Learn to Swim lessons in Lanarkshire teaching kids how to be safer in and around water
Swimmers are set to learn the crucial Water Safety Code as well as basic floating techniques which can make a massive difference when someone feels in danger in the water and that could help save their lives or someone else's.
Learn to Swim lessons in Lanarkshire are teaching children how to be safer in and around water during this month to mark Drowning Prevention Week as part of a Scotland-wide campaign.
From Shetland to the Borders, swimming pools are adapting and transforming their regular swimming lessons into workshops which will focus specifically on water safety knowledge and skills.
Swimmers are set to learn the crucial Water Safety Code as well as basic floating techniques which can make a massive difference when someone feels in danger in the water and that could help save their lives or someone else's.
The special lessons come as latest figures reveal the ongoing risks around Scotland's waters, the National Water Safety Forum reported that tragically in 2024 there were 33 accidental drownings in Scotland.
Drowning prevention is one of the main objectives for the Learn to Swim National Framework and in June each year the programme does a major water safety push to coincide with Drowning Prevention Week, where youngsters take part in a bespoke water safety swim lesson delivered by the leisure trusts and aquatic providers.
John Lunn, CEO of Scottish Swimming, said: 'Every June, our Learn to Swim classes shift focus to concentrate on water safety.
'It's not just about being a strong swimmer- understanding how to recognise hazards, help others in distress and make smart decisions around water is equally important.'
Peter Farrer, Chief Operating Officer at Scottish Water, added: ''We cannot over-emphasise the importance of water safety all year round, but it's particularly relevant as we approach summer when people are often more likely to be around water.
'These water safety lessons provide an opportunity to equip people with the vital knowledge and skills to help them feel safer in, on and around water, and help their parents and family network feel confident and comfortable in their swimming abilities.'
The Learn to Swim National Framework is delivered by 38 leisure trusts and aquatic providers in 167 pools from Shetland to the Borders with the vision of creating 'Generation Swim', a generation of children who are confident, safer and competent swimmers, who will also get to experience the wider health and social benefits that swimming can offer.
The programme currently reaches around 82,000 children across Scotland who will have access to a new interactive water safety quiz that has been developed to improve water safety knowledge this year.
Drowning Prevention Week, organised by the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS), stands as one of the largest water safety campaigns in the UK and Ireland.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
The ugly buildings we secretly love
When news came last week that Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King – colloquially known as 'Paddy's Wigwam' – had been granted Grade I-listed status, it marked a long-awaited vindication for a building that has weathered its fair share of criticism. The design by Sir Frederick Gibberd, selected from 300 entries worldwide, took shape over five years (1962–67) and sits atop Mount Pleasant, overlooking the city with views stretching to the Mersey estuary beyond. Built quickly and cheaply – as many post-war buildings were – it has been described as 'a gargantuan concrete aberration from the Apollo space programme'. Even as recently as 2013, CNN named it one of the world's ugliest buildings. Inside, of course, the story is very different. Bathed in coloured light from the kaleidoscopic stained glass, the cathedral is an extraordinary space – one that has come to be cherished by Liverpudlians, Catholic or not. It is the latest in a long line of buildings that, though they didn't receive universal acclaim at first, have endured nonetheless. Scottish Parliament Building, Edinburgh The 1997 vote for Scottish Devolution meant a new parliament was needed, but its birth was, to put it mildly, a car crash. Ten times over budget and years behind schedule, Holyrood's construction became a dream story for the press but a nightmare for MSPs and civil servants, whose mistakes were broadcast daily. The image of the dour, thrifty Scot clashed with the flamboyance of the building's cost and design, hardly endearing it to the public when it opened in 2004. Questions were also raised about the practicality of the joint design by RMJM – one of the world's largest architecture and design firms – and Barcelona-based architect Enric Miralles, who avoided much of the controversy by passing away midway through the project in 2000. Yet opinions shifted after it won the 2005 Stirling Prize, the highest honour in British architecture. Scots, embracing a new era free from Westminster's control, came to see the building as a symbol of a renaissance north of the border. Today, visitors flock to marvel at its outré design. Hillingdon Civic Offices, Uxbridge Hillingdon Council's Ford Granada-driving apparatchiks wanted a new HQ, and what they got ended up defining over a decade of suburban style in Britain. If the Hillingdon Civic Centre reminds you of a supermarket, you wouldn't be far off – this became the signature look of Tescos and Safeways across the south. The bulky Civic Centre was designed by Andrew Derbyshire of RMJM and opened in 1979. 'Like any suburban orgy, it was more comical than sexy,' said the architecture journalist Jonathan Meades. 'It was the architectural equivalent of Benny Hill or Sid James: coarse, matey, blokeish, undemanding, unthreatening, accessible.' This building felt like the starting point of a backlash against the progressive and exciting modernism that had flourished during Britain's ' Les Trente Glorieuses'. Over the following 30 years, there was little but disdain for modernist achievements and a widespread retreat from ambition, with brick vernacular becoming especially fashionable in this new, cautious era. Nowadays, modernism and postmodernism have found a warmer welcome. While Hillingdon Civic Centre might not immediately evoke the wild, pastel-coloured tropical postmodernism of John Outram and others, it's certainly an uncle to those buildings. Now listed, it enjoys a bit more affection from the people of Uxbridge. University of East Anglia, Norwich The serpentine teaching block, dubbed the Lasdun Wall, snakes along a ridge where University of East Anglia (UEA) students study, while the eye-popping ziggurats tumbling down towards the River Yare are where they sleep. Space-age chic seems entirely at odds with sleepy Norfolk; architectural historian Elain Harwood called it 'the boldest architecture of any new university', and it became the backdrop to Malcolm Bradbury's novel The History Man. It's heartening that, despite the UEA's stark 1960s campus, it has gained more fans as it has reached middle age. It's not without problems – issues with the fireproof reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), widely used as a cheap material especially in roofs, have led to the closure of the ziggurats during remediation work. Meanwhile, new extensions to the university have sparked thorough debate. Architecture fans visiting can also explore the Sainsbury Centre next door. Designed by Lord Foster, it opened in 1978 and was hailed as revolutionary for its lightweight, high-tech design, influencing many airports and office buildings throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Southbank Centre, London London's Southbank Centre has long been at the heart of various culture wars. When Churchill's Tories won the autumn 1951 snap election, they sought to dismantle the remains of the Festival of Britain, viewing it as a thoroughly socialist project by Labour's Herbert Morrison – which, of course, it was. The futuristic Skylon was removed, but the Royal Festival Hall survived. The Southbank Centre was expanded in a brutalist style during the 1960s. Its maze of passageways and high walkways confused visitors, while its gruff exteriors offended many sensibilities. In 1988, the then Prince Charles famously likened Denys Lasdun's National Theatre (NT) to a nuclear power station. Today, attitudes have shifted. We now recognise the stark beauty in its complexity and surreal sculptural forms, and the restrained harmony of the theatre complex in particular. John Grindrod wrote in his 2013 book Concretopia that 'Lasdun's interiors have a rather cosy aesthetic,' echoing theatre critic Michael Billington's 1976 view that the NT is 'a superb piece of sculpture.' The entire Southbank complex was designed the way it was because planners insisted on roads and car parks, and even proposed building a heliport next door – hence the Queen Elizabeth Hall's thick, austere walls. Today, the terraces are bustling with diners, while the undercrofts have become a beloved haunt for skateboarders. Moseley Road Baths, Birmingham The residents of Balsall Heath in south Birmingham were certainly grateful when the baths on Moseley Road opened in 1907. Back in 1890, Birmingham was hailed as the 'best-governed city in the world' by Harper's Magazine – a claim that might raise a wry smile from today's locals still waiting for their bins to be collected. Its trams, housing, utilities and public baths were all part of a civic effort to lift the city from industrial slum to modern metropolis. But the baths were not universally loved, and have only narrowly escaped demolition, more due to luck than design. As the 20th century wore on and more homes welcomed bathrooms and washing machines, fewer people needed the bathhouse. And Birmingham (city motto: 'Forward'), spent much of the 1960s demolishing its Victorian and Edwardian architecture, including the grand Central Library and the original New Street Station, as tastes turned against the ornate. In recent years, however, a dedicated campaign has saved the arts-and-crafts building. Now Grade II-listed and undergoing careful restoration, the Moseley Road Baths are protected at last. Scarborough Grand Hotel, North Yorkshire Scarborough's grande dame was originally conceived as the Cliff Hotel, built at a time when the town was establishing itself as a premier seaside resort following the arrival of the railway on the Yorkshire coast. Visitors came to take the waters, and a grand hotel was needed to accommodate them. But throughout its life, the building has been a victim of its own scale – beset by fires, outbreaks of illness, and now, by its current management. Run as a tired, cut-price hotel, it was dubbed 'the shame of Scarborough' by Tory mayoral candidate Keane Duncan last year. When it opened in the 1860s, it was one of the largest hotels ever built – so large, in fact, that some wondered whether it was all a bit much for the once-sleepy fishing town. The Grand's story is closely tied to that of its architect, the exquisitely named Cuthbert Brodrick. A Hull native, Brodrick also designed Leeds' monumental Town Hall and Corn Exchange – buildings with a distinctive size and swagger that often clashed with the era's more restrained architectural tastes. Brodrick's overblown Oriental Turkish Baths on Cookridge Street in Leeds were unceremoniously demolished in the 1960s – by then, he had well and truly fallen from favour. That changed in 2007, when Jonathan Meades made a film about him for BBC Two, sparking a reappraisal of his work. Today, the Grand is a much-loved landmark on the Yorkshire coast. Blackpool Tower, Blackpool The Eiffel Tower is perhaps the most famous example of a building once heavily derided that has only grown in popularity with age. Blackpool's imitation, by contrast, was long dismissed as a poor copy aimed at entertaining the lower classes. Like Brighton's more recent i360 seafront tower, it was seen by some as overly tall and something of a white elephant. Today, it's a listed building, and its kitsch swagger has come to define the Blackpool seafront. We'd never dream of demolishing it now – nor its ballroom, the spiritual home of ballroom dancing. Yet in the 1920s, there was serious talk of tearing it all down. It may seem far-fetched, but that's exactly what happened to the similar-looking New Brighton Tower on the Wirral. Despite being even taller than Blackpool's, it had few defenders when it was demolished in 1919 after just 20 years. Its ballroom – where the Beatles played no fewer than 27 concerts – met the same fate in 1969, following a major fire. Strawberry Hill House, London A gothic wedding cake by the Thames, Strawberry Hill House is a singular and delightfully eccentric creation – perfectly in keeping with its owner, Horace Walpole. An unmarried enigma and gothic novelist who puzzled polite society, Walpole built his fantastical home in Twickenham as a whimsical homage to medieval cathedrals and castles. It was a world away from the architectural fashions of the mid-1700s and, at first, had few admirers. Slowly but surely, people began to visit, drawn in by the fairytale interiors and jaunty gardens, and Strawberry Hill House grew into an attraction. A century later, gothic revival (an architectural style) had become a full-blown Victorian obsession – just look at the Houses of Parliament – so Walpole's creation no longer seemed quite so outlandish. Architecture critic Ian Nairn once remarked that 'Walpole's stucco fancy' was 'prettier and less finicking than you'd expect'. A high-profile restoration in the 2000s, featured on TV, brought a new wave of admirers. Today, the house welcomes around 25,000 visitors a year. Buckingham Palace, London Like the face of an ageing celebrity, Buckingham Palace has had more alterations over the years than you can shake a Botox syringe at. Throughout its life, it has endured feelings ranging from antipathy to outright hostility from its residents. The original house, built in 1703 by William Winde, was – using the polite parlance of stately home design – 'improved' countless times. It was so often disliked that entire sections were torn down and rebuilt. John Nash's lavish 1820s redesign nearly bankrupted the Royal household, and he was promptly sacked. When Queen Victoria made it her primary residence in 1837, the palace still failed to charm – particularly Prince Albert. Albert tried to modernise it with plumbing, lighting and even toilets for servants. But, like many of his descendants, he preferred to be elsewhere. His own pet project, Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, was met with a lukewarm response thanks to its oddly Italianate style. The late Queen favoured Windsor and Balmoral; the current King prefers Highgrove and Clarence House. Yet today, tourists flock to the Palace's current form, fronted by Aston Webb's century-old Portland stone façade. More state venue than family home, it may have finally found its purpose.
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
'Miracle' baby hare delivered using penknife in dramatic roadside birth
A baby hare has survived against the odds after being delivered in an emergency roadside Caesarean on a roadside in Scotland. Named Bruno, his mother was accidentally struck by machinery while farmer Robert Craig was working on silage in Dumfries and Galloway. "I went to check what I had struck and sadly found the hare dead," Mr Craig said. However, he saw movement in the dead animal's stomach and "knew instantly she was pregnant", realising he had to act quickly to "give the babies a chance at life". Using a penknife, he delivered two tiny leverets. "I carefully cut her open and saw the babies," he said. "I gave them a gentle swing to clear out any mucus, just like you would with new-born lambs. "Then I started rubbing their bodies to try and get them breathing, and, sure enough, they gasped and came around. "So, I stopped working, got them warmed up and called the Scottish SPCA." Animal Rescue Officer Emma Totney, who went to the farm near Gretna in May, said Bruno was "feeding well and showed great energy, so I knew I needed to get him to our team at Fishcross as quickly as possible. "We stopped a couple of times on the journey for feeds, and each time he did brilliantly." While one baby hare did not survive, Bruno is described as a "little miracle". When he arrived at the charity's National Wildlife Rescue Centre he was just 80g - well below the typical 100-130g birth weight for a newborn hare. But he has since grown significantly and now weighs more than nine times his original weight. "He was hand-reared at home for the first five days to minimise stress," explained wildlife assistant Shauni Stoddart. "He responded incredibly well, quickly gaining strength. He's a true little fighter." Ms Totney said: "It's heart-warming to know that thanks to a kind-hearted farmer, the wildlife centre team, and myself, this little miracle will get the chance to return to the wild and live a full life. "He's a little miracle."
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Farmer rescues baby hare by performing roadside C-section
A farmer rescued a baby hare by performing an emergency roadside Caesarean on its mother. Robert Craig accidentally struck the adult female hare with machinery on May 13 while carrying out silage operations in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. When he checked on the dead mother, he noticed there was movement in her stomach and realised it was pregnant. Knowing he needed to act quickly, he saved the leverets on the side of the road by performing an emergency C-section with a pen knife. Mr Craig said: 'I went to check what I had struck and sadly found the hare dead. But then I saw her stomach move and knew instantly she was pregnant, and I had to act quickly to give the babies a chance at life. 'I carefully cut her open and saw the babies. I gave them a gentle swing to clear out any mucus, just like you would with newborn lambs. 'Then I started rubbing their bodies to try and get them breathing, and sure enough, they gasped and came around. So, I stopped working, got them warmed up and called the Scottish SPCA [Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals].' While one of the baby hares did not survive, the other, named Bruno by Scottish SPCA staff for his fighting spirit, is now gaining strength at the charity's National Wildlife Rescue Centre at Fishcross in Clackmannanshire. Emma Totney, an animal rescue officer who went to the scene, said: 'When I arrived, I was surprised by how alert and energetic the baby was – it was a huge relief. He was feeding well and already showing signs of real fight.' Ms Totney added: 'It's heartwarming to know that thanks to a kindhearted farmer, the wildlife centre team, and myself, this little miracle will get the chance to return to the wild and live a full life.' When first admitted to the Wildlife Rescue Centre, Bruno was very underweight at just 80g (2oz) – well below the typical 100-130g (3.5-4.5oz) weight for a newborn hare. However, Bruno now weighs more than nine times his original weight. The team hope that Bruno will be ready for release into the wild in the coming weeks, provided its progress continues. The Scottish SPCA described Bruno's birth as 'very extraordinary', and the charity said it would not recommend anyone performing this kind of surgery on any animal.
