6 age 11 years, pupils should be able to perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations. And that they should understand the dangers of water and the water safety code.
This is done in PSHE.
I don't know if it is reinforced at secondary school level?

Witzend funny Shakespearean quote.
Youth will be youth.

escaped

We are required to teach water safety in school. Certainly at Key Stage 2. Apart from the actual swimming skills, the National Curriculum requires that by Year 6 age 11 years, pupils should be able to perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations. And that they should understand the dangers of water and the water safety code.
This is done in PSHE.
I don't know if it is reinforced at secondary school level?

I don’t know about high school either. Certainly swimming is not part of the curriculum at my DGD’s high school.
We used to take our primary school children to the local baths, until it closed. Now they have sessions booked at the local gym, and DGD’s former school use the university swimming baths.

escaped

I don't think we can ever do anything about many young men feeling immortal and taking risks.

I agree with you escaped-at the risk of being called a cynic we wouldn’t have a military if young men became risk adverse.

However good a swimmer you are the sea is unpredictable and some still drown. Most children here learn to swim early, around 6 years old but sometimes they are a bit too over confident and still need adult supervision. Covid was bad for a lack of swimming instruction for young ones.

You can’t stop stupid.
A lake near my DD has a very high wall round it, a high padlocked gate at the entrance and signs saying Deep Water. No Swimming Allowed
And still there are some youths who see this as a challenge.

Trisha99

escaped

I don't think we can ever do anything about many young men feeling immortal and taking risks.

I agree with you escaped-at the risk of being called a cynic we wouldn’t have a military if young men became risk adverse.

Very true.

I think more could be done to teach water safety in the UK and possibly beef up the swimming curriculum.

In the UK you pass "swimming" by being able to swim 25 metres - my kids went to school in Sweden where you need to swim 200 metres (including 50m backstroke) to pass year 6.

I it also compulsory to learn basic lifesaving and there is an optional class that simulates falling through the ice and how to get yourself out.

It's not just that , though. Every year we have reports of someone whose dog has got into trouble & who has gone in after them & drowned.
So I guess for people who've got over that "dare-devil young" phase, be careful where you let your dog swim & if they're in trouble, get a lifeguard or coastguard (who will rescue dogs), don't go in yourself.
(some of the dogs get out OK, whilst their rescuer drowns)

Cold

I think more could be done to teach water safety in the UK and possibly beef up the swimming curriculum.

In the UK you pass "swimming" by being able to swim 25 metres - my kids went to school in Sweden where you need to swim 200 metres (including 50m backstroke) to pass year 6.

I it also compulsory to learn basic lifesaving and there is an optional class that simulates falling through the ice and how to get yourself out.

In Scotland swimming is not on the National Curriculum.
I think drownings in Scotland are 3x rUK.
It's a postcode lottery as to whether your child will have swimming lessons in primary school. It's an absolute disgrace (everyone gets free prescriptions/baby boxes etc though)
Children get taught some "water safety skills" maybe the government thinks if they can't swim they won't go in.

Oreo

Trisha99

escaped

I don't think we can ever do anything about many young men feeling immortal and taking risks.

I agree with you escaped-at the risk of being called a cynic we wouldn’t have a military if young men became risk adverse.

Very true.

Agreed.

There is foolhardy swimming then there are accidents where someone slips or a child falls into a river or pond despite the vigilance of a nearby parent.
Water 'draws'. I can still remember falling into a pond as a child when I was just standing gazing at the fish.

I survived childhood with 4 or 5 of my 9 lives remaining, we lived close to a river and fishing was a regular occupation, at 7 or 8 we used to go off with our rods on our own, couldn’t swim but fully clothed it wouldn’t have made a difference. We knew the river was dangerous so we’re careful, we were much more responsible in those days we learned from the scrapes we got into.
We had a local villiage Bobby who kept an eye what everyone was doing we were wary of him because our any wrongdoings would get back to our parents and that usually had painful consequences.
Youngsters today don’t get the consequences of risk, they sit in front of a screen playing a game if they crash they press reset and repeat, we did it for real if our pram wheel gokart crashed it hurt, if it broke we rebuilt it.

we learned from the scrapes we got into.
There's a lot of truth in that. Except that water is such a deadly force, there's usually no second chance.

From the recklessness I see at coasts and quaysides, I am constantly surprised that there are not a whole lot more.

There wouldnt be a second chance in the scenarios I see.

I don’t think you’re right about attributing drownings to young people now not getting the consequences of risk David49, I’m surprised that you don’t remember any drownings of your generation. A boy in my class drowned swimming when I was 9, and two little sisters drowned a couple of years later in the river near me. It’s always happened.

^ accidents where someone slips or a child falls into a river or pond despite the vigilance of a nearby parent.^

I often see one parent or member of a family group, being vigilant, against another parent or member, who has not been.

Nowadays you have the added risk factor of parents on e.g. a beach, or sitting by a pool, who are supposed to be watching their children, but are glued to their phones.

DD is a wild swimmer. Wild swimmers, have a whole set of protocols around getting into the water, acclimatising to the cold water and then what to do as soon as they get out.

She swims with a group, again swimming as a group is also part of the safety that surrounds it. If people who swim in lakes and rivers all year round, rather than just now and again, have so many protocols, surrounding keeping their members safe, it is a warning to those inclined to leap into lakes and rivers at random.

The RNLI puts individual water safety on the front page of its web site. Its warnings on cold water shock and what to do and 'floating to live' should be essential learning for all teenagers.