Two Bunbury schools affected as swimming teacher recruit pool dries up around Australia

At least two South West schools have been caught up in a nation-wide swimming teacher shortage. Adam Road Primary School and Bunbury Primary School narrowly escaped being forced to cancel their in-term swimming programs, the Education Department able to find teachers at the eleventh hour. The department has admitted multiple schools in the region had to cancel their in-term swimming programs as a result of the shortage, but would not be drawn on how many schools were affected. The head of Royal Life Saving WA has expressed grave concerns children would miss out on vital water skills that could help prevent drownings in the lead up to summer. “Learning swimming and water safety skills is vital to ensure all WA children can safely participate on, in and around water, and is the single most important investment we can make as a community to prevent drowning,” Royal Life Saving WA chief executive officer Peter Leaversuch said. “Royal Life Saving is concerned that kids missing out on school lessons due to the lack of qualified swim instructors will impact their vital learning.” The Education Department’s deputy director general Jim Bell said the department had tried to recruit more teachers over the past 12 months. “There have been a number of schools across the State in both metropolitan and regional areas that have been impacted by the nation-wide swimming teacher shortage,” Mr Bell said. “We have increased the number of qualified instructors over the past 12 months however, unfortunately, many have chosen to pursue other employment options and are no longer available to work as instructors.” Mr Bell said lessons would be altered from the standard two-week program, but students wouldn’t miss out and safety would not be compromised. “Where necessary, we are running two five-day swimming programs rather than the one 10-day program that we would normally run,” he said. “We’re currently working hard to recruit and train more swimming instructors and are offering free training to Year 12 graduates and university students.” Mr Leaversuch said a survey of WA's public aquatic centre managers found that they believe they don't have enough staff to meet demand heading into summer. He said the organisation has been working on training new teachers, including through targetted fast-tracked programs. “We have been working for some time to address a persistent shortage of Swim Instructors across WA, especially in regional areas,” he said,” he said. The in-term swimming programs will go ahead for at least one school next week at the South West Sports Centre, which has been lucky enough to retain enough staff for it’s own Little Lappers program, which has not been affected. “The South West Sports Centre continues to support the interm swimming program through use of the pools and instructors working within the Centre’s swimming program, also working as part of the interm swimming program,” South West Sports Centre team leader Daniel Clark said. “The Centre considers itself lucky to have been able to retain swimming instructors throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and thanks staff for their ongoing support.”