Record numbers of primary school children are learning to sail for free on the East Wight with the Seaview Sailing Trust.
Almost 400 children, from 10 different Island primary schools, have completed a course of free sailing lessons throughout the summer term.
The Seaview Sailing Trust offers 9 and 10-year-olds a course of free sailing lessons in dinghies with most attaining RYA Sailing Stages 1, and some reach Stage 2.
The primary schools now signed up for the programme are Oakhill; Nettlestone; Bembridge; St Helens; Newchurch; Brading; Dover Park; Binstead and Haylands; plus Nine Acres in Newport via the Sir Thomas Lipton Trust.
Last term, the Trust completed 1,500 sessions over the 10-week programme provided by the Sea View Yacht Club, for a total of 385 Year 5 students.
Lucy Holloway, teacher, Nettlestone Primary School says:
“The sailing programme is firmly embedded in the curriculum…”
“This is the 5th year we have been involved and I continue to see how it equips the children with so much: from the ability to listen, learn and apply new skills – and to work as a team.”
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Andrea Minton Beddoes, SST Chair has said:
“The Island provides so many holidaymakers with wonderful experiences on land and sea but at the same time many local children never experience the joys of sailing – we want to change this.”
Jon Curtis, SST Sailing Director, commented:
“One thing that we’ve noticed is that a lot of our kids haven’t actually been near the beach or the water – it just isn’t a part of their day-to-day lives.
“Teaching them how to ‘risk assess’ the environment is a really great skill to have – we give them the confidence to be out in the water and be safe.”
In Autumn, 2 further primaries are expected to join the programme: St Marys RC and Greenmount.
The board of trustees has developed a 3-year growth plan for the charity and aims to be working with 12 Island schools by 2025.
Oh I did not see planning for picnic tables. To be left on the beach. Opps must have missed that. Never mind yobs will have a fire.but the sailing for the kids is good.
I don’t understand.
tables on the beach on Seaview Duver.
Thank you.
*Oakfield not Oakhill.