Swimming and water safety tools and resources for teachers

The weather is warming up, which means it is a good time to book your students in to swimming and water safety programs, to help keep them safe in and around water.

Refer to the information below for vital water safety tips you can use before the summer months begin.

Life Saving Victoria’s education programs

If your school has not locked in its swimming and water safety education programs for Term 4, 2023, then check out the lifesaving education programs offered by Life Saving Victoria (LSV). 

They offer swimming and water safety programs suitable for the classroom or the water. Places are limited, so get in quick!

Victorian Water Safety Certificates

If your school has already completed a swimming program this year, please use the Life Saving Victoria dashboard to request Victorian Water Safety Certificates (VWSC) for students who achieved the competencies. 

For more information on how to submit these requests, refer to VWSC portal instruction.

Staying safe around water resources for the classroom and home

It’s the time of year when some students will be preparing for day trips, weekends away and school holidays to the beach or a lake, river or pool. 

Accordingly, it is a great time to talk about how they can stay safe around water, and you can access these resources to help:

• Surf Life Saving Australia’s Beachsafe website. View the closest patrolled beaches. It also has surf safety and drowning prevention tips and is available in an app
• Kangaroo Beach — a cartoon series (available on ABC iView) about trainee lifeguards. It includes information on learning water-safety skills and classroom activities. 

LSV’s toolkit has several resources to support classroom activities:

• classroom-based water safety resources to help schools to teach water safety and reinforce strategies to keep students and their families safe around water
• information and resources for English language schools to support the development of school swimming and water safety programs
• the Victorian Water Safety Certificate
• a recording of the Swimming 101 webinar, run by LSV is an overview of school swimming and water safety education, Victorian government funding, excursion requirements, online resources, program options and the Victorian Water Safety Certificate
• Swim City — an innovative learning journey with 4 key locations to explore (at home, inland waterways, aquatic centres and beaches) which reinforce understanding of risks around water. The resource includes narrated activities and water-safety messages and 3 new levels for each primary school year level.

Booking and planning your program

We are pleased to provide an additional resource to help teachers find an appropriate pool for their swimming and water safety program.

To view pools in your area:

1. go to Education State Implementation Map
2. in the first search field, select ‘School type’
3. in the second search field, type and select ‘pool’.

Find out more

For more information about Swimming in Schools, contact Alison Porter, Statewide Swimming Coordinator:

• phone: 03 4334 0523
• email: school.swimming@education.vic.gov.au

For enquiries relating to the curriculum, contact Chris Clark, Curriculum Manager, Health and Physical Education, Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority: 

• phone: 03 9059 5315
• email: Christopher.Clark2@education.vic.gov.au

For enquiries relating to the delivery of swimming and water safety programs, contact Life Saving Victoria, Education:

• phone: 03 9676 6940
• email: education@lsv.com.au