Summary

Swimming on the curriculum

Under the revised National Curriculum in England introduced in September 2014, PE remains compulsory at all key stages. Local authority-maintained schools are required to follow the National Curriculum. Academies and free schools do not have to teach it, but are required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum that “promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils.”

The Curriculum requires the following on swimming and water safety:

All schools must provide swimming instruction either in key stage 1 or key stage 2.

In particular, pupils should be taught to:

  • swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
  • use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke]
  • perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

From the 2017‑18 academic year, as part of their reporting on their use of the PE and Sport Premium, schools have been required to publish the percentage of year 6 pupils who met the National Curriculum requirements relating to swimming.

Sport Strategy

The Government’s 2015 Sport Strategy, Sporting Future stated that a working group would be established in early 2016 to advise on how to ensure that no child leaves school unable to meet a minimum capability in swimming. The report of the Curriculum Swimming and Water Safety Review Group was published in July 2017. The report made 16 recommendations aimed at ensuring that “all children leave primary school with an appropriate level of swimming and water safety ability.”  In the second annual report on its Sport Strategy, published in January 2018, the Government stated that it had set up a cross-Government implementation group to review and implement the report’s recommendations.

On 25 October 2018, the DfE announced that primary schools would be given extra support to ensure all children reached the expected swimming standard by the end of primary schooling.  The support included encouragement for schools to use the PE and Sport Premium for extra lessons for children who hadn’t met the expected level after core swimming lessons; extra training for teachers provided by Swim England; extra guidance, also provided by Swim England; and a drive to boost partnerships with independent schools.

Parliamentary Material

Debates

Schools: Swimming and Life-saving Skills

Lords question for short debate on what plans they have to improve the swimming and life and life-saving skills of children provided through schools.

06 Mar 2019 | Questions for short debate | House of Lords | 796 cc697-710

Parliamentary Questions

Swimming: Children

02 Jul 2021 | 21308

Asked by: Catherine West

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on children’s access to school swimming lessons.

Answering member: Nick Gibb | Department: Department for Education (DfE)

Swimming and water safety is a vital life skill, which is why it is a mandatory part of the curriculum for physical education at primary school. The Department recognises that children have missed out on opportunities to learn to swim due to COVID-19 restrictions. We are working closely with Swim England and other swimming and water safety organisations to support pupils to return safely to swimming and to promote water safety education. This includes an additional £10.1 million to improve use of school sport facilities, including swimming pools.

Water safety education is a priority for the summer period to enable children to know how to be safe in and around water. The Department has made new virtual water safety lessons available through Oak National Academy and has supported the Royal Life Saving Society UK’s Drowning Prevention Week 2021.

Swimming: Primary Education

02 Jun 2021 | HL400

Asked by: Baroness Hoey

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many primary school children have not been able to swim the statutory 25 metres in the 2019/20 academic year and what is their projection for this figure in 2020/2021.

Answering member: Baroness Berridge | Department: (DfE)

The department does not collect data from schools on how many pupils are able to swim 25 metres, but data from Sport England’s annual Active Lives Children Survey provides the government with a national picture. Data for the 2019-20 academic year shows that 77% of children in year 7 report they can swim 25 metres.

The physical education (PE) and sport premium can be used by primary schools to support swimming and water safety, for example, through ‘top-up’ lessons or additional teaching training. The department provides schools with the flexibility to decide how to spend their premium in line with the conditions of the grant and do not collect data on the proportion or the amount of spend for any given activity.

In addition to the PE and sport premium, schools are able to access new virtual water safety lessons from Oak National Academy and the department will be supporting the Royal Life Saving Society UK’s Drowning Prevention Week in June 2021. The department has provided an additional £10.1 million to improve the use of school sport facilities, including swimming pools. New resources to support children with special educational needs and disabilities to swim and knowing how to be safe in and around the water have been developed through the department’s Inclusion 2020 grant, which is led by the Youth Sport Trust. These resources are available on Swim England’s inclusion hub.

Swimming: Children

26 May 2021 | 3998

Asked by: Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of Swim England’s recent findings that a quarter of a million children are unable to swim the length of a standard swimming pool on water safety risks on rivers and lakes over the summer period.

Answering member: Nick Gibb | Department: (DfE)

Water safety is a vital life skill, which is why it is a mandatory part of the curriculum for Physical Education at primary school. The Department has discussed the ‘Impact of Coronavirus on school swimming and water safety’ report with Swim England. We recognise that children have missed out on opportunities to learn to swim due to COVID-19 restrictions and we are working closely with Swim England and other swimming and water safety organisations to support pupils returning safely to swimming and promoting water safety education.

This includes an additional £10.1 million to improve use of school sport facilities, including swimming pools. Water safety education is a priority for the summer period to enable children to know how to be safe and in around water. This is why the Department has made new virtual water safety lessons available through Oak National Academy and will support the Royal Life Saving Society UK’s Drowning Prevention Week 2021.

Swimming: Children

05 Oct 2020 | 95640

Asked by: Ian Lavery

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of ensuring that swimming lessons are free of charge for children whose families are in receipt of universal credit.

Answering member: Nick Gibb | Department: (DfE)

Swimming is a vital life skill and pupils should be taught to swim and about water safety at primary school as part of a broad and balanced curriculum.

The PE national curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2 sets out the expectation that pupils should be taught to swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres, use a range of strokes effectively and perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.

In addition to their core curriculum provision, schools can choose to use the primary PE and sport premium to provide additional top-up swimming lessons to pupils who have not been able to meet the national curriculum requirements.

It is for local authorities and private providers to decide on the amount they charge for swimming lessons and whether to make them free to people on low incomes.

Water: Safety

29 Jun 2020 | 64289

Asked by: Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the proportion of KS3 school children who have been taught water safety during academic year 2019-20.

Answering member: Nick Gibb | Department: (DfE)

Swimming and water safety are compulsory elements of the PE curriculum at Key Stages 1 and 2. The curriculum sets out the expectation that pupils should be taught to: swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres; use a range of strokes effectively; and perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.

The Department does not collect data centrally on the proportion of pupils at Key Stages 1 to 3 that have been taught swimming and water safety lessons, but all primary schools are required to publish information on the percentage of their pupils in year 6 who met each of the three swimming and water safety national curriculum requirements. Further details are available in the online reporting section of guidance on the Primary PE and Sport Premium, available here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pe-and-sport-premium-for-primary-schools#online-reporting.

Additional Reading

Reports

APPG for Swimming & Swim England, Impact of Coronavirus on school swimming and water safety,  May 2021

Curriculum Swimming and Water Safety Review Group, Recommendations to ensure all children leave primary school able to swim, July 2017

National Water Safety Forum, A Future Without Drowning: The UK Drowning Prevention Strategy 2016–2026, 16 February 2016

Web Pages

Swim England, Swimming and Water Safety in Schools, accessed 7 July 2021

National Education Union, Swimming safety in schools, 11 January 2019

Related Links

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