Swim & Survive - Thank you to our funders!

Year 3 & 4 students are learning how to swim - they are put in to 3 ability groups with an instructor for each group. 

All Pt England children had 8-10 half hour swimming lessons this term at the Glen Innes Aquatics Centre which is situated next to our school.  Learning how to swim and survive when problems arise in the water are essential life skills that our students need to know.  Our Year 1, 2, 7 & 8 classes were taught by one instructor and the classroom teacher.  However, 150 of our Year 3-6 students had the luxury of receiving lessons in small groups from 3 swim instructors, free of charge.

Being a decile 1 school, our Year 3-6 classes were eligible to participate in the GAAAP swim programme (Greater Auckland Aquatic Action Plan).  We are one of 147 Auckland schools  in the decile 1-6 category that receive free lessons by trained professional instructors.  Our students have made a huge progress since the programme began in 2012.  Here's our data:

895 Pt. England students have been through the programme since 2012.
Before 0 Pt. England students could swim 200m and now 83 Pt England students could swim 200m
Before 15 students could swim 100m and now 184 students could swim 100m
Before 63 could swim 50m and now  343 students could swim 50m
Before 178 could swim 25m and now 573 students could swim 25m

According to the statistics provided by the Aktive Sport and Recreation organisation, around 90% of 7-9 year olds can't swim 200m unaided and 5-13 year old Maori & Pacific Island children are over-represented in drowning statistics.  So we are all extremely grateful to the funding partners who invest in the programme: Sport NZ, ASB Community Trust, Water Safety NZ, Sealord and the Auckland Council.  On Wednesday the 18th of March, it was an opportunity for Aktive and our children to say thank you to the funders.  The 500,000th swim lesson (Year 6 class) was filmed and celebrated on Wednesday the 18th March along with our principal, the Mayor of Auckland and the MC (master of ceremonies) was the television entertainer, Pio Terei.

Our Year 3 & 4 students are also taught about water safety and boat skills and what to do when problems arise.