November 2010     As many as one in five children will leave primary school this year not even having the skills to swim the length of an Olympic swimming pool warns Royal Life Saving.

Its CEO Rob Bradley says the issue is of grave concern as potentially thousands of Australian school children are leaving primary school with virtually no ability to swim and being unable to demonstrate the basic survival and water safety techniques that could save their lives in an emergency.

Latest figures show 5% of all drowning deaths were children aged 5 to 14 - 80% were male. Parents must be aware that rates of drowning rise rapidly once children gain independence and venture further from supervised swimming locations such as the local pool.

Royal Life Saving estimates that over 50,000 children aged 11-12 will leave primary school this year not even having the skills to swim the length of an Olympic swimming pool. Royal Life Saving warn that the issue has now become a "ticking time bomb" that will impact families and communities across the country in years to come, as well as putting further pressure on drowning rates.

Royal Life Saving CEO Rob Bradley says thousands of Australian school children are now going through primary schools learning little no or basic water safety skills.  He says that parents make a false assumption that secondary schools will fill this gap and that many children are falling between the cracks altogether because many secondary schools now don't teach swimming, water safety and lifesaving as a skill.

Royal Life Saving warns children without basic swimming and water safety skills at Primary school age then become self conscious and find ways of avoiding water as they grow older. This makes these children as teenagers highly vulnerable to peer pressure from friends encouraging them to take life threatening risks on, in or near water.

The Royal Life Saving 2010 National Drowning Report reveals the number of drowning deaths is the highest number at any time in the past 7 years with 314 drowning deaths.   There's been an overall increase of 20% in two years.

Royal Life Saving says it's vital all young children and teenagers have foundation swimming, water safety, and lifesaving skills.  Rob Bradley says children need more than just swimming skills, skills in survival techniques, water safety and an ability to carry out a basic rescue that includes vital skills in CPR is essential given the Australian lifestyle.

Rob Bradley said "It's all about education.  It's all about saving children's lives.  Royal Life Saving's Swim and Survive program provides a pathway for children from 6 months to 14 years old.  Starting that young is not everyone's cup of tea, but it is a good idea to help parents to become more water aware and to understand how to help their children grow and understand the importance of water safety."

"One of the emerging issues is that some schools find the costs of providing swimming lessons too expensive and complex, pool entry, bus fares all place pressure on schools and parents.  The growth in private swimming centres and their reach to children prior to school is a fantastic thing, but it often means schools and parents assume this vital education happens elsewhere, and there there's been a real drop off in children learning water safety and lifesaving skills.  This has to be turned around before large sections of our community miss out on the skills that we all remember from our school days, swimming in clothes, diving for bricks, and learning the swimming survival strokes."

Royal Life Saving is using funds raised to provide free lessons to financially disadvantaged children through the Swim and Survive Fund, a program that subsidises swimming and water safety lessons for those who would ordinarily miss out.

To find out more, all people need to do is go to swimandsurvive.com.au.

From information provided by the Royal Life Saving Society, November 16, 2010.

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