SENIOR SECTION
Our Senior sessions are held at Boldon CA, New Road, Boldon Colliery NE35 9DS on a Tuesday 7 -8.30pm. Our Seniors are aged 11 years and over.
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The new RLSS UK National Lifesaving Academy awards are a suite of progressive awards that teach personal survival, first aid, CPR, rescue, and fitness skills to anyone aged 12 years and over. Their aim is to teach candidates how to stay safe around water and how to safely assist others who may have gotten into difficulty in both aquatic and non-aquatic situations. The awards are structured to teach foundational skills and then progressively build up the candidate’s skills.
On achieving the Bronze Medallion level of award, our members will receive Recognition of Prior Learning hours towards the RLSS UK vocational lifeguard qualifications. The awards are structured into three levels (Bronze Lifesaving Certificate, Bronze Star, and Bronze Medallion), and multiple environmental strands are available at the Bronze Star and Bronze Medallion levels. The three award strands are as follows:
• Pool – completed in the swimming pool
• Open Water – completed preferably in non-tidal, inland open water sites
• Beach – completed on the coast
The Bronze Lifesaving Certificate is designed to teach new lifesavers the basics of staying safe in or around water. It provides our members with basic water safety knowledge, basic aquatic lifesaving skills, basic CPR, and basic First Aid.
The two subsequent award levels (Bronze Star and Bronze Medallion) are divided into three sections:
• Theory
• Lifesaving Skills
• CPR & First Aid
Members will need to complete and pass all sections before moving on to the next award. Upon successfully completing the assessment, members will receive either a certificate or an e-certificate and medal depending on the award level.
Survive and Save Awards
We are now phasing out the old award scheme of Survive and Save as we move over to the new awards. The Survive & Save Programme lifesaving award scheme is for anyone aged 12 years and over. The awards are both challenging and fun to complete and are arranged into 3 levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold to ensure that participants get the opportunity to develop their skills as they progress through the awards.
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The Strands
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There are four award areas to experience:
Medallion
Beach
Stillwater
Sport
You can choose to specialise in one area or learn a broader range of skills by completing multiple awards. Our sessions will be focussed across all 4 strands throughout the year.
The highest achievement in the Survive & Save Programme is the Distinction Award, which is awarded to those who achieve 3 Gold Level awards within a 24-month period.
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Lifesavers can either follow a simple pathway starting from the Bronze level or candidates that have previous lifesaving experience can begin from the Silver level.
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We are soon to swap to the new award program which is going to replace Survive and Save. The RLSS UK are due to launch The Lifesaving Academy awards in November 2022.
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Beach Sessions
We run beach sessions from Mowbray Lifeguard Station (next to The Sandancer Pub) from May until August. All senior members are invited to attend the sessions and members complete the beach award strand.
Summer Camp
We are the only club in the UK to offer a Survive and Save Summer Camp. Each year we take between 20 and 30 club members aged 10 years and over to the Lakes and complete our Still Water awards along with Open Water Lifeguard Qualifications for those aged 16 years and over.
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The camp includes a wide range of activities changed each year including Go Ape, Go Karting, Human Bowling, Quad Biking, Sailing, Kayaking and team building activities.
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Camp will be back for 2023! We are in the planning stages now.
