We Welcome Schools and Groups with Children
Children’s safety education and development are very important to the RNLI. However, the station is designed for Lifeboats and very large launching equipment. Despite its outside appearance space is limited for groups.
In order to balance the needs of an operational lifeboat station and the comfort and success of your visit we draw your attention to the following guidelines which are designed to help our young visitors make the most of their experience:-
- We can accommodate classes of up to 45 and they must be accompanied by sufficient staff while they are with us (Please see terms and conditions).
- The tour usually lasts between 45 minutes and an hour and we try to involve visitors in imagining what it might mean to prepare to go out on a rescue. We will also endeavour to reinforce current water safety messages
- The leader of the group must complete a booking form which explains the terms and conditions then email it to visits@exmouthlifeboat.org.uk You will be asked to countersign this on arrival at the station. The form can be found at https://rnli.org/find-my-nearest/lifeboat-stations/exmouth-lifeboat-station
- Please book as early as you can as we can get very busy.
- We look forward to seeing you!
- I may be able to further assist with an additional pre visit to the RNLI Lifeguards (Exmouth Beach during the Summer) or put you in contact with an RNLI educational officer who can visit schools with material and explanations about our role and safety at sea.
Ian Rick, Lifeboat Visits Officer – visits@exmouthlifeboat.org.uk
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Groups involving Children
Over the years the Lifeboat Station Tour Guides have been delighted to conduct pre-booked tours for Schools, Brownies, Cubs, Cadets, Guides, Rainbows, Rangers etc.
With all that experience, we have developed a way of conducting tours in the most favourable way for the children, the supervising adults and the guides.
While the station may look large from the outside there is not much available space inside, once all the equipment has been stored away, as you will discover on the tour!
As Exmouth is an operational station we need to limit the amount of visitors we have on site at any one time for safety reasons. If there is a ‘shout’ we have to clear the station as quickly as possible. Each tour consists of three parts, the Inshore Lifeboat and changing room, the All Weather Lifeboat changing room where we will incorporate a Water Safety Briefing and the Shannon All Weather Lifeboat and Shannon Launch and Recovery System (the tractor and trailer). Our experience suggests a group of 10-15 on each part of the tour can be cleared from the station in about one minute. Therefore, as a guide, we will look at groups of 30-45 per hour, but we can be flexible. Please let us know if you have any special requirements.
The booking procedure is quite straightforward: fill in the booking form, it can be found at https://rnli.org/find-my-nearest/lifeboat-stations/exmouth-lifeboat-station, and email it to visits@exmouthlifeboat.org.uk. Once I have received the booking form I will email you to confirm I have received it. I will then organise the required number of guides and, once I have done that, I will confirm your tour (usually takes less than a week) and, finally, about a week before your tour I will send a reminder about the details of your tour and the names of the guides who you will be conducting your tour.
If you have any questions before you book, please email me at visits@exmouthlifeboat.org.uk
Ian Rick
Lifeboat Visits Officer
Exmouth Lifeboat Station
Queen’s Drive
Exmouth
Devon
EX8 2AY
