A new interactive education show that brings water safety messages to life will be available to early education centres for free through a collaboration between Kids Alive – Do the Five and Ready Set Dance .
Kids Alive Managing Director Emma Lawrence said the show had been developed featuring song and dance about water safety issues relevant to a range of locations including pools, farms, beaches and at home. With 250 dance schools throughout Australia, the show has the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of children.
"The dance schools will offer the Water Safety Show to early education centres in their local communities, sharing important water safety messages with under 5s in a fun and informative way," she said.
Last year, there were 17 drowning deaths among children aged 0-4 years and while this is a 29% decrease on the previous year and a 23% decrease on the 10-year average*, Emma Lawrence said Kids Alive's goal was to get this number to zero.
The Royal Life Saving National Drowning Report 2022 revealed that kids aged 0-4 drowned in pools (35%), lakes and dams (23%), rivers and creeks (6%), bathtubs and spa baths (12%) and at the beach (6%), with 76% of drownings occurring after children fell into the water.
"Regular formal swimming lessons need to be backed up with year-round water safety education activities. Particularly in regional areas, access to information and resources can be scarce so we predict this show will help improve this situation," Kids Alive Founder Laurie Lawrence said.
The Ready Set Dance teachers conduct online training through Kids Alive to learn how to perform the show. Organisations wanting to book a show can visit www.kidsalive.com.au or contact their closest Ready Set Dance studio.
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Natalie Ettingshausen one of the directors from Ready Set Dance.
"We are proud to be able to offer the community a fun and educational experience.
"We know kids can drown in any exposed water source and what these shows aim to achieve is teach kids and their parents how to be safe around water," she said.
"Our partnership with Kids Alive means that water safety messages will not only be reaching the almost 20,000 pre-schoolers who attend our Ready Set Dance schools across Australia, but thousands more through the local early childcare organisations."
Jae Fraser Founder and Managing Director of Little Scholars School of Early Learning
"At Little Scholars we are passionate about ensuring children are prepared for all areas of life, with water safety being an extremely important part of growing up in sunny Queensland," he said. "This Water Safety Show is another great way to educate little ones on important concepts and reinforce the learning that the children do in the pool!"
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