On this page
Legal requirements and design standards for school pools
Your school's pool must meet legal requirements and design standards:
Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 – New Zealand Legislation
Building Act 2004 – New Zealand Legislation
Fences
All school swimming pools must be fenced in accordance with the regulations.
Fences around school swimming pools must not harm people, even trespassers. For example, fences should not have any accessories capable of causing injury to people, such as barbed wire, spikes or arrow tips and so on.
Building Code (including the new Clause F9 for fencing – Building Performance
NZS 8500:2006 'Safety barriers and fences around swimming pools, spas and hot tubs' – Standards NZ
Changing rooms, toilets and showers
You must provide changing rooms for pool users with:
- privacy, giving regard to the gender, cultural or religious requirements of the school community
- adequate lighting, ventilation and drainage
- dry places to store belongings.
When upgrading your facilities, you must also include a toilet within the pool enclosure. This is so you can meet health and safety requirements for supervision.
Our toilet and changing space design standard has guidance and reference design layouts for toilets (including accessible toilets and universal bathrooms), changing spaces, staff facilities and associated facilities in school buildings.
