Swimming Sports

The organizations that promote swimming in New Zealand have been increasingly concerned about the standard of swimming among our children. Primary School pools were hand built by their communities in the 1960's. These have come to end of their shelf life and new regulations and expenses have meant that more and more schools are without adequate facilities to teach swimming.
We are fortunate that we have the Aquatic Centre within walking distance that is supported financially by our parent community through the parent contribution. The Pool works hard to keep the prices significantly lower than is available to the general public partly through application for government funding.
The professional tuition that Saint Paul's students get from trained instructors in the water for 10 sessions each year will give a basic skill level over the 5 years they are swimming. But most will  need more to realize the goal of getting all 12 year olds being able to swim 200 metres.
It certainly appears from the recent Saint Paul's swimming sports that there are a number who get to the point where they are swimming strongly and confidently over  50 metre length.  I suspect that these children have had additional lessons. There are still, however, a number of our older students choosing to swim the width. My advice is that parents supplement the basic tuition at school with further lessons. Our death toll from drowning has been on the increase. It is vital we reverse this trend and equip our children with the skills to survive.