Mid West summer swimming lesson enrolments drop as families tackle cost-of-living pressures

Enrolment in summer holiday swim lessons across the Mid West has dipped by more than 150 children this year, with cost-of-living pressures bearing most of the blame. The importance of these lessons has been reinforced by recent drownings, including two six-year-olds who died in the Swan River in Perth on New Year’s Eve. Figures for VacSwim classes being held at venues across the Mid West reveal 1536 students have signed up for swimming lessons so far this season, compared to 1706 enrolled in 2022-23, a drop of 10 per cent. It’s a bigger dive than the trend across the State, with 29,654 students signed up for lessons so far, down from 31,787 the previous year — down 6.7 per cent. Geraldton-born mother Gabby Mottershead, who now lives in Perth, said financial pressure was most probably the cause of the drop in enrolments. She hoped more was done to assist parents in teaching their kids to swim. Her children are aged three and two and when catching up with friends at Geraldton’s foreshore water park during a visit home, she said her son would be enrolled into VacSwim next year when he began school. “Swimming lessons are an important priority, but I also think parents are just doing the best they can with what they’ve got available to them,” she said. “It paints a picture of the pressures on parents and their ability to get their kids to these programs.” Ms Mottershead said showing up for swimming lessons was a lot harder without support from family or friends and more should be done to give families the chance to teach their children vital water safety skills. “Not all parents are able to take the time off that suits that swim time. You might be in casual employment so you can’t take paid leave,” she said. “If I think about us, we would go and stay with a set of grandparents and they would take us to VacSwim in summer.” “It’s just so tragic for those families that it’s happened and it’s good that it’s highlighting the importance of swimming lessons. I hope the government is thinking about the bigger picture of it all and not just whether or not parents are kind of fulfilling their obligations.” Amber Lorimer said it was important her one-year-old was taught how to swim and started her early at the Aquarena. But Ms Lorimer said there was limited class availability in Geraldton. “We do find it hard to get into the swimming lessons here in town for the little ones,” she said. “Living where we do, kids are around water a lot and I just think it’s important for their safety that they know how to get themselves out of a tricky situation if they find themselves in it.” On the Geraldton foreshore earlier this week, mother of two Kate McAuliffe said swimming lessons for her children, aged three and one, were vital, especially as they had a swimming pool at home and were avid beach-goers. “I enrol my kids every year, they’ve done swimming lessons since they were six months old,” she said. “A drop in enrolments, that just seems bizarre to me. Every family should be enrolling their kids . . . especially in a coastal town like Geraldton.” Ms McAuliffe said the Swan River drownings were heartbreaking. “My heart breaks for the mothers of the kids, and it just goes to show it can happen so quickly, in the blink of an eye, even if there’s so many people around, it’s a silent thing that happens and unfortunately happens more than we would like,” she said. Royal Life Saving WA’s chief executive Peter Leaversuch said the organisation was “deeply saddened” by recent drowning fatalities and non-fatal drowning incidents involving young children, and concerned about falling enrolments. “As the cost-of-living crisis continues to squeeze household budgets, parents are being forced to make difficult sacrifices, including swimming lessons,” he said. A Department of Education spokesperson said the provided data was preliminary and likely to increase where venues are able to accommodate late enrolments.