Part of a lifeguard’s role is to prevent accidents before they happen by giving safety advice – usually on the beach, but sometimes in the heart of the city …

'Help, help,’ shouts an 11-year-old girl to her friend. ‘I’m drowning! Help me!’ Luckily, her friend knows exactly what to do. He doesn’t try and carry out a rescue himself – he quickly finds an RNLI lifeguard, who springs into action.

Fortunately, this is not a real-life emergency on the beach. In fact, we’re a long way from the sea. It’s an inner-city school, and pupils are acting out a scenario as part of the RNLI’s Beach to City programme. The scheme brings lifeguards and their lifesaving safety messages inland to urban school pupils, who have been highlighted as among those most likely to get into difficulty at sea.

Each Beach to City Team is made up of an operational RNLI lifeguard and a beach safety supervisor. Their task is not an easy one – in 40 minutes they have to deliver key beach safety messages that children will listen to and retain. So the sessions are designed to be as memorable and fun as possible with plenty of play-acting to take part in and equipment to get to grips with.

In March and April 2010, the Beach to City teams gave safety messages to children in Birmingham, London and, for the first time, Coventry. Duncan Wood, a former RNLI Lifeguard and current Beach Safety Supervisor, toured schools in all three cities. ‘I’d like to think we’ve saved lives with these talks,’ says Duncan. ‘We know the children pass the messages on – they go home and talk about their day to their families and share what they’ve learned.’

Each session begins with an introduction to the RNLI charity and its lifeguard service. Children are taught how to identify lifeguards and where to find them. Then it’s time for beach safety messages. First, sun protection: slip on a T-shirt, slap on a hat, slop on the sun cream. Next up are the beach flags and their meanings. Some pupils get a chance to hold flags while others (acting as swimmers or watercraft users) have to put themselves in the right zone. ‘Many of the children show an impressive knowledge of the flag system already, given that they live so far from the sea,’ says Duncan. ‘But when it comes to the red flag – which means the water is dangerous and should not be entered – a lot of them seem to think that it means there’s a shark about!’

While sharks do not pose a threat to young beach users around our shores, toy inflatables do, so guidelines on their use forms a key part of the Beach to City programme. ‘I used to patrol as a lifeguard in North Cornwall,’ says Duncan, ‘and there were days where the majority of what we did involved rescuing children from drifting inflatables. So it’s vital we get the message across that they can be dangerous – we would prefer it if they weren’t used at all. If they are, we recommend that they should be supervised by grown-ups, and not used at all when the orangewindsock is flying, signifying an offshore wind.’

This year’s sessions have also seen a focus on the use of public rescue equipment (PRE), especially in Birmingham, with its extensive canal network. ‘The RNLI has been involved in testing coastal PRE and providing guidelines on its use,’ explains Duncan. ‘And we’ve taken the opportunity to share what we’ve learned with the innercity children. Respecting and using equipment such as liferings, throw lines and emergency communications is very important, especially as some of these children may come across it at their local waterways.’

The PRE advice has also been aimed at schoolchildren in London, where the Beach to

City programme visited 30 schools in Lewisham, Greenwich, Southwark, Newham, Bromley, Hackney, Lambeth and Tower Hamlets. The London Beach to City visits in 2009 and 2010 were funded by the John Lewis Partnership, which has donated a total of £10,000 towards the project.

Each Beach to City session ends with a trip into the playground to look at – and listen to – the lifeguard truck. ‘That is always the children’s favourite bit,’ says Duncan. ‘They hear the siren, see the lights flashing and, if they’ve been really good, we let them speak into the PA system and make safety announcements! It really is a break from the norm for them, which makes the whole experience all the more memorable.’ In 2011, the RNLI’s Education Team aims to add a fourth city to the Beach to City tour, and plans to continue adding more in the coming years. ‘You can’t put a price on how important this advice could prove to be,’ says the charity’s Youth Engagement Manager, Nathan Palmer. ‘Many of these children will now be heading to the beach with their families, and they are much better equipped to deal with seaside dangers than they were before. We have been giving many of them before-and-after quizzes, to test what they’ve learned, and their awareness of our black and white flags, for example, has gone up 40%.’

There are other added benefits for the RNLI, too, says Nathan. ‘Many children haven’t heard of the RNLI, so a whole new audience is becoming aware that we are the charity that saves lives at sea. And we leave quite an impression on them, so I fully expect many of them to be our supporters of the future – and perhaps, one day, lifeguards!’