School swimming

In 1880, it became compulsory for children in NSW to attend school. The first public school swimming championship in NSW was held in 1897. By 1898, 81 school swimming clubs for boys and 27 school swimming clubs for girls catered to a total of 12,600 school children in Sydney's metropolitan public schools. The development of girls' swimming was initially constrained by a lack of suitably qualified female teachers.

School swimming carnivals were sometimes organised by the Parents and Citizens Association (P&C) rather than the school itself. Surf clubs and swimming clubs sometimes assisted with the running of school swimming carnivals. Like the public schools, private schools in NSW have also actively fostered swimming and participation in classes to qualify for the still-water lifesaving awards from the Royal Life Saving Society.

Local schools requested re-opening of the Malabar rock pool in the 1990s. Towradgi's Olympic pool was create to improve the local schools' competitive swimming success.

Some government primary and secondary schools and Catholic schools still use their local ocean baths for school swimming classes in the warmer months and for swimming carnivals. February and March are the peak months for school swimming carnivals. These days, it would be rare for a child in coastal NSW to finish school without learning to swim. Many children already swim proficiently before they begin primary school.
 

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