The image of the RNLI affects almost every aspect of its operation. Without a high profile in the public eye the task of the fundraisers is made more difficult.

Concepts form at an early age, and the way youngsters perceive the Institution may run through their lifetime. Fifteen-year-old Jamie Gaskarth took advantage of his work experience at the Institution to investigate how school children see the RNLIThe RNLI as its name suggests is an institution. Since it began in 1824 the lifeboat service has rescued countless numbers of people and become an integral part of the rescue services.

Despite this many school children still do not know that the RNLI is a charity and many believe that it is a government department as are the police, fire and ambulance services.

To discover whether this ignorance of the lifeboat service's activities is confined to areas which do not have alifeboat station or if it is widespread despite geographic position I interviewed students from two locations between the ages of 10 and 12.These locations were chosen according to whether each had a local lifeboat station. From Dorchester I interviewed eight pupils who attendedSt Osmund's Middle School, the nearest lifeboat station being eight miles away in Weymouth, and from Poole I interviewed four pupils who went to Hamworthy Middle School and lived in the town where the RNLI Headquarters and the Poole lifeboat station are situated.

The four pupils from Poole were more likely to know about the RNLI's charitable status and its activities.

It was also my aim to try to discover the image younger people have of the RNLI and the possible misconceptions they might hold. To find this out, the children were asked to choose a picture which they felt summed up the role of the lifeboat service.

The images which were selected were of lifeboats in poor weather conditions braving the elements to save lives, and it is this image which the RNLI tries to put across to raise funds. It is therefore not surprising that nearly all of the children I interviewed believed that lifeboats go out most in storms and bad weather, whereas in fact the opposite is the case. The response from both schools to the questions I asked were similar.

They both felt that lifeboatmen were brave, on average 25-35 years old and that their work was useful and voluntary.

In the Dorchester pupils this contrasted to their previous comments about the RNLI being a government department whose personnel are employed. The two schools from which I took a sample of pupils both achieved similar overall percentages of questions answered correctly, with Hamworthy Middle School predictably getting higher results though notoverly so. The final question I asked each school was whether they knew any additional facts about the RNLI.

This was where the school's geographical position would count.

Hamworthy pupils knew significantly more about the everyday activities of the lifeboat service than the school which was not close to the Headquarters.

One of the four pupils from Hamworthy knew the location of the Poole lifeboat station and the Headquarters, probably because he lived in the local area.

We can consider the responses to the questions in more detail: What does 'RNLI' stand for? Surprisingly all the children knew the meaning of these abbreviations. I suspected only a small number would have any idea but was proved wrong.

It seems that the children interviewed had been told, or had found out, and so had at least a knowledge of the basics of the lifeboat service. I expected them to know what the 'L' stood for, but was surprised they knew the meanings of all the letters.

What does the RNLI do? The response to this question was similar in that all the students demonstrated that they knew the RNLI helped people in distress at sea. This basic theme was evident throughout.

The principle that the RNLI attempts to save the lives of people who are in danger at sea was one which they had obviously managed to grasp regardless of their school's location.

Who pays for the RNLI? The answers to this question differed according to the school which the children attended. Some Dorchester pupils seemed to be under the impression that the RNLI is a governmentfunded organisation instead of the country's second largest charity.Hamworthy Middle School pupils were not under this delusion, and all of those questioned believed the RNLI is a voluntary service paid for by donations from the general public. It is important that people know this in order that they might help the lifeboat service by organising or supporting fundraising events.

What age are lif eboatmen? The pupils were given the choice of four age ranges -17-25, 25-35, 35-45 and 45-plus. I believed that their view of the lifeboat service might be incorporated in the pupils' answers. If the age selected was 45+ it creates a picture of a more senior organisation.

The children saw lifeboatmen as being between the ages of 25-35 with remarkable consistency which, if we rely on stereotypes, projects a more youthful image and a more up-to-date organisation.

Do lifeboatmen go out most in storms or fine weather? The proper answer to this is that they are called out most in fine weather, but perhaps because we only hear of the more dangerous rescues in poor weather conditions and because the RNLI projects this image to raise funds the pupils thought storms was the right answer.

Choose the five biggest charities in order of size Given a list of seven well-known charities the RNLI was placed first by five out of 12 children, the RSPCA second by five out of 12, the NSPCC third by four out of 12, UNICEF fourth by four out of 12 and Oxfam fifth by four out of 12.

The actual order in terms of fundraising totals is: The RNLI (second largest nationally), Oxfam (third), Barnardos (eighth), RSPCA (eleventh), NSPCC (thirteenth) and UNICEF (eighty-second).The most optimistic thing about these results as far as the RNLI is concerned is that 41 % of the pupils interviewed are in agreement that the RNLI is the largest charity of those listed.

It is interesting that UNICEF is considered larger than Oxfam (the third largest charity) whereas in fact it ranks only eighty-second in Britain.

Even a well-publicised charity such as Oxfam has trouble identifying itself as a large charity.

Are lifeboatmen employed or voluntary? The majority of people (93%) knew the correct answer to this one though a few from St Osmund's still held on to the belief that lifeboatmen are a paid body of men. This question is the whole crux of the problem. If some children were to believe that the RNLI is not a charity then it should be a cause for concern.

Conclusions Even though the number of people interviewed was small, it was a random selection of children of similar ages and perhaps suggests something of the RNLI's image in the eyes of young people. Interviewing children from other counties would probably provide different results and responses, but this kind of sampling does give us an insight into the misconceptions and stereotypes that young people visualise when they think of the RNLI.

The lack of knowledge of the lifeboat service which some of the children showed should be considered by the RNLI, if the charity is to continue to rely on the fundraising efforts of volunteers.

The more people show an interest in the work of the lifeboatmen, the more likely it is that greater funds can be raised.

The service can take solace howeverin the fact that more people thought the RNLI was bigger than any other charity listed (5 out of 12) but that still means that 7 out of 12 people interviewed believed that various other charities were bigger.

This ignorance could be due to a number of factors. Perhaps it is the fault of the pupils themselves who should try to find out on their own what good work is done by the lifeboat crews along Britain's coastline.

If we could make more information available to them then their knowledge would increase considerably.

The children could be encouraged to try harder to be involved in such a worthwhile cause and so try to change their lack of awareness. But this cannot solely be the fault of the children. If teachers made available the various resources offered via the Storm Force club for under-16s and endeavoured to educate them with the use of the information available the children would have been able to answer most, if not all, of the questions.

It is more likely that people who know about a charity's activities will donate their time and energy to the cause than people who only have a vague idea.

If these school children still believe that the RNLI is a government department then they are not going to attempt to raise funds for it. After all, they do not donate money to the police or go on sponsored events so that the fire service can afford new equipment.

The teachers may feel they do not have the time to indulge in extracurricular activities and this is understandable with all the current pressures on them. It is however important that the work of the RNLI is presented in an interesting and exciting way to encourage children to learn more or they may begin to see Storm Force as just another piece of homework - a chore which has to be completed rather than something they could take an interest in outside school.

If they begin to see the RNLI in this light they will not be quite so enthusiastic about the possibility of helping them outside school. The RNLI does its best to present its work in an exciting way with the use of various photos of inflatables and faster lifeboats in rough seas causing the misconception that the majority of call-outs are in poor weather conditions.

It is not terribly important whether children know that most callouts are in fine weather conditions or if they know the exact number of people rescued last year. The important thing is that they recognise the importance of the lifeboat service, its role as a major charity and then try to help in the raising of essential funds in order to preserve this vital part of the modern rescue services which has helped so many people in distress at sea in the past.

Perhaps one way of making children more aware of the work of the lifeboat service is for the RNLI to produce more attractive and youth-orientated leaflets which are designed to appeal directly to young people and encourage them to take a closer interest in our work.

However, had the children shown an interest by joining Storm Force theywould have received a collection of posters and quarterly magazines that are well suited to educating and informing the younger reader about the RNLI.

It is only a shame that it is not possible for such posters to be displayed in prominent positions around schools in the hope that they might get some children interested in the work of the lifeboat crews.

Getting children interested in the RNLI is important but it is arguable whether it is more important than keeping them interested.

If the RNLI were to concentrate on getting people interested rather than keeping them so (for it is not possible to do both to perfection with the income generated by the Storm Force membership scheme) then the Institution may become dependent on the initial interest of subscribers and lose the 'regulars'. This is assuming that people are joining in order to gain some personal benefit rather than just to support the charity.

Whatever the reason the RNLI is an organisation which depends on fundraising and so younger children should be educated as much as possible about the work the volunteers do and encouraged to join and so support the valiant work of our lifeboat crews. It is reassuring to know that the children seemed eager to learn,were willing to participate in the questionnaire activities and were obviously quite intelligent. We must do as much as possible to attract the attention of these citizens of the future.

I would like to thank St Osmund's Middle School, Dorchester and Hamworthy Middle School, Poole for their help in supplying the pupils, as well as the RNLI staff for the guidance and information they so willingly supplied..