180 Year 5 and 6  Withycombe Raleigh C of E Primary School children took part in the first ever ‘Sideshore Sea Safety Project’ on Exmouth Seafront.

The project was designed by Jane Hushon from Swim Devon and Withycombe Primary School to equip school children with the knowledge and skills required to prevent themselves getting into trouble when swimming in the sea and provide them with the self-rescue skills that could save their lives. 

The children started their beach sessions with a ‘meet the lifeguard’ talk from the RNLI beach lifeguards, who explained the flag system on the beach and gave helpful tips on safer sea swimming.  

The children then completed a series of land-based games and sea swimming activities learning about self-rescues, hazard spotting and cold-water shock.  

Water safety and self-rescue is a key part of the national curriculum, and this initiative allowed the children to learn first-hand in the open water environment. 

The children fully embraced the sea swimming sessions and thoroughly enjoyed getting stuck into what the local environment has to offer.  

Withycombe Raleigh teacher Bernie Rhodes said: “Their faces were full of smiles, and they were already asking to do the sessions again before they had walked back to school. Luckily for them, we hope to make the project even bigger and better next year, by inviting all the schools within the Exmouth Learning Community to come along and join in. 

“I loved the beach sessions and learnt how to use a rock to work out if the tide is coming in or going out.” 

Hattie Perkin, Year 6 said: “The whole thing was great, everyone was smiling all day. I learnt that the conditions could change quickly in the sea, and it is not like swimming in a pool. I will swim between the red and yellow flags now.” 

Zoe Rose - Year 5 Teacher said: “This project was a huge success and wouldn’t have been possible without the support of local businesses and community funding.  

Thank you to Sideshores Queens drive CIC’ who have committed to putting half of their parking fees into community swimming projects like ours – we are very grateful; we couldn’t have done this without you.  

“Thank you to Edge Watersports for allowing us to use your changing facilities and sponsoring wetsuits for the event and finally thank you to all the members of the public who stopped to say hello and share a wonderful day with us.”