Free swim lessons extend to more children

Following positive feedback, the John Walker Find Your Field of Dreams Foundation has now extended its Community Swim programme to include Year Four children in Manukau, almost doubling the capacity of the programme.

The Community Swim programme currently provides seven free swim lessons to over 6500 Year Three pupils in Manukau. Run by Manukau Leisure Services Ltd, the programme also provides free buses to transport the children between their school and the swimming facility.

The announcement of programme extension comes on the back of alarming forecast released by Water Safety New Zealand: drowning toll is expected to exceed 150 deaths per annum within the next 12 years. New Zealand's current drowning rate, at 114 every year, is one of the highest in the developed world.

According to research by Dr Kevin Moran, chairman of Water Safe Auckland Inc., main reasons for insufficient aquatic education are: cost of transport (82 per cent) and cost of pool hire (68 per cent).

The Community Swim programme takes care of these barriers, as it provides free pool, instructors and transport. With the $250,000 extension of the programme, 6300 more children from up to 70 Manukau schools are expected to benefit, says John Walker, the chairman of the foundation, "and we are grateful to The Lion Foundation for its continued support of this wonderful programme."

"Where schools have their own pool or have access to a suitable pool, we will provide instructors to give tuition at these pools," says Brett Jude, chief executive of Manukau Leisure Services Ltd. "We'll also try to ensure that these children are taught in groups of no more than 10 children."

It is such a tremendous opportunity that we didn't have before, says Ngaire Takerei, a teacher at Clayton Park Primary, one of the schools that benefit from the programme. "We don't have a pool at our school; and the kids, teachers and parents all just love it."

Currently, Manukau is one of the few cities in New Zealand to provide free swimming pool access to its residents. Manukau Leisure Services Ltd, which runs swimming and leisure facilities, offers free swim lanes for schools. It also works with Water-Safe Auckland to provide water safety classroom resources and professional development for the teachers at these schools. This partnership increases the sustainability of both the Community Swim programme and the development of critical water safety thinking. This is vital to ensure that the children of Manukau are able to transfer this skill from the pool into the aquatic recreation opportunities that Manukau has to offer.