We celebrate learning to swim as an important life skills. All our children in Y3.Y4/Y5 and Y6 attend swimming lessons every year for twelve weeks: we currently fund these lessons from our school budget to support our parents/carers.  We visit Five Rivers Leisure Centre in Salisbury and hire both pools to support all swimmers.  We are lucky that we have a qualified swimming instructor on our staffing team so the children that are confident swimmers can be taught to dive and life save in the main pool.  We also have access to the learner pool, where children who cannot swim yet are taught by a Five Rivers Leisure Centre swimming coach. http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/leisure-five-rivers-swimming-timetable

We are required by the Government to publish the percentage of Year 6 children who meet national curriculum requirements for swimming and water safety.  Due to the impact of Covid, many of our children have not been swimming for two years.  We currently have 10 children in Year 6 and six of them have met the requirement.  We are confident that the other four children will meet the standard at the end of the Summer term after their school swimming lessons.

Government questions:

What percentage of your current Year 6 cohort swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres? 60%

What percentage of your current Year 6 cohort use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke]? 60%

What percentage of your current Year 6 cohort perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations? 60%

Schools can choose to use the Primary PE and sport premium to provide additional provision for swimming but this must be for activity over and above the national curriculum requirements. Have you used it in this way? Yes

Environment Agency advice 

As the weather gets warmer, there is an increase in open water swimming and activities in open water. Open water swimming can increase the risk of gastrointestinal illnesses, or stomach bugs, which may cause diarrhoea and/or vomiting, as well as respiratory, skin, ear and eye infections.

For schools planning water based activities at any time of year, we’d recommend reading the Swim Healthy Guidance which contains helpful advice about water quality, health risks, preventative actions and what to do if you do become unwell.