JUMP! Swim Schools spotlight need to boost pre-holiday skills among school-aged children

With the recently released Royal Life Saving National Drowning Report 2022 showing there are still serious issues among school-aged children creating a big risk this coming summer, JUMP! Swim Schools notes this needs to be addressed now.

The report showed a 7% increase on last year and a 36% increase on the 10-year average for drownings in children aged between five and 14, most likely due to children missing out on swim lessons during lockdowns with some yet to return to their weekly classes.

JUMP! Swim Schools Chief Executive Mark Collins said while it was positive to see improvements in drowning rates in under five-year-olds, the spike in drownings among school-aged children was very concerning, especially given the current holiday habits of Australians.

Collins notes “I think parents with kids under two have been eager to get their kids to lessons to start learning to swim after lockdowns, but some older children have been slower to return.

“We’re worried that some parents may be assuming their primary school age kids are still swimming at a pre-covid level and still have the required skills to safely enjoy the water – but it’s not necessarily the case.

“Combine a lack of water skills with the rising enthusiasm of Australians to travel domestically and seek out remote, low-cost locations, often away from patrolled beaches and pools, and we have a dangerous situation shaping up this summer.

“And even though we’ve seen a decrease in drownings in the 0-4 age group, 17 little lives lost is still too many – so there is more work to be done across the board to ensure children of all ages have baseline water safety skills.”

JUMP! Swim Schools hosted Water Safety Week nationally last week, where regular classes are altered to review important water safety skills, including how to cope when falling into the water fully clothed.

Collins said getting on top of rising drowning stats this summer would come down to a few key things.

“We need to be spreading the message that kids should be getting their skills up now – whether that’s a return to lessons or taking part in an intensive course, it’s essential.

“It’s important that swim schools teach the full picture of water safety – swimming in calm water dressed in swimmers is one thing – knowing what to do when an accident happens in the water is quite another. That’s why we’ve introduced Water Safety Week and now run this every quarter at all of our sites.

“As an industry, we also need to work on having more classes available to get kids off waitlists. This means incentivising more swim teachers and opening more locations – it’s a challenging situation but we need to keep working on it.”

For more information: jumpswimschools.com.au/