Australian parents value swimming and water safety lessons above all other extra-curricular activities

See AUSTSWIM

Australia were pleased that both parents and non-parents chose “learning to swim” as the most important activity for children aged 5 to 14 years when provided a set of seven popular extra-curricular activities in a recent community survey. In addition, when asked to assess the relative importance of a set of eight water safety and aquatic skills, the majority also rated “personal survival skills” as the most important, followed by “water safety knowledge” and “survival swimming strokes”. This survey finding contradicts the views of swimming teachers from previous research conducted by both organisations where teachers were asked to rank the same skills from a parent’s perception. Teachers of swimming and water safety believed that parents would value competitive strokes as the most important skills.

Image courtesy of Tommy Wong, CC BY 2.0