Trafalgar Primary School’s Commitment to Swimming Education: Ensuring Every Child Can Swim

Our school is deeply committed to ensuring that every child has the opportunity to develop vital swimming and water safety skills. Swimming is not just a sport—it is an essential life skill, and our school is dedicated to equipping students with the ability to confidently and safely navigate aquatic environments.

The Department of Education sets a clear objective: by the time students complete Year 6, they should be able to swim 50 metres and have completed the Victorian Water Safety Certificate. This benchmark ensures that all students leave primary school with essential water survival and safety skills, which are critical in a country like Australia, where water-based activities are a significant part of our culture.

Our Swimming Program and Student Performance

Trafalgar Primary School’s swimming program is unique in that it is provided every year for all students, at no cost to families. This commitment ensures that every child has regular exposure to swimming instruction, regardless of financial barriers. Our students recently completed their annual school swimming lessons through the YMCA program, where they were assessed by qualified swimming instructors using a structured progression system.

Each student was assessed according to their swimming ability and placed into one of the following levels: Octopus, Sardine, Turtle, Salmon, Tuna, Dolphin, or Shark. These levels range from basic water confidence and floating skills to advanced strokes, endurance, and survival swimming techniques.

While our students continue to show progress, our assessments this year highlighted the overall low swimming competency of our student body. Unfortunately, this meant that we were unable to offer the Victorian Water Safety Certificate assessment, as too few students had reached the required swimming level to participate. This highlights the continued importance of swimming lessons for our students and reinforces the need for community support in developing strong swimming skills.

Celebrating Our Year 3 Students

A key highlight of this year’s swimming program was the performance of our Year 3 students, who are the first cohort at Trafalgar Primary School to have participated in school swimming lessons every year since their Foundation year. This consistent exposure to structured swimming lessons has had a significant impact, with Year 3 students demonstrating noticeably stronger swimming skills compared to other year levels. However, despite this progress, our data shows that as a school community, we still have a long way to go in ensuring all students reach a competent level of swimming ability.

A National Concern: The Decline of Swimming Skills

Recent national research by Royal Life Saving Australia has raised alarm bells regarding the decline in children’s swimming ability. The findings are concerning:

48% of Year 6 students cannot swim 50 metres or tread water for two minutes.
One in ten children aged 5-14 have never attended swimming lessons, with regional and low-income families most affected.

These statistics are a sobering reminder that many Australian children are leaving school without the essential skills needed to stay safe in the water. This issue is further exacerbated by the fact that 31% of schools do not offer any form of swimming lessons due to cost, staffing shortages, and logistical challenges.

Trafalgar Primary School’s Ongoing Commitment

In response to these national concerns, Trafalgar Primary School is proud to be a leader in swimming education. Unlike many schools, we ensure that swimming lessons are offered to every student, every year, completely free of charge. We believe that access to swimming lessons should not be determined by a family’s financial situation, and we remain dedicated to providing this essential program to our students.

How Families Can Support Their Child’s Swimming Development

While our school program provides a solid foundation, ongoing practice is key to swimming proficiency. We encourage families to consider:

Enrolling children in additional swimming lessons outside of school.
Visiting local pools regularly to reinforce skills learned during lessons.
Practicing floating, kicking, and treading water in safe environments.

Our goal remains clear: by Year 6, every student should be able to swim 50 metres and complete the Victorian Water Safety Certificate. While we are proud of our efforts and the progress of our students, we acknowledge that there is still significant work to be done. As a community, we must continue working together to ensure every child at Trafalgar Primary School has the opportunity to become a confident and capable swimmer.

We thank our families for their continued support of our swimming program and encourage everyone to prioritise swimming education both in and out of school. Together, we can help all of our students develop the vital skills needed to stay safe in the water.

Individual copies of student swimming assessment results will be available from classroom teachers at Parent/Teacher interviews or can be collected next term from the school administration office.

Annual Privacy Reminder for our School Community

Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy and the Schools’ Privacy Collection Notice. Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy, describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn. We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use Google Workspace for Education safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using Google Workspace for Education, please contact the school.

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ privacy policy: information for parents.

This information is also available in ten community languages:

• Amharic • Arabic • Chinese • Dari • Gujarati • Mandarin • Somali • Sudanese • Turkish • Urdu • Vietnamese

First Aid Update

Does your child know the difference between when they are out of breath vs having an Asthma flareup/attack?

Asthma is like a sensitive airway that can get tight and make it hard to breathe, whils being out of breath is just feeling like you need to breathe faster or harder after activity.

Here's a breakdown to help explain the difference:

Asthma

What it is:

Asthma is a long-term condition where your airways (the tubes that carry air to your lungs) become inflamed (swollen) and can narrow.

What happens:

When the airways get inflamed and narrow, it can make it harder to breathe, causing symptoms like:

Wheezing: A whistling sound when you breathe out.

Coughing: Especially at night or after exercise.

Shortness of breath: Feeling like you can't get enough air.

Chest tightness: A feeling of pressure or discomfort in your chest.

Triggers:

Certain things can make asthma symptoms worse, like dust, pollen, pet dander, smoke, or even exercise.

Asthma Flare-Ups:

Sometimes, asthma symptoms can get very bad, called an asthma flare-up or attack.

Treatment:

Asthma can be managed with medicines, like inhalers/puffers, that help open up the airways and reduce inflammation.

Out of Breath (Normal Breathing Difficulty)

What it is:

Being out of breath is a normal feeling when you're doing something that requires a lot of effort, like running or playing hard.

What happens:

Your body needs more oxygen when you're active, so you breathe faster and harder to get it.

What it's like:

You might feel like you're gasping for air or have trouble completing sentences because you're so out of breath.

When it happens:

It usually goes away when you stop the activity.

Key difference:

Being out of breath after exercise is usually temporary and resolves when you stop, while asthma symptoms can persist or worsen even when you're not active.

It is important to help your child learn their triggers and symptoms. Teach them to listen to their breathing. When in doubt, we will always use your child’s puffer. We just want to encourage our students to know their Asthma.

If you are concerned about your child’s breathing or think they might have asthma, talk to a doctor or other healthcare professional.

Camps, Sports & Excursions Fund (CSEF)

Parents & Friends News

Showbags

We would like to thank students and their families for helping to clear out our left over showbags from last year's Festival on the Lawn. All showbags were sold and we raised $582 which is a fantastic outcome for our fundraising efforts. We hope students enjoy their treats.

We hope to have a stall again for this year's Festival in Term 4, possibly with some new and exciting products to offer!

Pizza Rolls

This year 203 students and 2 staff ordered 225 pizza rolls for the school athletics carnival. We raised $1350, a great result for our fundraising efforts. The Margherita was once again the favourite with 84 rolls sold. Hawaiian came in a close second with 82 sold, followed by 59 BBQ rolls.

We hope that students enjoyed their special lunch, and we look forward to providing pizza rolls again in the near future.

Hot Cross Bun Drive

Orders are open now via Compass Canteen for our annual hot cross bun drive, thanks to Bakers Delight Mid Valley. Please see our flyer above for more information. Orders will be delivered fresh to classrooms on Thursday 3rd April.

Larger orders (over 6 packs) can be collected from the school office at the end of the day. Late orders will not be accepted past the cutoff - 11.45pm on Wednesday 26th March.

March Meeting

Our next meeting is as follows:

Date: Wednesday 2nd April 2025

Time: 7-8pm

Location: Adult Learning Centre, Trafalgar Primary School (opposite the office)

Meetings are usually the first Wednesday of each month, except during school holidays. Feel free to come along and learn about the events we are planning, and how we hope to support the school, our students and their families this year.

Parents and Carers interested in helping for our event can register using Google form HERE.

If you have any feedback, questions, would like to help for events, or would like to join our committee, please contact us on TPSpandfSecretary@gmail.com (or use the Google form above).

The Parents & Friends Committee thank you for your support.

News from OSHClub

If anyone is interested in getting involved with the OSHClub please see details below:

Upcoming Events – Action needed

A list of things we need parents and carers to do to ensure their student can attend events, camps or excursions

Trafalgar High School SEAL Information Evening

UNDER 10 BOYS BASKETBALL

TRAFALGAR JUNIOR FOOTBALL CLUB

SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAMS