Rotorua rural school principal says pools are vital to tackling NZ's 'tragic drowning rate'

Mamaku School pupils Evie Carlyon, 11, and Paytin Fitzgerald-Harris, 12, with principal Gary Veysi. Photo / Andrew Warner

The "tragic drowing rate" this summer shows there is still a public need for rural school swimming schools.

That's according to Mamaku School principal Gary Veysi, whose schools needs $150,000 to finish building its new pool complex.

He wants to get students swimming as soon as possible but fears building consent will not be approved until the changing facilities have been built.

So far $850,000 has been fundraised for the project that will help children in the rural community improve their swimming skills.

The rest of the money would go towards building changing rooms and toilets.

"My ultimate goal is to have everyone at Mamaku able to swim," Veysi said.

He said the "tragic drowning rate" over the Christmas holidays highlighted the importance of rural communities being able to access swimming facilities.

In that period, 14 people drowned — the worst rate since 1982/83.

"If we want to take people not drowning seriously, there has got to be facilities everywhere."

The school's old pool became damaged about four years ago and was not repairable, he said.

Since then, pupils had been travelling back and forth to the Rotorua Aquatic Centre for lessons — more than an hour's journey.

It meant pupils spent less time in the water and paying for bus transport was costly for the school, he said.

The new pool would eventually open to families after hours so they would also not have to travel into town for lessons, he said.

Mamaku School pupils Evie Carlyon, 11, and Paytin Fitzgerald-Harris, 12, with principal Gary Veysi. Photo / Andrew Warner

"Mamaku hasn't got a bus and some people don't have cars. They travel between the dairy, the school, the playground and that's it."

And some of the school's teaching staff had completed training so could run swimming lessons for children, he said.

"It will become a real community asset," he said.

The "eco-friendly" complex included a 25 metre swimming pool with solar panels on the roof to heat the water. The deep end was about 2m.

The soil dug out for the pool complex was used to create the base of the new bike and pump track.

Mamaku School pupils Evie Carlyon, 11, and Paytin Fitzgerald-Harris, 12, with principal Gary Veysi. Photo / Andrew Warner

"If we can get this last bit of funding, we can get it up and running before the season is over."

Mamaku's head boy Paytin Fitzgerald-Harris said all the pupils were feeling "really happy" they would soon be able to use the pool.

Evie Carlyon, 11, said the new pool would ensure students wouldn't get sick of exercising.

"It will give us different types of fitness to do. Kids won't get bored of fitness if we are always doing different things."

Oropi School principal Andrew King said a large majority of schools that had pools onsite were in rural areas.

As a lifeguard at Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club, King said he was a "strong believer" in water safety education for all.

He said Oropi School's pool, which was roughly 12 metres long and up to 1.5 metres deep, "did not cut it" when it came to teaching senior pupils these skills.

Senior pupils were bussed to use the Toi Ohomai pool for water safety training. This created time pressure and used school resources, he said.

He felt the ideal solution for rural schools would be to upgrade pools on school grounds making them deeper, wider, and longer.

But King, who was also the president of the Rural Schools Leadership Association, said running a pool was a "significant" expense and often the operational funding did not cover all costs.

Schools needed more resourcing to provide water safety education and parents should have "much easier access" to take children to swimming lessons, he said.

Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Daniel Gerrard said access to swimming pools and skilled teachers gave rural children "the best possible start" to learning water safety skills.

"We know if a school has a pool, and the teaching staff have the skills it is by far the cheapest and most effective way for kids to learn to how to survive in that environment."

He congratulated Mamaku School and said it was "setting itself up for success".

But he said, "the days have gone" where every school had its own pool and "better solutions" were needed to solve accessibility issues.

"We like the idea of cluster pools within communities of learning so there is access to facilities. How do we be smarter, maximise our resources and share these environments so everyone gets a fair go?"

Children in rural communities faced unique challenges when it came to water safety risks such as more exposure to estuaries, channels, waterways and water tanks.

He would "love to have more dialogue with the Ministry of Education" about bringing more focus on water safety into the curriculum and described resourcing in this space as "an ongoing challenge".

Ministry of Education Te Poutāhū, curriculum hautu (leader) Ellen MacGregor-Reid said schools were responsible for day-to-day management and maintenance of their school pools - including meeting health and safety requirements.

The New Zealand Curriculum set out that all students will have had opportunities to learn basic aquatic skills and about water safety by the end of Year 6, she said.

The Ministry provided guidance in a resource that assisted "school leaders and teachers with the implementation of a robust aquatic education programme".

There were 109 schools in the Bay of Plenty-Waiariki region that had swimming pools.

She welcomed further engagement with Water Safety New Zealand.