Sliced Bread Animation London

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Children visiting Safety Central, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service’s interactive life skills centre, can now learn vital water safety skills through a new immersive experience combining augmented reality, animation, interactive objects and physical participation.

Developed by Sliced Bread Animation, the installation transforms the centre’s indoor canal into an interactive learning environment where children explore hazards, understand cold water shock, learn how to respond when someone falls into water and practise floating to survive.

Making Water Safety Feel Real

The challenge was unusual: how do you make water safety feel real without using real water?

Safety Central already had an indoor canal environment, but wanted to give the area greater impact and help children understand risks they might encounter around canals, rivers, lakes, reservoirs and beaches.

The resulting installation has four interactive stations supporting the Royal Life Saving Society UK Water Safety Code: Stop and Think, Stay Together, Call 999 and Float.

Children first explore different waterside environments, identifying hidden hazards and discussing why they could be dangerous.

They then experience a simulated cold-water scenario. Augmented reality helps visualise some of the physiological effects of entering cold water, while guidance teaches the importance of controlling breathing and staying afloat.

Practising a Safe Response

Another station presents an emergency in which someone has fallen into water. Children learn never to jump in after them. Instead, they select physical rescue objects fitted with NFC technology and discover how they could safely help someone in difficulty.

Finally, children learn how to float to survive. After watching an animated demonstration, they practise the position themselves while a camera-based system responds to their posture. For younger learners, the message is simple: spread your arms and legs like a starfish.

The experience can be adapted for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 children, allowing facilitators to tailor the learning for different ages and abilities.

From Advice to Experience

“There is a big difference between telling a child what they should do in an emergency and giving them an opportunity to practise that response,” said Jamie Denham, Managing Director at Sliced Bread Animation. “We wanted children to remember not only the water safety messages, but what it felt like to make those decisions.”

Each element has a learning purpose. AR helps explain something children cannot see, interactive objects encourage decision-making, animation demonstrates safe behaviour and physical participation allows children to rehearse an action themselves.

The result is immersive learning that turns potentially life-saving advice into an experience.

Sliced Bread Animation creates animation, interactive learning and immersive technology for healthcare, construction, engineering and public safety.

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