Laps and Language
The Margaret River Recreation Centre is pleased to be holding free swimming lessons for some of our culturally and linguistically diverse residents.
The initiative came about when South Regional TAFE reached out to the Rec Centre and the Shire's Community Development team, and identified an opportunity for 12 students currently enrolled at Margaret River Campus in Certificates II and III in English through the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) to combine valuable water safety skills and language education.
The AMEP is funded by the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs.
Shire President, Julia Meldrum said that the innovative program is perfectly aligned with the Shire’s focus of supporting and strengthening a diverse, resilient, welcoming, safe and connected community though our services and advocacy.
“One of our goals is to provide services and facilitate initiatives to build a more accessible and inclusive community, so we are so pleased to be able to provide these residents with access to the Recreation Centre where they can learn valuable skills from our incredible team,” she said.
Learn to Swim Program Team Leader Sally-Ann Whelan shared these sentiments and said that now the Recreation Centre was back up and running, the team were thrilled to provide this service to the students over an eight week period.
“This is such a great initiative and I’m so happy that we have been able to provide this program to such an amazing group of people,” she said.
“They were all very excited, and nervous when I first met them. For some, these lessons were the first time that they had been exposed to water.”
“We have three teachers in the water with them to help create a safe and supportive learning environment and it’s been fantastic to see their progression and confidence grow throughout each of the lessons.”
After the lessons in the pool, participants have lunch and a follow up ‘dry’ lesson with their TAFE English lecturer and Swimming Instructors to learn different swimming phrases, review their progress, and discuss strategies to overcome fears in and around the water.
Student Janse Wila Lomi said she was doing the swimming lessons because she wanted to swim with her daughter and feel relaxed in the deep water.
“I felt so happy to learn new skills like ‘face in the water’, ‘blowing bubbles with nose and mouth’ and ‘take a breath’. I will keep practising until I am confident,” she said.
Another student Bilal Khan agreed saying “I want to be fit because swimming is exercise for the whole body. I want to enjoy lakes and the ocean. If you know swimming, you can enjoy more”.
South Regional TAFE lecturer, Kathleen O’Shea said that they were pleased to deliver this initiative in collaboration with the Margaret River Recreation Centre.
“Swimming lessons are an exciting – and life-changing – way for students to develop language skills, while contributing to their academic progress in nationally recognised training."
Culturally and linguistically diverse residents are over-represented in Australian drowning statistics.
Thursday 25 July was World Drowning Prevention Day which aims to highlight the tragic and profound impact of drowning on families and communities and offers life-saving solutions to prevent it.
The Margaret River Rec Centre team recently showed their support by wearing blue and sharing important reminders with the community on social media. These reminders included enrolling in swimming lessons, supervising children, checking pool fences and gates, and becoming a pool lifeguard or swim teacher.