Waimana School build water safety skills and confidence

Waimana School is situated just out of Whakatāne. We spoke with Tania Doherty, Tumuaki (Principal), about their Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa Fund project.

What motivated your application?

One of the key things that got us to this point was reading in the news that it's anticipated we're going to be in for a really, really, hot summer. It's going to be scorching. So with that piece of information, I started thinking about how confident our children are in the water, not just our school swimming pool because we know that they love swimming, it was what about all the other bodies of water that we all live close to. So in Waimana we have the most beautiful rivers and streams there but 30km or so, up the road we have Ōhope Beach. I really wanted the children to develop that confidence in these multiple bodies of water.

What water experiences have the tamariki enjoyed?

So through the Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa Fund, we applied for funding and received and it and that has enabled our little kura to do is go around, experience multiple activities and build confidence in water.

There has been surfing with Ollie Dobin from Salt Spray Surf School. Amazing Ollie and his team, just incredible. We also went out kayaking in the Ohiwa Harbor with KG Kayaks and Koro Ken (Kenny McCracken). That was also a fabulous experience for our children. So surfing, kayaking and Waimarino Adventure Park where there's a wide range of activities. We are also looking into stand up paddle boarding again with Ollie Dobin.

A lot of the children have remarked that they'd never had those experiences before. So I think the amazing thing about this opportunity is the delight when you see children who may not necessarily be confident in the water, have time to practise. To enjoy, have another go, take risks and appreciate the challenge. Then you see them when they finally get it, it's just written all over them, they're just radiant as they have overcome different challenges.

What have been some key learnings?

What we set out to do we have easily achieved in terms of building confidence. Now there's one thing about confidence, children say yes I can swim, but the reality is spending a long time in the water and in a body of water that actually moves in its own way is quite different. Teaching the children about the sea and that the sea actually doesn't get tired and so they have to be able to self-regulate and recognise when they're getting tired in the water, it's amazing.

We have also worked with our koros, our kaumātua and kuia. Our pākeke, our parents, who are telling us about our local bodies of water and the narratives of the types of food that were found in those waterways. How people in old times used it for a whole range of things so that's incredibly centering for our children. We can see the spin-offs, it certainly improves their sense of responsibility, their sense of kaitiakitanga (guardianship). I mean what's better than having kids outside, swimming and playing. Taking challenges as well as taking care of our environment. I think it's just a winning formula.

So much learning is happening, there's a lot of math going on, literacy is out the gate and importantly we have every aspect of the curriculum being covered. Health, physical education, our kids have been creating their own surfboards for art sculpture.

The other thing is we've got whānau who have been joining us on these trips and they have commented what an awesome opportunity it has been for our kids. They are constantly asking where are the photos, we want to see and what that's telling us is our children, our tamariki, are going home and they're just excited about their learning day.

I just can't thank enough the people who have made this happen for us, thank you to our teaching team, our parents for getting us here. We live quite a way out of town so it's no mean feat to get our children together when you don't have school buses so certainly very grateful for the opportunity and the experiences for our kids, so thank you.

How have you monitored the success of the project?

For our application we did a survey with our students and we asked them some questions about their attitude towards swimming and being in the water, confidence levels, where they position themselves in terms of their strength. Over three quarters of our tamariki commented that they did not have water confidence, so even though we had been in the swimming pool and they were really happy to be jumping in, they really thought about themselves being in the sea and in really deep rivers where they can't see the bottom.

Interestingly enough all of our little five-year-olds said yes we're incredibly confident, we can swim everywhere. So you have to look at that information and think about it in its real context. I also asked the question to the tamariki in that survey, would you like to learn more and probably 80% of them said yes please, I want to learn more. They talked about wanting to be stronger swimmers, they wanted to be able to swim far, they wanted to be able to just play around in the water and enjoy themselves.

There was a very small number, in fact two respondents, that said they didn't want to learn more. I had a look at it and thought why don't they want to improve their water skills? As I worked with them a bit more in a focus group it actually came down to body confidence. So for young people, promoting healthy body confidence became a very critical part and that was also entered in to the teaching and the unit of work that we've done.

So interesting data coming out of a midpoint survey, we took videos of our children and they are just out of their skin, they are incredibly grateful, they're jumping around and saying look at me, I'm a seal. They're trying to show us what they can do in terms of being in and around the water. Our boys and our girls, our pre-teens, are happy in themselves, they're not covering up.

As part of the application, we applied for support with sunsmart gear. We had kids who were jumping in with their t-shirts and shorts and that actually was their swimming attire. So to be able to purchase bikinis and rashies, they just felt special, they really, really did. When you break down those barriers, so you've got an accessibility barrier, you have a body image barrier, you also have physical skills as a barrier, you’ve hit a trifecta. I just see them thriving and that's a big part of what's been happening, amazing!

How have you worked with Sport Bay of Plenty?

We would most certainly not have been able to do all the things that we have done, and are going to continue to do, without the support of the Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa Fund. It’s just been absolutely stellar. We've been working with Kylie Hahipene and Vernei Mullen from Sport Bay of Plenty. Just absolutely stellar people, they've given us great guidance, they've been on location supporting us, we're just really happy and very grateful.