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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 strokesâ€. 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
