Raising your kids in Australia? Here’s why teaching them how to swim is vital

Key Points

Swimming education should cover water survival and safety skills
Key aquatic competencies for children depend on their age
Primary schools deliver swimming and water safety programs and states/territories offer sports vouchers for swim lessons

While being around water is an integral part of growing up in Australia, drowning remains a leading cause of death and injury in young children.

Children under five are most at risk of drowning, with an average of 23 deaths and 183 hospitalisations annually across Australia.

However, these tragic incidents are most preventable through water safety and swimming education.

“Most times we think, ‘this won’t happen to me’. We should not have that attitude. This can happen to anyone. Particularly at the young age group of zero to five, all you need is momentary loss of supervision,” says Dr SV Soundappan, a trauma surgeon at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

ཆུ་རྐྱལ་དང་དེའི་བདེ་འཇགས་ཤེས་བྱ་སྦྱངས་བ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་ཤེས་བྱ་གཞན་མང་པོ་ཞིག་སྦྱོང་བའི་རིག་ལམ་ཇེ་མྱུར་དུ་བཏང་ཡོད་པ་རེད། Credit: Mike Kemp/Getty Images/Tetra images RF

2022 saw a concerning rise in children presenting to Sydney hospitals following a drowning incident. This prompted a renewed warning from experts at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network and the New South Wales Ambulance.

Australia is a water loving country, we love our watersports, beaches, and pools. We just want to make sure we’re there in time to remind people to keep the children safe around water.

Dr SV Soundappan, Children’s Hospital at Westmead

Even in near-drowning incidents there are health-consequences, Dr Soundappan explains.

“We obviously know, if you’re there under water for three minutes or longer, you’re likely to have significant neurological damage. But even a short period can have an effect on the learning abilities of a child.”

ཕྲུ་གུ་ཆུང་ཆུང་ཚོའི་ཆེད་དུ་ཆུའི་ནང་དུ་ལྟ་རྟོག་ཡག་པོ་དགོས་ཞེས་པའི་དོན་ནི། ཕྲུ་གུ་མི་དེའི་ལག་པས་སྙོབ་ཐུབ་ས་ཞིག་ཏུ་ཡོད་པའི་དོན་རེད། Source: Moment RF / Yasser Chalid/Getty Images

What is the ‘best’ age to start swim lessons?

According to Stacey Pidgeon, the National Manager for Research and Policy at Royal Life Saving, there are several key factors for preventing drowning.

For children under five, these include active supervision, parents’ knowledge of CPR first aid skills, and restricting access to water or using covers for water vessels.

Regardless of age, water safety should be included in the swimming lessons parents choose for their children.

“So, things like learning to float, learning to go underwater, how to rescue someone without putting yourself in danger, and also knowing whether or go to the lifesavers.”

དགའ་སྤྲོའི་ཁེངས་པའི་ཕྲུ་གུ་རྐྱལ་རྫིང་དུ་རྩེད་མོ་རྩེ་བ།

“Children are naturally curious around water; however, they don’t understand the dangers it can pose,” says Dr Soundappan. Source: Moment RF / Isabel Pavia/Getty Images

The outlines a comprehensive list of skills that children should be achieving according to their age.

Ms Pidgeon says there are three key benchmarks for children at the ages of 6, 12 and 17 years.

By the age of 12, a child should be able to swim 50 meters, float for two minutes, and also perform a rescue and a survival sequence with clothes on.

Stacey Pidgeon, National Manager for Research and Policy at Royal Life Saving

“We want to make sure that kids, by the time they leave primary school, have those key skills.”

Across Australia, school children are offered the opportunity to go through a swimming and water safety program at some point in their primary school education.

Parents can also make use of sports vouchers available from state and territories (scroll to the end of the article for links) for their children’s swimming lessons.

“Each state has slightly different eligibility criteria, with two states having specific vouchers just for swimming and water safety programs,” Ms Pidgeon explains.

ཆུ་རྐྱལ་དགེ་རྒན་གྱིས་བུ་མོ་ཆུང་ཆུང་ཚོ་ལ་མཛུབ་སྟོན་བྱེད་བཞིན་པ།

ཕ་མ་ཚོས་རང་གི་ཕྲུ་གུའི་ཆུ་རྐྱལ་རྩལ་རིམ་པ་གང་འཚམ་ཞིག་ལ་མ་སླེབས་བར་དུ་ཕྲུ་གུའི་ཆུ་རྐྱལ་འཛིན་གྲྭ་མུ་མཐུད་ལེན་དགོས་པ་རེད། Credit: FatCamera/Getty Images

The role of parents

Brendon Ward is the CEO of the Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association.

He says water familiarisation can start from as young as six months old, with some swim schools offering courses even earlier.

“It’s about getting the children comfortable in the water and getting them to a stage when they get those foundation skills, they are ready to learn.”

Mr Ward says, between the ages three and four many children are able to start building foundation skills around water safety and learning to swim.

Parents can have an active role in helping their children become safe swimmers by establishing rules and risk awareness from a young age.

ཨ་ཕ་དང་ཕྲུ་གུ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་རྐྱལ་རྫིང་དུ་དགའ་སྤྲོས་ངང་ལག་ཟུང་རྡེབ་བཞིན་པ།

རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཕྲུ་གུ་ཆུའི་ནང་དུ་རྩེ་རུ་བཅུག་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་ཕ་མ་དང་ཕྲུ་གུའི་བརྩེ་བ་འཕེལ་གྱི་ཡོད་པ་རེད། Source: Moment RF / Navinpeep/Getty Images

“Certainly for the children that I’ve seen learning to swim and my children, you build routine so that they know that they can’t get in the water unless they’ve got their swimming costumes on, they know that they can’t get in the water unless there’s an adult with them.”

It is essential for adults to be confident and competent in water, for them to effectively supervise a child.

But some parents who arrived in Australia as adults might not have had swimming experience in their home country.

Dr Soundappan estimates that roughly one in five children involved in a drowning incident are from a culturally diverse background.

As someone who took swimming lessons in Australia as an adult, he encourages both parents and children get involved in the learning experience as early as possible.

“I did some lessons just to be able to float a little bit in water. So, it’s likely there are many people from a culturally diverse background, where the parent cannot swim.

“Luckily in Australia, we can get children into the water in a safe environment, there are classes available from infancy onwards. So, starting early is actually good because when they’re living here, they’re likely to come across water bodies and involve themselves in water activities.”

ཕྲུ་གུའི་ཆུ་རྐྱལ་འཛིན་གྲྭ་དང་པོའི་སྐབས་སུ་ཆུ་རྐྱལ་སྒྲིག་ཆས་གྱོན་དུ་བཅུག་ཚེ། ཕྲུ་གུའི་ཆུ་རྐྱལ་གྱི་སྤྲོ་བ་འཕེལ་བར་ཕན་ཐོགས་ཡོད་པ་རེད། Credit: FatCamera/Getty Images

As with any activity, parents are required to do some research before enrolling a child in swim lessons.

Mr Ward shares some advice on key criteria to look for:

Does the swim school have qualified teachers?
Do those teachers have a reputable accreditation?
Does the swim school suit your values?
Is the swim school clean and tidy?
Are there any testimonials/reviews you can read?

Voucher Schemes for swimming/sports across states and territories

NSW 

for children aged 3 – 6 years old. 

for primary school children.

for children under 5 years old

QLD 

form children 5 – 15 years.

TAS

VIC