Teaching Water Skills for Life

Your participation matters. The skills you teach today may be the life you save tomorrow.

Water Skills for Life can be taught by any school teacher or swim teacher in the classroom, aquatic facility or in the school pool. The programme is designed to be practical, easy to follow, and aligned to New Zealand’s national curriculum, giving you confidence that every lesson connects to wider learning goals.

Once you click on the button below, you’ll be directed to our e-learning platform. To access the platform, you’ll need to register for an account (unless you already have one with Sport Tutor). Simply click “Register here” at the bottom of the login page and complete the sign-up form.

What you’ll find on the platform:

Modules by Age and Environment

Structured content for 0–2, 3–4, 5–6, and 7–8 years, with activities tailored to beach, river, lake, and pool contexts.

Competencies & Lesson Plans

A clear breakdown of the survival competencies, complete with ready-to-use lesson plans.

Teaching Videos

Short, engaging demonstrations to guide instruction and make delivery consistent and easy.

Assessment Tools

Simple, standardised tools to track progress, measure outcomes, and report on student achievement.

Evidence-based Design

Developed by Water Safety New Zealand with input from educators and researchers, ensuring every skill taught is backed by research and real-world relevance.

Progress Monitoring

Built-in guidance to help teachers and schools monitor outcomes across year levels, ensuring students are on track with both confidence and competence.

Water Skills for Life e-learning

Key Competency Areas

Water Skills for Life offers a structured, age-appropriate curriculum that prepares students for real-world water situations. By breaking down survival skills into clear, progressive steps, it equips teachers with everything they need to build confidence and keep students safer around water for life.

Download wall chart

Water safety and awareness

Year 0-2: Basic awareness of potential water-related hazards and how to minimise risks in different water situations.
Year 3-4: Understand rules, hazards, and risks associated with various water environments, including closed water areas and open water locations.
Year 5-6: Be aware of the rules, hazards, and risks associated with various water environments, including closed water areas and open water locations.
- Well-rounded knowledge of water safety, be capable of making informed decisions in real-life situations
- Students should be able to recognise an emergency situation in and around water.
Year 7-8: Grasp the rules, dangers, and risks in moving water, waves and currents
- Ability to make safe decisions when engaging in water activities
- Building their knowledge about hypothermia and its risks to understand how to protect themselves in different weather conditions.

Get in/out in multiple ways

In this competency, students will learn how to safely enter the water, test for depth, and other entry and exit methods such as slide entry, stride entry, and compact jump. The key learning outcome for students is the ability to select the correct entry method for the activity they are performing and understand the best ways to get themselves out of the water safely.

Year 0-2
- Get in/out in multiple ways
- Step in entry
- Ladder entry
- Wade entry
- Slide entry
- Ladder exit
Year 3-4
- Slide Entry and accidental fall -in
- Perform getting in/out sequence in deep water
Year 5-8
- Accidental fall-in
- Compact Jump entry
- Stride entry
- Climbing onto a boat
- Climb up a bank/onto a bank

Submersion

In this competency, students will learn how to submerge to different depths, open their eyes under the water and move through it while submerged. The key learning outcome for students is to become comfortable being under the water, control their breathing and perform simple tasks such as picking up an object from the pool floor. Learning how to control their breathing and stay calm while submerged will help students enjoy the water for the rest of their lives.

Year 0-8
- Get under water and pick up an object
Year 0-8
- Move underwater to the count to five

Personal buoyancy

Students are given key learning messaging such as do not go swimming alone and swim between the flags to more complex knowledge such as recognising and responding to an emergency and making safe decisions for different situations. The key learning outcome for students is to have knowledge of the risks and how to minimise them so they can enjoy the water safely in the future.

Year 0-2
- Float and regain feet
- Float on back at least 1 minute

Year 3-4
- Scull at least 3 minutes
- Tread water at least 3 minutes

Year 5-6
- Scull at least 3 minutes while moving through simulated currents and waves
- Perform personal buoyancy sequence - Signal for help

Year 7-8
- Scull while clothed for 5 minutes while moving through simulated currents and waves
- Tread water while clothed for 5 minutes

Orientation

In this competency, students will learn how their body composition floats and how they can move their bodies to float in different positions and move from one orientation to another. By doing so, students will be able to rotate from one floating position to another without assistance and be able to roll from their front to their back in shallow and deep water.

Year 0-2
- Horizontal rotation

Year 3-4
- Horizontal to vertical rotation
- Vertical Rotation

Safety of self and others

Students will learn how to signal for help, perform reach and throw rescues while considering their safety and understand how to help someone in trouble in the water. The key learning outcome is that the students can recognise an emergency and react appropriately to the situation they are faced with but must put their safety first.

Year 3-4
- Perform safety of self and others sequence in deep water
- Float and signal for help for at least 2 minutes

Year 5-6
- Reach/throw rescue

Year 7-8
- Float and signal for help while clothed for at least 3 minutes
- Perform a reach/throw rescue while clothed in simulated currents and waves
- Demonstrate use of multiple skills to respond to two different scenarios

Propulsion

In this competency, students will learn how to move through the water, from basic kicking techniques to more advanced survival and non-survival strokes. Moving through the water allows the students to move effectively and efficiently whilst extending the students to further distances, enabling stamina and water endurance growth.

Year 3-4
- Use any form of propulsion to move 15m non-stop
Year 5-6
- Move 15m non-stop, using any form of propulsion through simulated currents and waves
- Move 50m and/or 3 minutes non-stop confidently and competently through simulated currents and waves

Age-based skill development

Every young person in New Zealand should have the opportunities, skills and knowledge of basic awareness of potential water-related hazards and how to minimise risks in different water situations.

Students should have a good understanding of the importance of testing for depth before entering the water and be able to select the correct entry method based on the water depth and activity they are engaging in. Students should feel at ease moving through the water while submerged and continue to refine their breath control. Students should demonstrate improved personal buoyancy skills, including the ability to float on their back in a stationary, motionless position for at least 1 minute.

Every young person in New Zealand should have the opportunities, skills and knowledge of understanding rules, hazards, and risks associated with various water environments, including closed water areas and open water locations.

Students are expected to demonstrate their ability to move 15m non-stop using any form of propulsion. Demonstrate their application of skills to scull and tread water for at least 3 minutes and be capable of performing the personal buoyancy sequence - lifejacket in deep water.

Every student in New Zealand should have the opportunities, skills, knowledge and behaviours to be aware of the rules, hazards, and risks associated with various water environments, including closed water areas and open water locations, well-rounded knowledge of water safety, be capable of making informed decisions in real-life situations and should be able to recognise an emergency situation in and around water.

Students are expected to demonstrate their ability to move through multiple water environments with varying challenges using any form of propulsion and be capable of performing the safety of self and others sequence, which involves reacting appropriately to an emergency situation in deep water while considering their own safety first.

Every student in New Zealand should have the opportunities, skills, knowledge and behaviours to grasp the rules, dangers, and risks in moving water, waves and currents. The ability to make safe decisions when engaging in water activities and continue to build their knowledge about hypothermia and its risks to understand how to protect themselves in different weather conditions.

Students are expected to demonstrate their ability to recognise an emergency, signal for help, and perform a reach/throw rescue effectively and confidently in more challenging water scenarios such as simulated ocean, river and lake environments. Additionally, students should demonstrate their application of skills while clothed for a set time such as float and signal for help, scull and tread water while moving through simulated currents and waves.