Highlands swim school Aquabliss Frensham has got behind national Learn2Swim Week and will offer free swimming lessons for local children under five, in a bid to kerb childhood drowning.
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Brian Lamarre from Poolwerx Moss Vale, the company behind the week-long event, said the response from local swim schools had been fantastic and urged parents to take advantage of the free swimming lessons.
“Last year there were tragically 29 drowning deaths in children aged zero to four years, with three quarters of these deaths resulting from a fall into the water,” he said.
“That is why it is so important to familiarise kids with water at an early age and swimming lessons can provide under-fives with the lifesaving skills they need to know to get themselves out of trouble.”
Lamarre said Learn2Swim Week helped get the message across to parents that children can begin water familiarisation lessons from as early as four to six months of age and that by 18 months of age, children who had attended regular swimming lessons had the skills they needed to get themselves safely back to the side of the pool.
“Our survey of parents who participated in Learn2Swim Week last year showed that 60 per cent went on to enroll their under-fives in regular swimming lessons.
“The free swimming lessons our local swim schools are providing during Learn2Swim Week give parents the opportunity to get their under-fives familiar with water and see firsthand the benefits of teaching them lifesaving water skills.”
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Laurie Lawrence from Kids Alive - Do the Five is the program ambassador and has once again partnered with Poolwerx to deliver the initiative and said local swim schools were once again showing they were at the forefront of water safety awareness in young children.
“Learn2Swim Week has been running for four years now and each year we get more and more swim schools participating,” Lawrence said.
“Local swim schools like Aquabliss Frensham are helping us to reach our goal of zero drownings in under-fives and I encourage all parents with children under five to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity.”
This year Learn2Swim Week will run from October 2 - 9 October.
Parents can visit http://learn2swimweek.com/ to find out more.
