Learn English while learning about daily life in Australia, with Rob McCormack
Podcast Number 168 – Learning to Swim in Australia
Hi,
Australians love to have fun in and around the water. Most Australians live near the coast, so swimming at the local beach is a major pastime activity in the warmer weather, especially for children and teenagers. Boating and sailing on the ocean are very popular with adults, along with fishing. Those of us who live away from the coast also love to visit local lakes and rivers, or the local swimming pool, to relax and have fun. All this makes the skill of swimming an important one to have in Australia. In this podcast, I would like to talk a little about our ‘learn to swim’ programs up to the end of primary school, when a child is normally 11 years of age. I will describe the programs in Victoria, where I live, although the other states and territories are similar.
Image by Tania Van den Berghen from Pixabay
While I am now in my seventies, I still have vivid memories of my childhood and teenage years, living in a coastal town in Western Australia. We lived not far from the beach and I would often walk or ride my bike there on weekends and during the summer holidays, to swim and surf the waves as they rolled up on the sand. One of the reasons I could do that in safety was because of my ability to swim. I gained this through the ‘learn to swim’ program offered at my primary school. I can remember being taken by school bus, along with my classmates, to the local harbour beach which was protected from the ocean waves. There we were taught the basics of being safe in the water and learning to swim. By the time I left primary school at the age of 12 years, I was able to swim around 50 metres and knew the basics of safety in the water.
The Education Department also organised vacation swimming classes during the long summer school holidays in January and I can remember attending this program for two weeks each year. I recall having a 45-minute lesson each weekday morning. My parents were happy to pay for these lessons, as I think the cost was not expensive. My mother in particular was very keen that I learn swimming and lifesaving skills to a high standard. She herself had never learned to swim as a child, so was especially cautious and always a little anxious when around water. I think she wanted her children not to have to worry about that. It was through these vacation ‘learn to swim’ programs held during the long summer holidays that I continued to improve my swimming and also to learn basic lifesaving skills until my early teen years.
Cottesloe Beach in Perth – a popular swimming beach.
As an aside, my mother also surprised us all when, in her 60s, she took the bold step of learning to swim, taking regular lessons which must have been quite daunting for her at that age. She was rightly very proud when she successfully learnt to swim through those lessons.
Today, the ‘learn to swim’ program for primary school children is very similar to my experience as a child, with lessons being offered during school terms, as well as optional summer vacation programs (called Vicswim Summer Kidz Program in Victoria) held over a 3-week period in January. In Victorian primary schools, the skills involved in swimming and safety around water are included as part of the overall school curriculum.
The basic swimming and water safety standards to be achieved by children at the end of primary school in Victoria are set out in the Victoria Water Safety Certificate (VWSC). They include the following areas:
- Water safety knowledge – being able to describe water safety rules around water, for example at the beach or swimming pool.
- Swimming – being able to swim continuously for 50 metres.
- Under water – being able to do a surface dive, swim underwater and recover an object from deep water.
- Lifesaving – being able to respond to an emergency, including performing an assessment of the situation using a simple checklist.
- Rescue – being able to rescue a person using non-swimming techniques (such as throwing a lifebuoy).
- Survival – being able to do a survival exercise in deep water wearing light clothing, including floating for 2 minutes, signaling for help and leaving the water successfully.
You can see that this level of swimming skill is a great start to allow someone to be safe around the water, at a beach, pool, lake or river. Many parents choose to supplement the school’s ‘learn to swim’ program by sending their children for private lessons at local swim schools at swimming pools in city suburbs and towns in Australia. Many of these swimmers develop excellent swimming techniques and go on to join swimming clubs and become swimming champions, including at Olympic level. Australia has always performed very well in the swimming at each Olympic Games, as I describe in Podcast 80.
The big change today compared to my experience as a child is that very young children can now start learning water safety skills from as young as 6 months, which is amazing. Our own granddaughter has been attending such lessons since she was around 6 months old. My wife and I often go along to the swimming pool to watch and encourage her as she learns to become confident in the water. It’s great to see her learning the skills so early which will help keep her safe and give her the confidence to have a lot of fun in the water throughout her life.
If you have a question or comment to make, please leave it in the comments box at the bottom of this page. Or, you can send me an email at rob@slowenglish.info. I would love to hear from you. Tell me where you live, a little bit about yourself and what you think of my Slow English podcast. I will write back to you, in English of course. If you would like to take a short quiz to see if you have understood this podcast, you will also find it on my website. Goodbye until next time.
Rob
Podcast 168 Quiz - Did you understand the podcast?
You can take the quiz as many times as you like.
Vocabulary
ability = (here) a skill you have, something you can do well
activity = things people do
anxious = to be afraid that something bad might happen
as an aside = when you say something which is slightly away from the topic
assessment = to understand a situation and make some decisions
attending = (here) going to, taking part in
attending = going to
basics = the most important things to learn at the start
bold = brave
cautious = to be worried about danger
champions = sports people who win
checklist = a list of things to check or do
classmates = my friends who were in my school class
coast = where the sea meets the land
compared = when you decide if something is better, worse or just different to something else
confidence = when you are sure that you can do something
continuously = without stopping
curriculum = a statement of all the things someone will learn in a course or at school
daunting = when you are afraid of something, but still do it.
Education Department = the government group which organizes Education (schools)
emergency = when something occurs and you are in danger and you need help
encourage = when you tell or help someone to do something
especially = when something stands out from other things
expensive = not cheap
gained = got
involved = (here) part of
keen = when you really want to do something a lot
lifebuoy = a round floating shape that can help a person to float
lifesaving = the things you can do to save someone’s life after an accident
major = important, large
offered = when something is available
optional = when you have the choice to do something, or not
organised = plans, controls, manages
pastime = something which you do for fun, hobby
private = not provided by the government
recall = remember
recover = (here) to bring back
relax = to rest
safety = all of the things which keep you safe
set out = written down
standards = something you can compare yourself to
subsidized = part-paid for by someone else
supplement = in addition to
survival = to stay alive
techniques = ways of doing things
territories = a region which has a name and under the control of a higher government. It may also have its own government (for example, the Northern Territory)
vacation = the holidays, when you students are not going to school
vivid = (here) easily remembered because it was special