The people in charge of a school kayak trip off Anglesea, in south-western Victoria, in May did not understand the significance of the weather conditions and those rescued were "very lucky", a report into the incident has found.
Six students and two teachers from Brauer College at Warrnambool had to be rescued after being blown out to sea extreme in weather conditions and falling out of their kayaks
They spent about an hour in the water when a deep cold front swept through southern Victoria, uprooting trees and damaging buildings with wind gusts of more than 100 kilometres per hour.
Some off-duty lifesavers just happened to be on the beach at the time and had access to rescue boats.
Maritime Safety Victoria found those in charge of the activity did not "appreciate the significance" of a warning of strong winds and high seas, the report said.
"The people involved in this incident were lucky," spokesman David Hourigan said.
"The only things lost were four double kayaks and eight paddles, but it could have been much worse."
The report found there was a lack of understanding about the need for a thorough risk assessment of the activity, the impact of the wind, the ability of the kayakers to make it back to shore, Peter Corocoran, the director of maritime safety at Transport Victoria, said.
"They were ill-equipped in terms of understanding the risks of going out when the weather was blowing them out to sea and blowing them in such extreme conditions," he said.
"Someone should've been standing on that beach doing a risk assessment at that time and saying it's not safe for us to be going out and we don't have adequate recue services available should something go wrong."
Mr Corcoran said the incident had been a "wake-up call" for the staff and students involved.
"It was a very close call in a lot of ways and if not for the fantastic work of four off duty lifesavers at Anglesea we would've been looking at a really different outcome," he said.
Mr Corcoran said Department of Education guidelines covering the incident were not mandatory but should be.
Sixteen students from Lara Secondary College were swept out to sea in canoes in similar circumstances in 2006.
Mr Corcoran said Department of Education guidelines covering the incident were not mandatory but should be.
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never a truer word has been said... i have family in teaching, i might drop them a note about school trips and if they are having kayaks that someone should be given a briefing on how to read weather, whats safe and what's not... truth be told, if they are all newbies anything above 5 knots in open water probably isn't a good idea
I also can't believe the teachers involved didn't read the weather forecasts better. Could have absolutely tragic.
Met a guy at Cleeland, he was associated with a local school camp, and was supervising a group of approx eighteen kids on tandems. At the time I thought he was stretched beyond limits if anything went wrong. They paddled to the sand hills and back, and were stretched out a fair bit, if someone near the back got in real trouble he had a fair distance to render assistance.
The ocean is nothing to be sneezed at. Keep it safe guys
"Ye old town" Yak captures - gummy (116) salmon (32) flatty (35) yakka (28) silver trev (25) couta (38) plus all the garbage fish
My Son-in-law is a trained licenced kayak instructor....schools will not pay him to a) run or supervise kayak ed. On school trips one teacher to 40 students.........paid for 8 hrs only at standard rate regardless
Anyone in hopes of tapping into schools will be chasing smoke I fear......so much for ouur kids being an asset!!!!
When all else fails........read the instructions!
Studies have shown that people who have more Birthdays tend to live longer...
Hvalross wrote:My Son-in-law is a trained licenced kayak instructor....schools will not pay him to a) run or supervise kayak ed. On school trips one teacher to 40 students.........paid for 8 hrs only at standard rate regardless
Anyone in hopes of tapping into schools will be chasing smoke I fear......so much for ouur kids being an asset!!!!
Department supervision ratio for regular school trips is 1:20 - less than a grade due to heightened risk.
Supervision ratio for kayaking (inshore) is 2:12 and open 2:8 that's why schools wouldn't pay for it as a kayak ed program because an average size grade would require 4 instructors and couldn't compete on cost with say hockey which would cost $5 a session.
I'm running sessions for school kids but they are private lessons not year-level programs for exactly that reason.
Hvalross wrote:My Son-in-law is a trained licenced kayak instructor....schools will not pay him to a) run or supervise kayak ed. On school trips one teacher to 40 students.........paid for 8 hrs only at standard rate regardless
Anyone in hopes of tapping into schools will be chasing smoke I fear......so much for ouur kids being an asset!!!!
Department supervision ratio for regular school trips is 1:20 - less than a grade due to heightened risk.
Supervision ratio for kayaking (inshore) is 2:12 and open 2:8 that's why schools wouldn't pay for it as a kayak ed program because an average size grade would require 4 instructors and couldn't compete on cost with say hockey which would cost $5 a session.
I'm running sessions for school kids but they are private lessons not year-level programs for exactly that reason.
Real glad to hear you are doing private tuition. School system is broken beyond repair.
Private school camp....40 students 2 teachers....till one has to go off due to hours worked......still 40 students????????? SIL IS A TEACHER currently teaching ............go figure.
When all else fails........read the instructions!
Studies have shown that people who have more Birthdays tend to live longer...
Hvalross wrote: Private school camp....40 students 2 teachers....till one has to go off due to hours worked......still 40 students????????? SIL IS A TEACHER currently teaching ............go figure.
I also am a school teacher, currently teaching and have been doing school camps for over 8 years and have never seen a teacher or parent helper 'go off due to hours worked'. Maybe other or perhaps private schools do it differently? I can only go by my own experience. If you go on camp, at least at our school, you are there 'in loco parentis' so if a kid is up in the middle of the night, then so are you (just as a parent would). Its a 24hr job for the week but the load is shared, and while its tiring, I would never say camps are hard work and the kids have a blast.
Hvalross wrote:School system is broken beyond repair
I'll respectfully disagree.
Please don't generalise and tar all schools with one brush because the reality is that there are good and bad out there as there is in every industry (same is true of teachers).
Last edited by Seasherpa on 07 Aug 2016, 21:17, edited 1 time in total.
Hvalross wrote:School system is broken beyond repair
I'll respectfully disagree.
Please don't generalise and tar all schools with one brush because the reality is that there are good and bad out there as there is in every industry (same is true of teachers).
There may be the odd Drop Kick in a/each school and I've met a few due to my wife's work but that's not the norm.
Mate my wife is a teacher at a private school and puts in a minimum of 60 Hours a week. Plus she plans her lessons during the week at home and on the weekends.
She helps out with yard duty, sleepovers, excursions etc and I know there are others at her school who put in the yards.
) kgw (39)
SIL IS A TEACHER currently teaching ............go figure.
