NSW’s new physical education syllabus

“Swimming skills and water safety are a key requirement of the new PDHPE curricula to be taught from 2027,” NESA said in a statement.

The new curriculum will start in 2027, but some schools will implement it from 2026.

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NESA said swimming in school was not compulsory but the authority would continue to support school swimming.

Many schools are dropping swimming programs due to bus costs, pool entry fees, logistics, access to pools, beaches and rivers, and crowded curriculum.

If this trend continues, Scarr said, generations of children will not be able to learn to swim or practice water safety, especially those whose families cannot afford private lessons or leave school early, even though drownings in Australia have increased by 27 per cent on a 10-year average.

Half of the children graduating from primary school this year cannot swim or swim well enough to save their own lives.

The old 2018 curriculum required children to “perform” water safety and rescue skills such as freestyle and backstroke swimming, develop swimming survival skills, and participate in lifesaving activities, including suit rescues.

In contrast, the new course asks kids to “demonstrate awareness of safety behaviors,” such as the need to swim between flags.

While the new curriculum includes clear instructions for teaching children basic movement skills such as running, jumping, kicking, catching, and side galloping, it does not include teaching children to “swim.”

“How can a good side gallop be more important than being able to swim?” Scarr asked.

In consultations on the draft curriculum, participants said it lacked content that “explicitly addresses outdoor participation.”

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Clotilde Doxaras, swimming school manager at C&M Aquatics Center in Padstow, was alarmed after some schools canceled or reduced classes and postponed bookings.

“Someone said they might not go swimming because it was no longer in the curriculum,” Doxaras said.

“A lot of kids can’t swim. We see kids coming in as early as 6th grade and some can barely do a dog paddle.”

Many parents can’t afford private lessons, he said. “For them the struggle is real and they are struggling to finance anything. Swim lessons are low on the list of priorities.”

At a seminar organized by the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER), an attendee who asked whether school swimming lessons should be abolished was praised for his “good detective work”.

The instructor replied: “No water sports or swimming are explicitly mentioned at any stage. Water safety is clearly mentioned.”

The instructor said that the curriculum was created in a flexible way.

“Schools that want to run aquatics and swimming programs can do so, but it is no longer mandatory for those that do not have the facilities or resources to run it.”

Kelly Bell, director of The Learning Network, an organization that supports PDHPE teachers, said it was a “moral imperative” to make teaching water safety skills a priority given the fatal drowning of so many children.

That means finding money and resources to help parents and schools fund lessons, buses and pool fees, he said.

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