Policy
The purpose of this policy is to ensure that all school swimming and water safety programs meet the Victorian Curriculum F–10 and provide students with the knowledge and confidence to participate in aquatic activities.
Summary
- Since 2017, the Victorian Curriculum F–10 (Version 1.0) has required swimming and water safety to be taught to all students from Foundation to Level 10 as part of the Health and Physical Education learning area.
- The Victorian Curriculum F–10 (Version 2.0), released in June 2024, has further strengthened the place of swimming and water safety in the curriculum.
- By the end of Year 6 students should be able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills identified in the Victorian Water Safety Certificate.
- Information on managing risk and conducting programs safely can be found in the Excursions policy, with specific guidance on swimming activities in the Excursions guidelines chapter Adventure activities.
Details
Swimming and water safety is included in the Health and Physical Education curriculum from Foundation to Level . This requires schools to ensure that they are implementing a swimming and water safety program that meets the requirements of the curriculum.
Individual schools are expected to make decisions about how to best incorporate swimming and water safety into their school programs, based on factors such as access to safe swimming facilities/locations, qualified instructors and their broader learning program.
To help build schools’ swimming and water safety programs, the department has collaborated with Life Saving Victoria (LSV) in developing a School Swimming and Water Safety . Refer to the Guidance tab for more information.
Victorian Curriculum requirements
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 outlines what every student in Victorian government schools should learn as part of Health and Physical during their first 11 years of schooling.
The Health and Physical Education curriculum includes 4 focus areas with specific reference to swimming and water safety which schools are required to teach across Levels F–10:
- Fundamental movement skills (FMS) – develop foundation movement and skills to enable students to participate in a range of physical activities. For example, floating and moving the body through water
- Safety (S) – practise behaviours and skills to keep themselves and others safe in and around water. For example, sun safety, use of protective equipment and first aid
- Lifelong physical activities (LPA) – understand that swimming can enhance lifelong health-related fitness and wellbeing
- Challenge and adventure activities (CA) – participate in challenging swimming activities in a range of contexts. For example, triathlon, diving, water polo.
The Victorian Water Safety was developed by the department and Life Saving Victoria. It describes specific competencies that should be achieved by the end of primary school. These competencies identify the knowledge and skills to enable students to safely enjoy water-based activities in calm and shallow aquatic environments. The competencies focus on water safety knowledge, rescue skills, survival sequences and the ability to swim a continuous distance of 50 metres.
Victorian Curriculum F–10 (2.0) revised requirements
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 2.0 Health and Physical Education was published in June 2024. Details regarding sector implementation of the revised curriculum can be found on the VCAA .
The place of swimming and water safety in the curriculum has been further strengthened, with these changes:
- aquatic settings added as an additional outdoor learning context within the Making Active Choices sub-strand across all levels Foundation to Level 10. This provides scope for teaching and learning units to use the Challenge and Adventure Activities (CA) focus area as the lens for delivering swimming and water safety activities in a variety of different ways (beyond purely swimming), across different outdoor environments (beyond the swimming pool)
- aquatic settings added as a context for the learning of movement skills within the Moving our Bodies sub-strand at Levels 7 to 10. This inclusion makes clear the requirement for students in secondary settings to be provided with swimming and water safety education in and around the water.
Further detail about the requirements for swimming and water safety can be found in the Victorian Curriculum on VCAA and in the School Swimming and Water Safety on the LSV website.
Progression Model and achievement levels
The department, with LSV and VCAA, has developed the Sample Swimming and Water Safety F–10 Progression . This model defines the swimming and water safety competencies expected to be achieved by students by the end of each level in the curriculum.
The 2 strands within the Victorian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education are:
- Personal, Social and Community Health and Movement
- Physical Activity
The model has organised each competency from the National Swimming and Water Safety Framework, as well as the content descriptions from the Victorian Curriculum, into these 2 curriculum strands.
Each level in the Model reflects the content outlined in the Victorian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education and the National Swimming and Water Safety Framework.
Designing and delivering swimming and water safety programs
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 is structured as a continuum across levels of learning achievement, which enables the development of targeted learning programs for all students that can be delivered with a range of classroom-based lessons together with in-pool swimming lessons across the year levels.
As the achievement level of swimming and water safety for students varies across school year levels, swimming programs should allow students to participate at the level appropriate to their individual learning needs. For example, the minimum achievement level anticipated by the end of Year 6 is the Victorian Water Safety Certificate, however, if students achieve their certificate prior to the end of Year 6 then curriculum should be delivered as appropriate to their learning needs beyond that. For more information refer to the Sample Swimming and Water Safety F–10 Progression .
Victorian government schools can also elect to deliver separate, extra-curricular swimming programs that are in addition to the school’s swimming program, such as swimming carnivals, surf camps and training for competitions, which schools can provide on an optional, user-pays basis.
Case studies of various schools’ swimming programs provide examples of cost-effective ways of delivering swimming programs in line with the Victorian Curriculum and are available in the School Swimming and Water Safety .
The VCAA has developed sample swimming and water safety activities for Foundation to Level 10. These resources include land-based and water-based activities which can be included in school swimming and water safety programs.
In addition to these swimming and water safety activities, examples of assessment strategies for swimming and water safety have also been outlined by VCAA for each of the Levels. Refer to:
To further assist schools in the development of individual school swimming and water safety programs, an online interactive options as well as a poster can be found in the School Swimming and Water Safety .
Funding
Swimming in Schools funding is provided to Victorian government primary, specialist and English Language Schools via the Student Resource Package (SRP) to assist with the delivery of quality swimming and water safety education. Refer to the Parent Payments policy for more information on eligible curriculum contributions for swimming.
Funding provided for swimming and water safety education must be used to deliver curriculum-based swimming and water safety instruction for students.
Schools must record their expenditure and student attendance information for swimming and water-safety programs in CASES21:
- the attendance code is 620: Swimming and Water Safety Program
- the financial code is 4209: Swimming in Schools.
More information is provided in the SRP Targeted Initiatives Guidance on Swimming in School (reference 115).
Child Safe Standards
The provision of swimming and water safety programs carries child safety risks.
Principals must consider risks to child safety when planning swimming instruction and water safety education.
Schools must follow the policies and guidance related to swimming instruction and water safety education which support compliance with the Child Safe Standards, in particular:
- Standard 6: Suitable staff and – people working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice
- Standard 7: Child-focused complaints – ensure that processes for complaints and concerns are child focused
- Standard 9: Physical and online – physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.
The department has detailed guidance on child safety risk management:
Schools must follow the Four Critical where there is an incident, disclosure or suspicion of child abuse.
For more information on how schools can create and maintain a child safe organisation and protect students from all forms abuse, refer to the Child Safe Standards policy.
Related policies
Reviewed 12 December 2024