Mission
Prioritising water survival: Giving children age 5-13 the skills and knowledge they need to assess risk and make smarter decisions around water.
Developed by Water Safety New Zealand, Water Skills for Life provides freely available resources aimed at enhancing the quality and focus of aquatic programmes. The programme emphasises age-appropriate skills relevant to environments where drownings most commonly occur, such as beaches, rivers, and lakes.
Key features of the Water Skills for Life programme include:
Our focus areas
We work closely with our partners, communities and swim schools across the country to teach our children the skills they need to survive.
Schools & Kura
Water Skills for Life provides easily accessible, freely available resources through an e-learning platform. Key resources include:
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Ready-to-use Content: Comprehensive materials that you can implement immediately.
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Contextual Materials and Lesson Plans: Resources designed to support effective teaching and learning.
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Assessment Tools: Tools to measure your students' achievements and track their progress.
Water Skills for Life delivers essential skills through a structured, age-appropriate curriculum that prepares students for real-world water situations. We also offer guidance for each age group to enhance comprehension and help students achieve their necessary skills. All resources are designed to be fun and engaging, promoting water safety and awareness
Swim Schools
Water Skills for Life offers swim school teachers freely available resources through an e-learning platform. Key features include:
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Ready-to-use Programme: Engaging videos that outline teaching points and ensure you’re instructing age-appropriate skills to your students.
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Standardised Processes: Clear guidelines for assessing student achievement and tracking progress.
Whanau
Water Skills for Life is a valuable resource for you and your whānau, whether you’re at the beach, river, or pool. When choosing a learn-to-swim school or provider, please prioritise water survival in your decision-making. Look for swim schools that are Water Skills for Life approved, as they teach essential survival skills that could significantly increase your child's chances of safety in open water environments when things go wrong.
What can you do?
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Ask your child’s teacher about Water Skills For Life
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If your child isn’t learning Water Skills For Life, ask their teacher to enquire about it
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Once your child is learning Water Skills For Life be sure to check their progress by asking them and their teacher
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Build on the skills your child is learning at the pool or beach by creating activities based on what they’ve learned. Water Skills For Life is fun for the whole family.
Protect our future
Online Education
For our precious children these are the formative and most important years when water safety can be embedded and a life-long step-change achieved. It is the time when children are most receptive and sets them up for further learning and resilience throughout their lives.
A focus on essential age-appropriate survival skills relevant to the beach, river, lake and pool.
A design that supports integration into any aquatic learning programme.
