Campaign launched to get Kiwi kids learning water safety skills

A new campaign has been launched to get more Kiwi kids learning to swim this summer.

Currently, around 48% of Kiwi kids don't attend swimming lessons, according to a new report from Swim Safer. Financial costs have been cited as the biggest barrier, with 52% saying lessons are too expensive.

Meanwhile, one in five parents say they have no intention of enrolling their children in swimming lessons.

A new campaign, Swim It Forward, has been launched as part of the country's first Swim Safer Week to get more at-risk children into swimming lessons.

Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Daniel Gerard told Breakfast the country is "looking again at another horrendous summer and this is the starting point".

"We need to ensure that our youngsters and mokopuna and tamariki are provided with the basic aquatic skills to start with," he said.

"They need to learn how to swim and survive...It opens up the whole recreation sport activity opportunities for them as they grow older."

Para-swimmer Dame Sophie Pascoe, who serves as the programme's ambassador, said she "grew up learning to swim in school" but had never expected it would lead to a "broad, extensive international swimming career".

"It was really vital for me to learn how to swim, to keep safe in the water. We're surrounded by water as a country and a lot of families spend their summer times around water so I always knew how to be safe," she said.

Dame Sophie said being part of the campaign is "so important for me to be able to spread the word across that it's important for families to have their kids learn to swim, to be obviously safe around the water".

Gerard said the campaign will work with swim schools to provide a "structured water safety week of activities" and described Swim It Forward as "like buying a coffee forward".

"This is an opportunity for someone in a privileged enough position to be able to donate a swimming lesson to another family or another child, to give them the opportunity to come in and learn the basic skills to keep themselves alive," he said.

"We live in an amazing aquatic nation, we're an island surrounded by water with beautiful waterways. We've got to learn the basic skills so we can enjoy it properly and make sure that we come home from those excursions."