New Zealand Water Safety Awards 2009

Lil Hancock and Virginia Munro from AC Baths, Alan Haddock from Coastguard, Esther Hone-Moore and Colleen Atchinson from Sport Northland and Jordon Retemeyer from Rotorua Aquatic Centre.

The inaugural NZ Water Safety (NZWS) Awards were presented at a Gala Dinner in Wellington at the end of November.

The awards were developed to help establish a culture of excellence within the water safety industry and recognise those who are achieving great things.

The awards support the implementation of the NZWS Education Framework. Category winners each receive a $5000 contribution towards professional development.

Category Awards:

NZWS Award for Education 2009 – Winner: Unison Lake Safety Programme, Rotorua Aquatic Centre.

The programme, which has been running for five years, teaches school children survival skills in, on and around lakes. It is the first of its kind for inland areas.

Rotorua District Council strongly supports the project and has included it in its Long Term Community Council Plan.

The on-going financial support of commercial sponsor, Unison, has made the programme viable and sustainable. It is now being rolled out to other centres across the country.

The programme educates and physically challenges children aged between three and 13 years, offering indoor and outdoor lessons all year round.

WSNZ’s ‘River Safe’ activities are taught throughout the programme and, after practicing in the pool, children are able to test their safety skills in a lake or river environment.

NZWS Award for Awareness 2009 – Winner: AC Baths, Taupo.

Taupo’s AC Baths’ Swim for Life and Lake Taupo Water Safety programmes have dramatically improved the water safety awareness and skills of Taupo school children.

The Swim for Life programme has been running for five years and has received more than 40,000 student attendances.

The programme enables students aged between five and 18 years (including those with special needs) to receive 10 free (or subsidised) swimming lessons. Swim instructor training is provided free of charge to teacher aides, special needs caregivers and parents, to support the student’s learning.

The Lake Taupo Water Safety Programme, which was introduced last year, has been well received by schools, with more than 2,600 students participating so far.

It has a RiverSafe component and gives students an opportunity to develop skills using rafts, kayaks, snorkelling and surf boards.

During school holidays, the programme is offered to the wider community.

NZWS Award for Prevention 2009 – Winner: Sport Northland, Whangarei.

Sport Northland’s Top Energy WaterSafe and Kaurilands water safety programmes have dramatically improved the water safety awareness and skills of Northland school children.

Top Energy WaterSafe is a free programme available to year one-eight school children in the Far North. It includes training and professional development for teachers enabling them to teach their students on-going swimming and water safety skills.

In February 2010 Top Energy WaterSafe will reach the significant milestone of having delivered its 100,000th student lesson.

Sport Northland also manage the Kaurilands water safety programme, targeting year six-eight students in rural schools. It starts with a half day event which incorporates survival, surf and river skills and concludes with children attempting to achieve their 200m Swim for Life certificate.

The programme continues with teacher training which allows them to provide ongoing water safety lessons. So far, more than 600 teachers have received this support.