Beach to Bush - Beach Safety Hub

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Ingenia Holiday Parks Beach to Bush

Since 1994, NSW surf lifesavers have been visiting schools in rural and remote areas in regional NSW to educate primary school students about beach, coastal and water safety.

Ingenia Holiday Parks Beach to Bush Program

B2B was launched in 1994 when a survey was undertaken which led to the trial and implementation of the first surf education program for rural NSW students. The research conducted by Surf Lifesaving highlighted that 50% of people rescued from the surf lived more than 50km from the beach. This was reinforced in the findings from the Premier’s Taskforce into water safety. As a result of this survey, the Beach to Bush program was developed to improve beach safety knowledge and awareness amongst primary school students. Each year our volunteer surf lifesavers go "bush" to visit rural and remote schools to educate students on beach and water safety.

What do students learn?

Beach and inland water safety
How to be sun smart
How to spot a rip
Where they should always swim at the beach

What to do if they get into trouble at the beach

The different types of marine life that can be found along the coast and inland waterways
Why they should always read and obey the signs at the beach
The role of lifesavers and lifeguards and how to ask them for safety advice

What is Beach to Bush?

Why do we have this program?

Beach to Bush is a very popular primary school aged surf education program that offers students in regional areas of NSW an introduction to surf lifesaving, focusing on beach and surf safety along with being safe around dams and inland waterways.

Students from regional communities are often less familiar with the potential dangers of the surf, our program aims to reach those children before they head to the coast with their families.

Which schools do we visit?

Our surf lifesavers will travel all over rural NSW (even including Burke!) as we want every school in rural and remote areas to have the opportunity to learn our beach, coastal & waterways safety messages.

No school is too small or too large for us to visit!

When is Beach to Bush?

Our program is scheduled every year over three weeks for Term 4, just prior to the summer school holidays when many families in rural areas head to the beach.

When you register your school you are able to include your preferred date and time for us to visit.

Who will be presenting the session to students?

Your session will be presented by trained, active and qualified volunteer NSW surf lifesavers.

Many of our lifesavers participate in this program year after year as they are very dedicated to educating rural kids.

What to expect when our lifesavers arrive at your school?

Our lifesavers will be aiming to arrive at your school approximately 30 minutes before your session is due to commence to allow them time to set up.

The presentations usually run for around 45 minutes. We allow extra time for Q&A at the end of your session as we love answering questions from students.

During our visual presentation our lifesavers will be interacting with your students for maximum learning.

How many students can be in each session?

We recommend that each session have a maximum of 100 students.

We are quite happy to have multiple sessions at your school, you can just let us know how many sessions you require when you register.

Is there supplementary learning for students?

Yes! We have created beach safety quizzes for your students which include general beach safety, sun safety, rips and waves, sea creatures, basic first aid, rescues and getting help from a lifesaver or lifeguard. Teachers will receive a curriculum aligned guide against all available content for this program.