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The Importance of School Swimming

29 October 2018

The importance of learning to swim at school

  • Drowning is the third most common cause of accidental death in children. Here at Swim England, we believe all children should have the opportunity to learn how to swim and be taught how to stay safe in and around water.
  • Many children learn to swim out side of school. But for some, primary school will be the only opportunity they have to learn these vital lifesaving skills.
  • That is why it is so important to ensure all our primary schools are supported to provide the best possible swimming and water safety provision for all their pupils.

Click HERE to visit Swim England’s site.

Ensuring your school is national curriculum compliant

Teaching swimming and water safety during Key Stage 1 or 2 is a requirement of the national curriculum PE programme of study. At present, there is no requirement for either swimming or water safety to be taught in Key Stage 3, 4 or 5.

The focus of the following information therefore relates to primary schools.

Ensuring your school is complying with national curriculum requirements

Maintained schools, including those that convert to academies, must publish information about their use of the Primary PE and Sport Premium. This should be published on the school’s website. Since 2017, there has been a requirement to also include the attainment figures of all year 6 pupils for swimming and water safety.

It is important that schools share the attainment figures for swimming and water safety to ensure parents are aware of their child’s abilities. In lieu of a more formal reporting mechanism, it also allows secondary schools the ability to access the information.

The reporting template is quick and easy to complete. Schools are responsible for collecting the data for each pupil. If swimming and water safety lessons are provided by a third party (such as a pool operator or swim school) teachers should request this information at the end of each swimming term.

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