The NSW Government\u2019s new learn to swim voucher program will be expanded from preschool-aged children to include kindergarten kids who missed out on lessons due to COVID restrictions.
\nUnder the \u2018First Lap\u2019 program, eligible children can access a $100 voucher for swimming lessons with an approved provider, with businesses able to register for it from next month.
\nPremier Dominic Perrottet said the program, which starts on December 1, would be extended to cover children in kindergarten this year, or who are starting kindergarten in 2022.
\n\u201cBecause of COVID restrictions, our kindy kids have missed a crucial window of being able to develop the skills they need to stay safe in the water,\u201d Mr Perrottet said.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s really important they don\u2019t miss out, so we\u2019re making sure they can also access the First Lap voucher program now that our pools are back open for lessons.\u201d
\nMinister for Sport Natalie Ward said the NSW Government will invest $54 million over two years in the program, which will also ease cost of living pressures for families.
\n\u201cSummer in Australia is all about swimming, at your local pool, beach or river. We know families have been doing it tough during the COVID lockdown and the First Lap program will also ensure family budgets aren\u2019t stretched so our kids have these crucial skills,\u201d Mrs Ward said.
\nMinister for Digital and Customer Service Victor Dominello said the program was one of more than 70 NSW Government savings helping to ease cost-of-living pressures for households, including the Active Kids and Creative Kids programs.
\n\u201cThis is in addition to a host of other savings including energy rebates, free car registration and lower green slip costs,\u201d Mr Dominello said.
\nActive Kids vouchers can be used by school-enrolled children, including those in kindergarten,\u00a0 for sport and recreation activities such as swimming lessons. Families can apply for the First Lap vouchers from 1 December, through Service NSW.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The NSW Government\u2019s new learn to swim voucher program will be expanded from preschool-aged children to include kindergarten kids who missed out on lessons due to COVID restrictions. Under the \u2018First Lap\u2019 program, eligible children can access a $100 voucher for swimming lessons with an approved provider, with businesses able to register for it from … Continue reading “'First Lap' swim program extended to kindy kids”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}