Swim schools at Charlestown, Swansea, West Wallsend and Mayfield have thrown their support behind the community safety initiative to prevent childhood drownings by offering free swimming lessons for kids under five during that week.

Nathan Field from Poolwerx, which partners Kids Alive Do the Five and is driving the free lesson initiative, said the sessions gave parents the opportunity to sign up their children to learn vital water safety skills, free of charge. 

“Drowning is still the leading cause of preventable deaths in children under five in Australia,”Field said.

“We hope that by having schools like Charlestown Swim Centre, Swansea Swim Centre, West Wallsend Swim Centre and Balance Learn to Swim supporting the cause we can get more kids in the water learning lifesaving skills.”

Former Olympic swim coach Laurie Lawrence, who created the Kids Alive campaign and is also an ambassador of Learn2Swim Week, said a study commissioned by Poolwerx found that over 30 per cent of Australian parents with children under five were not taking them to swimming lessons, despite nearly a quarter of those parents saying they or a family member had experienced a near-drowning event.

“It's never too early to start teaching your kids water safety skills − at four to six months, infants are ready to start formal swimming lessons,” Lawrence said.

“If a child is taught water safety skills early, and with regular practice, generally by the time they are 18 months old they can move over deep water, turn and return to the safety of the side of the pool.”

Lawrence said the study found that over half of parents surveyed said they didn't think their children had the swimming and water safety skills to get themselves out of a pool if they fell in.

“That is a real worry, so we're tackling this by encouraging swim schools around the country to offer free lessons during Learn2Swim Week,” Lawrence said.

“We're urging parents to go on the website, heed the Kids Alive message of teach your kids to swim it’s great, and find a swim school close to them and get their children signed up to free lessons before summer rolls around again.

“We want to see the day when we're able to report that child deaths due to drowning have reached the magic number of zero, and if offering free lessons is what it takes then that's what we'll do."

Visit the Learn2Swim Week website at www.learn2swimweek.com.