Water safety starts long before children enter the water.
A very much needed new resource is on it’s way… why?
Summer is well and truly here and as Drowning Prevention Week (13–20 June 2026), led by the Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK) approaches, conversations around water safety become increasingly important. The campaign aims to educate children and young people with life-saving water safety knowledge ahead of the summer months, when more time is spent outdoors and around water.
This is such an important campaign. While Drowning Prevention Week shines a spotlight on water safety, we believe these are messages children should revisit throughout their primary years.
Water safety should be taught, revisited, practised and embedded throughout a child's primary education and that is why we are incredibly proud to be launching our new Land Based Water Safety units for EYFS to Year 6 this September.
Water safety is more than swimming:
Swimming lessons play an incredibly important role in helping children develop confidence and competence in the water. However, water safety starts long before children enter the water.
Many of the decisions that keep children safe happen on land:
- recognising hazards
- understanding warning signs
- knowing when not to enter the water
- understanding peer pressure
- knowing how to get help
- understanding what to do in an emergency
These are skills every child should learn, regardless of age, confidence or swimming ability. The knowledge children gain doesn't stop with them. They take these conversations home, share them with family and friends and often become powerful advocates for safer behaviour around water.
No pool? Water safety can still be taught:
One of the biggest misconceptions around water safety education is that it can only happen during swimming lessons.
Our units can sit alongside swimming provision or added as a unit on your curriculum map. They also provide valuable links to PSHE, personal development and wider safeguarding themes, making them a flexible addition to your curriculum.
Learning through movement:
These are not worksheet-based lessons or one-off assemblies. The units develop fundamental movement skills whilst teaching essential water safety knowledge through:
- games
- challenges
- role play
- problem-solving activities
- teamwork tasks
- decision-making scenarios
Pupils are active throughout and learn through doing.
A progressive journey from EYFS to Year 6:
One of the unique features of our Land Based Water Safety curriculum is its progression.
Rather than teaching water safety as a standalone event, children build their understanding year after year.
EYFS:
Children begin by identifying where water can be found through storytelling, imaginative play and role play. They learn simple safety messages and begin to recognise trusted adults who can help.
Key Stage 1:
Pupils explore safe and unsafe water environments, recognise hazards and warning signs, learn about beach flags and begin to understand the Water Safety Code.
Lower Key Stage 2:
Children deepen their understanding of emergency situations and self-rescue strategies, including learning about the H.E.L.P. position and huddle position. They explore how to respond safely and how to seek help without entering the water.
Upper Key Stage 2:
Pupils begin to evaluate risk, explore leadership and responsibility, consider the impact of peer pressure and develop a deeper understanding of safe rescue principles and emergency response.
By Year 6, pupils are making informed decisions, assessing scenarios and understanding how their choices can help keep themselves and others safer around water.
Supporting national water safety messages:
Our units align with key messages shared by leading water safety organisations, including RLSS UK and Swim England.
Throughout the units, pupils repeatedly encounter and revisit important water safety messages, including:
- The Water Safety Code
- recognising hazards
- safe rescue principles
- getting help quickly
- calling 999 in an emergency
- understanding why they should never enter the water to rescue someone else
These messages are too important to hear only once. Pupils revisit, discuss and practise them in a safe learning environment.
Working alongside Swim England resources:
Alongside the new Land Based Water Safety units, the Get Set 4 PE platform also includes resources and videos from Swim England, helping schools access trusted water safety information in one place. (If you know of Oscar, he makes an appearance!)
We are passionate about making high-quality water safety education as accessible as possible and are proud to support and amplify the work of organisations dedicated to keeping children safe.
These lessons could make a difference:
Assemblies, awareness campaigns and workshops all play an important role in sharing water safety messages. But children also need opportunities to revisit, apply and practise their understanding over time.
That is why we have created a progressive sequence of learning that builds knowledge, understanding and decision-making from EYFS to Year 6.
Because water safety is a life skill and many of the decisions that keep children safe happen on land.
Every child. Every year. Water safety education that could last a lifetime