Irish Water Safety’s PAWS resource for primary schools

Irish Water Safety has created a fantastic free educational resource for primary schools called PAWS (Primary Aquatics Water Safety). It’s great news for parents because it outlines life-saving guidelines for children of every age and is available digitally to every school in the country.

With beautiful illustrations, a wealth of tips and advice, and all sorts of interactive games and puzzles to reinforce lessons learned, PAWS incorporates all aspects of the physical education strand of the primary schools’ curriculum. It teaches children how to be safe around water in homes, farms, pools, beaches and on our waterways.

The PAWS programme has been developed by Irish Water Safety, the statutory body that trains Lifeguards and has been certifying children’s swimming and lifesaving classes since 1945. The interactive platform on which the course runs is used daily by many teachers all over the country. English and Irish digital lesson books are available for each class band with interactive puzzles to match. Importantly, the lessons can be delivered in just a few hours of class time.

In Ireland, thirty children aged fourteen and under drowned in ten years. That’s the equivalent of an entire classroom. By encouraging all children to be more conscious about water safety, we can change that statistic for good.

You can access Irish Water Safety’s PAWS programme now by visiting www.iws.ie