Page 1580 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 12 May 2015
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children will leave primary school this year without the swimming and water safety skills and knowledge that they will need to be safe in and around water. Royal Life Saving believes that provision of these programs is a key strategy to equip children with sufficient water safety skills as a means to prevent drowning deaths.
The introduction of a comprehensive water safety and awareness program for primary school students in Canberra’s public schools will complement existing learn to swim programs and support children to develop the knowledge, skills and understanding to avoid danger and prevent death in and around water.
To prevent drowning, research indicates that every Australian child must be taught basic swimming and water safety skills and have knowledge of how to stay safe when they are in or around water. This kind of water safety and awareness education is different from traditional learn to swim programs in that it includes a holistic mix of swimming, survival and rescue skills and water safety knowledge that can be applied to a range of aquatic environments.
Water safety knowledge and awareness are as vitally important as the physical skills and competence children develop through learning to swim. A sound knowledge of when and why to use a particular survival skill or basic rescue technique is as necessary as the ability to safely and effectively perform the skills. Knowledge about the features, risks and potential dangers of the aquatic environment and the strategies to ensure personal safety and the safety of others is an essential component for safeguarding children’s wellbeing that is not always taught during a learn to swim program.
I believe that the incidence of drowning in inland waterways such as creeks, rivers and lakes means that provision of a water safety and awareness program must be a priority for our children.
The new water safety and awareness program will target children in year 2, who are typically seven to eight years of age. Evidence suggests that children of this age are becoming increasingly independent, particularly around water. Increased confidence and moving away from the immediate proximity of parents and carers highlight the importance of programs that equip children with the information and know-how to make safe decisions around water.
Children in this age group are also at the right stage of learning and development to further develop basic swimming skills; an awareness of the features, differences and dangers of a range of different aquatic environments; and an understanding of effective ways to avoid danger and to prevent serious injury or drowning. Many of the skills that will be taught through the program are considerably more difficult to learn during the adolescent years.
The new water safety and awareness program will include two complementary components. The first is delivery of a program of 10 practical lessons at a local swimming pool or water park. These practical lessons will include learning sculling and treading water, the use of life jackets and other aids, basic rescues, survival skills and developing students’ awareness of inland waterways, including their features and potential dangers.
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