Children get free water safety sessions for summer

The sessions teach children how to behave in open water

A charity is providing free half-term water safety sessions for children in Derbyshire.

Blue Tonic is teaching children how to stay safe in open water at Spring Lakes in Long Eaton.

The hour-long Swim Safe sessions have been timed to take place before the summer months.

Founder Scott Clayton said: "June, July and August is unfortunately the time when most incidents happen, so it's a peak time in terms of people getting into difficulty."

Founder Scott Clayton said sessions are "important" before summer months

Swim Safe sessions teach children to always swim in a safe place and with an adult as well as how to float and relax if they get into difficulty.

The 60-minute session also encourages children to call 999 if someone is in trouble rather than entering the water themselves.

Swim Safe is a national programme created by Swim England and the RNLI. Its mainly taught at the coast, but Blue Tonic secured funding from the National Lottery to bring it inland.

Mr Clayton said: "There was an incident up in Newcastle last week where two children unfortunately died, so we want to reduce the amount of headlines we get like that, and these sessions have been proven to save people's lives."

On average, 400 people drown in the UK each year and another 200 people take their own lives in water, according to the National Water Safety Forum.

Penelope and Eilidh took part in a Swim Safe session

Penelope, nine, said: "I thought it was good, we learned what to do if it's cold in the water and when you stick together you need to link arms and make sure you don't push down so you don't push the other person into the water."

Her friend, Eilidh, nine, added: "I thought it was really good, we learned how to stay afloat and how to do the survival stroke."

Ms Jenkins has been campaigning for more water safety education for young people

Nicola Jenkins' son, Owen, was 12 years old when he died trying to save the lives of two girls who got into difficulty in Nottinghamshire's Beeston Weir in July 2017.

Since his death, Ms Jenkins has campaigned about water safety among young people and founded the Open Water Education Network (OWEN) water safety programme in her son's memory.

She said: "Every parent's nightmare is losing their child, and I don't want other parents to have to go through what I go through daily.

"Had Owen known what to do he might still be here today.

"Open water sessions allow the children to experience open water in the safest possible way, this is absolutely what I’m passionate about."

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