Myths about teaching can hold you back
- All years
Water safety code and beach flags
I can follow the advice from the water safety code.
- All years
Water safety code and beach flags
I can follow the advice from the water safety code.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.
These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Move: actions to represent water safety scenarios should be performed with control and awareness of others.
- Move: if you fall into cold water, you should lie on your back, float, breathe and relax for 60 seconds.
- Think: different beach flags have different meanings.
- Feel: calmness and maturity are needed in emergency situations.
- Connect: collaborating and communicating clearly helps us take appropriate action to keep ourselves and others safe.
Keywords
Beach flag - a coloured flag on the beach to show where it is safe or unsafe to swim; different colours have different meanings
Water safety code - 4 messages to keep you safe in, on and around water
Communication - sharing information and ideas with other people
Common misconception
Many pupils think that if you fall in to water you should start swimming as quickly as possible.
But we need to teach them that if you fall into water, you should float on your back to regain your breath and calm yourself down, before assessing the situation.
To help you plan your all years physical education lesson on: Water safety code and beach flags, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your all years physical education lesson on: Water safety code and beach flags, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom.
Explore more key stage 2 physical education lessons from the Swimming: pre-swimming familiarisation, activation and water safety unit, dive into the full secondary physical education curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
beach flags, water safety code poster (additional material)
Content guidance
- Additional qualification required
- Risk assessment required - physical activity
Supervision
Adult supervision required
