INTRODUCTION

This article is solely regarding the safety guidelines for children and young

people in sport and recreation written by Sports Medication Australia for the use of

teachers. Firstly, what is Recreational Safety? Recreation is an activity of leisure,

leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an

essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often

done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be

"fun"(Scilifestyle, 2014). On the other hand, Safety is the state of being "safe", the

condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political,

emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types or consequences

of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be

considered non-desirable (KFUPM, 2014). Safety can also be defined to be the

control of recognized hazards to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Therefore

recreational safety is actually the safety tips or conduct we have to follow to make

sure that the recreational activity planned is carried out safely without any mishaps.

The article mainly highlights the guidelines that have been developed to support safe

participation in sport and recreation for children and young people. According to the

article these guidelines are relevant to administrators, schools, teachers, coaches,

parents, officials and participants. It is also claimed that these guidelines can help

reduce injuries to participants by up to 50% giving them lifelong access to physical

activity, reducing their risk of chronic illness, mental illness and obesity. The article is

mainly divided into four main sections which are prevention strategies, record

keeping, managing illness and medical conditions, considerations for participations

and also roles and responsibilities. Finally this article also highlights the top 10 facts

or points to remember about Recreational Safety.

DEVELOPEMENT

After going through the articles, it mostly highlights the fact that 50% of the

injuries that occur during recreational activities could be overcame by using the

correct guidelines as prescribed by the article. The article is mainly divided to four

bases(as stated earlier) which can also be considered as the main keypoints , firstly

the Prevention Strategies which consists of the environment, the equipments and

also the grounds and facilities, secondly the record keeping, managing illness and

medical conditions which consists of pre-participation screening, collecting

informations and keeping records, illness and participation and also medical

conditions and participation. Next is the consideration for participation which consists

of training sessions, warm up-cool-down, and intensity of activity, balanced

competitions, strength training, recovery, including injury management. Finally it

states about roles and responsibilities, where the roles of clubs, schools, coaches,

teachers officials, parents and also providers of recreational opportunities is stated.

The most striking/interesting key point of all was regarding the record keeping,

managing illnesses and medical conditions part. It totally got our attention as the

facts regarding knowing our pupil/students medical conditions before bringing them

for these activities is totally relevant to our system as we know that our Malaysian

education system is constantly being bombarded by parents of children and young

people whom we educate. Thus early realizations of the child’s medical conditions

may help in avoiding severe injuries to those who are already having medical

histories. Moreover we can also make sure that the activities planned are suitable for

both the pupils who have medical conditions and also the pupils who don’t have any

medical conditions. We personally feel that most of the statements or the facts which

are written in this selected part can only be learned through experience, and for us

who read the part we could totally relate ourselves to this kind of situations as it

totally goes well with the saying ‘Prevention is better than cure’. Teachers need to be

ready as ever to face the consequences of bringing pupils out for recreational

activities as the School Departments states that these kind of activities are equally

important for the kids motor skills development (NewSouthWales, 2014). Moreover,

Roux emphasized the importance of physical activities as appropriate use of the

body can help us maintain our body or develop and strengthen it further. Or else, the

body deteriorates and becomes weaker (WREA, 2014). This further emphasizes the

importance of these kind of activities despite the workload that teachers may have in

conducting these activities.

Other than that, we feel that all the facts from this article are very relevant. We

totally agree to the facts of this article whereby most of it are applicable to our

Malaysian students. In fact, by applying the knowledge attained from the article we

can really ensure that the safety level is increased and the risk level is decreased,

whereby it mostly focuses on early screening of the students medical conditions,

getting to know the recreational environment before conducting these activities, the

facilities, consideration of activities according to weather conditions, roles of teachers

and all. However the part where they state about weightlifting for kids is not really

applicable for our native Malaysian kids as we don’t practice that in schools. On the

other hand, this article also focuses on the sports safety as well, but it is relevant as

both sports and recreation activities involves student centered approach and we as

teachers must make sure that they are in the best condition to attend or get involved

in such activities.

The article has helped us a lot in changing my thoughts and responsibilities as

a teacher who will be entitled for conducting recreational activities. Earlier, we

thought that these activities will be more fun than workload but knowing that there

are more responsibilities lying on our shoulders we really need to be systematic to

make sure that both students and teachers get the benefit out of such activities.

Rosemary says "A creative engagement with nature is instrumental in building a

strong sense of self and this is the basis of understanding and communicating

concepts about the world. These concepts are building blocks of later success in

social and educational situations" (NSWGoverment, 2014). Thus it is important for us

as teachers to bring pupils out for recreational activities for fun learning and also

teambuilding. So, in order to make sure that the objectives of the planned programs

are achieved, teachers should be well prepared with students personal information,

for example the precautions need to be taken for pupils with diseases such as

asthma and also be ready to change plan in conditions that are not avoidable for

example in conditions of sudden thunderstorm or heavy downpour. Participation in

sports and recreational activities contributes to health and mind-related fitness;

however, the risk of injury is inherent in any physical activity (CDC, 2014). Therefore

we need to take all the considerations in mind, for safety while carrying out

recreational activities and this is how we believe the article has changed our

thoughts and beliefs.

The information and knowledge that is attained from reading this article will

help in improving management skills for recreational safety. Teachers will able to

apply the knowledge to ensure a successful recreational program by ensuring the

kids/pupils are in the safest condition before, during and after the program and also

know roles played by the conducting authorities. This is because we will

automatically know how to manage, in this case, we know that before the

recreational activity we need to survey about the environment and the facilities of the

location where this program will be carried out, and also inform the kids regarding

the correct attire and things to bring. Other than that, we should also go through the

kid’s medical conditions if there are any as I personally believe all kids are supposed

to be treated equally and not leaving them behind just because they have a certain

condition. Thus this also implies keeping record of the all the kid’s information. Next,

during the recreational activities we have to ensure that they have proper warming

up session if the program involves heavy activities like trekking and so on, and also

we have to keep them hydrated. And finally after the recreational activity we have to

ensure proper cooling down activity and keep record of all the kids until we reach our

‘home spot’. This is how we personally feel that this article has improved our thinking

and approaches.

CONCLUSION

In a nutshell, this article has improved the maturity of thinking as a teacher in

situations like recreational activities. Earlier we would have never thought that there

are this much responsibilities when we are bringing kids and young people out for

these kind of recreational activities. We all know that bringing kids and young people

out for recreational activities is totally fun for them but, we should know that creating

a safe environment for them to be safe at all times is totally our responsibility as

teachers. Other than that we cannot avoid sudden accidents but we can always

make ways for prevention as ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’.

Furthermore, we also have to take in considerations of the kid’s health and also

program itineraries in conjunction with weather conditions. We teachers will be able

to use all the information to ensure a safe environment for the kids and young adults

before during and after and also ensure that the objective of the recreation program

is achieved successfully. Further reading on how to create fun activities with

optimum safety for the kids and young adults will be more useful as we already know

how to create a safe environment for activities planned. Furthermore by doing this

we will be able to plan and conduct an entirely safe recreational program for our

students.