City school division giving newcomers a crash course in winter survival, teaching water safety to families

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This article was published 18/02/2025 (254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

New ice and water-safety lessons are teaching refugee and immigrant students to navigate all seasons on the Canadian Prairies in response to a handful of accidental drownings in Winnipeg and nearby waterways in recent years.

The St. James-Assiniboia School Division has begun piloting “winter 101” classes for newcomer students and offering free swimming lessons to entire families of foreigners who are making a home in Manitoba.

Public schools have a responsibility to expose their students to community pools and ensure they have a basic understanding of both the fun and dangers involved, said Gail Henderson Brown, swim program co-ordinator for SJASD.

Henderson Brown noted many newcomer parents do not know about public pools. For those who do, access has become increasingly challenging as the city has reduced facilities’ hours due to budgeting challenges.

“Financial-wise, a lot of parents, if they have to choose between paying a bill and signing up for swimming lessons, it’s going to be paying the bill,” she said.

The division has long run a universal Grade 3 swim program with curriculum from the Lifesaving Society, as well as individualized lessons for youth with disabilities who are registered in Grades 3 to 12.

Roughly 100 to 150 newcomer students dip their toes in St. James Centennial Pool every year through the universal Grade 3 initiative.

Some children born outside Canada who are unfamiliar with local water sites can have fears about dangerous animals lurking underneath the surface and have misconceptions about buoyancy because the sites are different from the oceans or other bodies of water they grew up near, Henderson Brown said.

Regardless of their prior experiences, the veteran swim instructor said her goal is to make students more aware of their surroundings when they are near water, seek out life jackets and recognize basic beach signage.

There have been at least eight fatal drownings involving newcomers to Manitoba over the last decade.

High-profile incidents have taken place at Grand Beach, Birds Hill, Pinawa Dam Provincial Park, Whiteshell Provincial Park’s Sturgeon Falls and multiple residential complexes in Winnipeg.

A father and son, both of whom were new arrivals from India, died after being pulled from a pool in a St. James apartment building in April 2019.

Phys-ed co-ordinator J.J. Ross said the tragedies have prompted SJASD staffers to come up with ideas on how to reach more new arrivals with water safety tips.

Last year, the division secured $2,500 from the Manitoba Coalition for Safer Waters to expand staff training in newcomer swim and injury prevention and offer related information sessions to the public in the spring.

SJASD is also a recent recipient of a $40,000 grant from the Winnipeg Foundation that is paying for newcomer family transportation, bathing suits and swim sessions at the YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg.

“The education is for everybody so nothing is, hopefully, lost in translation and the entire family gets the messages around water safety and, also, swimming lessons at the same time,” said Ross, who oversees physical and health education programming in 26 schools located in Silver Heights, Westwood and surrounding communities.

One Grade 9 student at St. James Collegiate said the group lessons — which he took alongside his two younger brothers over a six-week period in the fall — taught him the difference between deep and shallow waters.

He was also among a dozen teenagers who participated in a cold weather, ice and winter driving safety workshop at his high school last week.

The latest offshoot of the swim program, also organized by Henderson Brown, included educational tips to avoid frostbite and falling on icy surfaces.

High schoolers were urged to check winter forecasts, wear layers and be wary of rivers, lakes and ponds on a year-round basis.

During the hour-long session, the group also learned how to pack a winter emergency kit for a vehicle with life-saving essentials, such as an ice scraper, foil blanket, water bottle, shovel and matches and candles.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca