CPD Review
TEACHER RESCUE AWARD COURSE (TRA) RUN BY ROYAL LIFE SAVING BAHRAIN (RLSB) Royal Life Saving Bahrain (RLSB) are a Bahrain registered charity who were founded to prevent drowning related death and injury in Bahrain. RLSB works with many different organisations teaching water rescue, first aid, providing lifeguards, advising the Bahrain Government on water safety and being involved in regulating all water activities. Although the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health have not, as yet, provided enforceable regulations for the supervision of swimming lessons in schools, in 2018 BSB made the decision as best practice to train staff involved in swimming through RLSB in the Teacher Rescue Award (TRA). The TRA is not a Lifeguard qualification as such and those who complete it cannot work as Lifeguards. A Lifeguard can only perform Lifeguard duties and NOT teach any lessons. In contrast, the TRA teaches instructors in accident prevention, CPR, first aid and aquatic rescue skills. It is a 2 day course and allows teachers to safely manage and supervise their own programmed sessions. It allows the swimming programme to be changed and adapted without needing to manage additional employees as Lifeguards and it also offers CPD for teachers. It was felt that this was the best option for BSB as it allowed the teachers at the pool and the PE teachers to deliver safe and quality lessons in small groups. The first full course took place in October 2018 with 6 PE teachers across all 3 schools, the Pool Manager, the 2 Swimming Teachers and some Swim Academy staff attending. 6 monthly refreshers took place until February when swimming classes were stopped due to Covid-19.
