7 February 2013

Three cheers for a swimming policy

| johnboy
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Joy Burch has announced that the ACT now has a “Swimming Pool and Water Park Based Aquatic Activities policy”.

Ms Burch said the revised policy struck a balance to allow these events to take place in a fun, relaxed environment, while also making sure that all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure student safety.

“The policy and procedures have been developed in collaboration with the RLSSACT and in consultation with schools, industry representatives, ACT Sport and other stakeholders engaged in aquatic education,” Ms Burch said.

“Going to the pool and swimming with your friends is one of the great things about growing up in Canberra, and we want to help schools provide opportunities for students to take part in those activities.

Ms Burch said she asked the Directorate to revisit the policy and work with stakeholders, including the RLSSACT following concerns about ambiguity in the policy, particularly around requirements for school swimming carnivals (which are classified as structured activities).

“The revised policy provides clarity for school leaders by clearly detailing planning responsibilities, and specifying that the Survival Challenge Proficiency Test is now only required for unstructured activities.”

If you’re feeling keen the policy documents are here and here.

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UPDATE 07/02/13 13:58: Joy Burch’s office have sent out finalised policy documents here and here.

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I should have said ‘swimming fun day’ not swimming carnival, but anyway – this new policy seems like a definite improvement.

but for the littlest kids at the swimming carnival they just play around anyway, with the odd beanbag race or something. In the last policy they all had to be individually tested to see if they could swim a certain distance – waste of time as only 3 out of 85 could do it and it would take an hour or more – they should just treat all under 8s as ‘non swimmers, heavily supervised’.

The last policy was obviously the product of a very cautious committee who hadn’t actually organised a bunch of kids to do anything in the last decade or so.

woppadingo said :

more millions of dollars wasted, rehashing a stupid policy, where no policy but rather simple common sense handled it perfectly for decades. Another reason why these Pollies are not just a waste of money, but “THEY”RE WRECKING THE JOINT”!

Well, except for those kids that drowned and stuff.

so will we still have to fill out 8 pages of medical info etc for the kids to go to the swimming carnival this year, or have they cut back those requirements?

Read the text Sepi.

The requirements for structured activities (swimming carnivals) are being reduced.

This is sensible as it’s easy to do a head count after each race, rather than noting a swimmer in trouble in a pool seething with cavorting kids.

more millions of dollars wasted, rehashing a stupid policy, where no policy but rather simple common sense handled it perfectly for decades. Another reason why these Pollies are not just a waste of money, but “THEY”RE WRECKING THE JOINT”!

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