Swimming skills for Peel multicultural community

Royal Life Saving WA’s Swim and Survive Access and Equity program has partnered with the Mandurah Aquatic Recreation Centre (MARC) Swim School to provide swimming lessons to members of the Peel region’s multicultural community.

The Term 3 swimming programs are currently under way and include afterschool Friday classes for primary school students as well as classes for women held on Thursday afternoons. The program is running for eight weeks this school term.

The children’s program is open to students aged four and a half to eleven years old, with 30-minute lessons held each week. Children will build on current skills as well as improve their health and wellbeing and engage with other kids at the aquatic facility.

The women’s lessons are of one hour duration each week and cater for those in levels one through four. The program offers culturally appropriate lessons with female-only attendees and instructors. 24 women and children from the Peel multicultural community are taking part in the swimming lessons this term.

Royal Life Saving WA has also funded Infant Aquatics lessons for seven infants from the community, who are attending lessons with their parents. Infant Aquatics is an important program that provides water familiarisation and basic water safety skills in infants and young children.

This is the first time MARC Swim School has run the Royal Life Saving WA multicultural program and we are excited to have them on board to assist multicultural children and adults of the Peel region in gaining access to vital swimming and water safety skills. 

Royal Life Saving WA is working to increase participation by multicultural communities in swimming and water safety education to address alarming drowning figures among those from multicultural backgrounds. People born overseas accounted for 39% of drowning deaths in WA over the past ten years.

Funding for the program is provided by the Australian Government Department of Health. You can learn more about our Multicultural swimming programs and see the locations where programs are running at the link below.