Kingswim

We operate 20 Kingswim sites across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and ACT. Where we would normally peak each year at over 29,000 swimmers, this financial year, we peeked at just over 20,000 swimmers during our summer period – due to capacity limits across multiple states. We saw our highest enrolments in May, with just under 23,500 swimmers followed by a predicted decline over the winter months.

In addition, school group lessons have been significantly affected by multiple extended closures. Normally we would see just under 100,000 school lessons provided each year, but this financial year, we provided 21,193 lessons.

How we adapted

We’ve continued to adapt to the ever changing and localised state restrictions after each reopening. We utilised the Nabooki booking system to adapt to smaller capacity programs (due to Government restrictions) upon reopening within each state. Similarly, we were able to provide families with a convenient, online booking method that ensured their place in our regular program remained for when our program numbers could increase. Our Kingswim team continued to create resources for our online ‘Activity Hub’ for at-home activities and resources for swimmers and families. We had 4,805 people visit the activity hub this year. We were also able to train 210 new swim teachers.

Our advocacy

Kingswim has continued to advocate for the aquatics industry at a national level to ensure aquatic education is able to quickly return after lockdowns to keep young people safe in and around the water. Families said they appreciated the considered and transparent approach of Kingswim’s decision-making around returning to lessons, with over 80% strongly agreeing to all statements related to our COVID response in a survey conducted in May. We have extended our online staff training modules to include pool deck supervision, basic aquatic rescues, evacuation and teacher upskill modules.