Students from Upokongaro School learn water safety school at the school pool. Photo/Supplied
Upokongaro School takes water safety very seriously.
So thoroughly do the staff teach the kids to swim and be safe around water that the school has been named among the top five schools in New Zealand for swimming.
Staff from the 110-pupil school on SH4 north of Whanganui went to the Swimming NZ awards held in Auckland recently.
Principal Warren Brown said the award was recognition for the school's delivery of their swimming programme.
"Nearly 1200 schools use Swimming NZ's programme. They only gave five awards this year - and Upokongaro School was one of them. We're pretty proud of that."
The school pool opens every year in November, giving the children several weeks of swimming lessons before they break for the Christmas holidays.
"I think it's really important that they get some swimming lessons before summer," Mr Brown said.
But it's not solely about learning to swim. The pupils are also taught how to keep safe in and around the water, with local surf life-savers teaching the pupils survival skills.
"All New Zealand kids grow up around water. It's just common sense that we teach them how to be as safe as possible."
Mr Brown said the student loved to swim, and they had developed a confidence in the water that spread to other areas of school life.
"Many of our kids have become really confident in themselves since learning to swim. So we use swimming as a vehicle to continue the students' learning."