Rosebank Primary School teaches little ones to swim
ROSEBANK – The young learners at Rosebank Primary School slowly eased into swimming lessons held during the first term.
The Grade Rs and 1s at Rosebank Primary School were excited to have their swimming session at the school.
The school partnered with private swim school, Zogs Swim School.
“We feel that it’s really important to teach children from a young age how to swim and to create a fun and happy environment while they do so. As we’ve seen in the past there have been incidences where tragedies have occurred. So, we feel like a life skill, swimming is very important,” said the owner of Zogs Grant Zoghby adding that they ran swim schools throughout Johannesburg.
He said Rosebank Primary School had been great in that they saw the necessity to teach children how to swim.
“We’ve noticed that initially, they [children] were really nervous however after one or two lessons they seem excited to come for more, eager to learn. I’ve had feedback from the teachers and the principal that children are excited whenever they’re swimming.”
According to him, the initiative will be run throughout the summer with a break in winter and will continue again in the summer of term four. Zoghby appealed to the government and Gauteng Department of Education to consider swimming as part of the curriculum.
He said, “There is so much water around, pools, rivers and oceans thus it is important that each and every child in SA knows how to swim. The fact that not everyone is able to swim is a huge worry; as adults there are accidents that occur because those adults have never learnt how to swim. So, if we can get one child swimming and prevent even at least one drowning incident it would be amazing.”
The principal of the school, Leigh Shaw-Taylor said she realised the importance of teaching the grades Rs and 1s how to swim. “My goal is to get the swimming up and running effectively, to get them to be water confident, to get them to know the basics in their strokes and to build up that confidence they need to participate in the swimming galas. Ultimately, I would like to include the higher grades all the way to Grade 7,” added Shaw-Taylor.
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