In pictures: Youngsters learn about water safety in eye-opening demonstration for Drowning Prevention Week

Youngsters were warned of the dangers of swimming in rivers in an ‘eye opening’ live rescue demonstration from the Berkshire fire service this week.

This week saw the return of one of the largest summer water safety campaigns across the UK – Drowning Prevention Week – educating children aged five to 15 years old about water safety.

Drowning remains one of the leading causes of accidental death among children in the UK.

To help tackle the problem, Leisure Focus, which runs Braywick Leisure Centre, arranged a series of informative events for children in the Royal Borough.

These included interactive question-and-answer assemblies and a show-and-tell from Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service of some of the equipment they use for rescues.

The highlight of the week was a real-time simulated rescue of someone from the water, hosted at the pool in Braywick Leisure Centre.

The hope is that children watching this demonstration are able to clearly see how much is entailed in rescuing them from the river, and think twice before going into the water.

A key message of Drowning Prevention Week is how to spot when someone else is getting into difficulty in the water, and what to do.

Interactive Q&A assemblies (following Royal Life Saving Society guidelines) were held at Cox Green School and Dedworth Middle School.

These saw children from across borough schools in years 3-6 attending – and about 1,700 children took part across two days.

These helped deliver a key message of Drowning Prevention Week – how to spot when someone else is getting into difficulty in the water, and what to do.

Pupils also learned life-saving skills such as the ‘Float to Live’ technique.

The real-time water rescue demonstration by RBFRS took place at Braywick Leisure on Wednesday.

Children responded well to this, said one of the organisers, Jatinder Rakhra of Leisure Focus.

“This initiative is more than just an event – it’s an opportunity to make a lasting impact on the lives of young people and help create safer communities,” he said.

“By providing children with the tools and knowledge they need to stay safe near water, we can help prevent tragic accidents.”

Alongside RBFRS, Baylis Community Media CIC (The Advertiser) and the RLSS partnered with Leisure Focus to help observe Drowning Prevention Week in Maidenhead.