Royal Life Saving Australia and Uncle Tobys partnered together for the 'Swim My Way' program to teach kids from disadvantaged, Indigenous and disengaged backgrounds life saving and swimming skills.

Royal Life Saving aquatic project officer Louise Smalley said all kids had a right to learn swimming and survival skills.

"We live in Australia and are surrounded by water, everyone needs to know how to be safe," she said.

"This program has allowed us to get a group of kids together without the pressure of cost to learn these fundamental life skills."

READ MORE

For Louise it was great to see the students' confidence and skills grow throughout the program.

"A lot of these kids at the beginning of the program would not touch the water and now on the final day of the program everyone is getting in, having fun and has learnt how to save themselves and others.

"One of the students told me this morning how grateful they were to receive the program and have the funding - in the first few lessons they were just walking thtough the water and now they are excited to go in the deep end.

"It just shows with consistency you can create such a change in a short amount of time."

The 10-week program was originally set to start in March, then COVID hit, but has now been running since October.

The students got to participate and learn it both pool and beach environments.

Across Australia, the 'Swim My Way' program has delivered 20,000 swim sessions since it was launched in March 2018.