Published 1 June 2022
Hitting the big 4-0 is a brilliant reason to celebrate, especially when you have 15 million people to celebrate with you.
That is how many people across Australia who at some point in their lives learned to swim in the Royal Life Saving Society – Australia Swim and Survive program.
Whether you went through weekly swimming lessons, holiday intensives or school classes, Swim and Survive is at the core of learning to swim.
The stage-by-stage approach, regularly recognising achievements and encouraging children to strive for the next level has proven popular with generations of swimmers.
Royal Life Saving National Manager Education, Penny Larsen said it had been heartening to see so many people hold celebrations at pools across the country.
“It’s wonderful to see how much people have taken the Swim and Survive program into their hearts,” Ms Larsen said.
“Multiple generations of families have been through Swim and Survive and while it has adapted to take on new evidence over the years, at its core it is still about the love of swimming.
“When Swim and Survive started, the team behind developing the program never imagined the effect the Swim and Survive the program would have on the development of swimming and water safety skills of Australians and reducing the drowning rate in children aged five to 14 years.
“They would have been delighted at the influence of Swim and Survive on the structured swimming curriculum that underpins programs available today.”
In addition to birthday parties, children from across the nation entered a colouring competition and persuasive writing competition.
“We had great trouble judging the competitions because the standard was so high,” Ms Larsen said.
“The time and effort put in by all of the children was impressive. It is so encouraging to read the convincing points made in the persuasive writing competition on why it is important to Swim and Survive.
“It shows that children participating in swimming and water safety education have an awareness of the risks and understand and value of learning to Swim and Survive.”
Royal Life Saving is grateful to Speedo who supplied prize packs for the winning entries.
PERSUASIVE WRITING COMPETITION
This competition is now closed.
We would like to congratulate all those who entered, the Winners and Highly Commended.
| Winners | Highly Commended |
|---|---|
| Chloe S. – 13 years – WA | Alana T. – 11 years – VIC |
| Marcus Y. – 11 years – NSW | Chloe H. – 6 years - QLD |
| Myah D. – 10 years – NSW | |
| Oliver K. – 10 years – NSW | |
| Poorvi P. – 9 years – NSW | |
| Ruby S. – 14 years – NSW | |
| Sebastian R. – 12 years – VIC | |
| Stavroula N. – 8 years – SA | |
| Tilly M. – 13 years – NSW | |
| Zoe R. – 9 years - VIC |
