SWIMMING activities have been upgraded from medium to high risk in state schools this year.
The new guidelines have also been changed to clearly state "in the water supervision" of one adult to every 10 students is recommended for pupils with little or no swimming supervision.
For children under five years old, it is a ratio of one to five.
Education Queensland acting executive director Hayley Stevenson said the supervision ratios themselves had not changed and while there was no record of a drowning ever occurring during a school swimming lesson, the upgrade was in response to Workplace Health and Safety recommendations.
She said it acknowledged the heightened community awareness of the importance of water safety.
"Queensland State Schools have been safely managing school swimming lessons for generations," Ms Stevenson said.
While the Department has no record of a drowning occurring during school swimming lessons, it regularly reviews its practices to ensure the safety and wellbeing of students and staff is paramount."
The clarification around "in the water supervision" has sparked a number of schools this term to ensure three adults are in the water with Prep classes, rather than some being out of the water, although others say this has been their practice "for many years".
While Prep students are aged five or six in the second half of the year, swimming in the first half of the year would see the ratio guidelines move to one adult for every five students for those aged under five.
Queensland Association of State School Principals president Hilary Backus said she believed the new guidelines were a good balance between ensuring safety and schools still being able to deliver swimming lessons.
In a principal update in September she warned an initial recommendation that a Bronze Medallion holder be present at every swimming lesson "would have made it impossible to conduct swimming lessons" at some schools.
Yesterday she said schools "got quite a fright" by the condition given a PE teacher without the medallion may have been teaching swimming for decades.
That recommendation has now been relaxed.
Ms Stevenson said the guidelines were guidelines only and allowed schools the flexibility to make sensible decisions about supervision.
At Virginia State School, where Prep students were lapping up their swimming lesson this week, principal Tim Farrell said they were very fortunate to have a supportive and motivated school community and had required two volunteers to be in the water with Prep and Year 1 students "for many years".
