Swimming and the national curriculum
Since 1994, swimming and water safety has been a statutory element of the national curriculum for physical education in England.
This means that every 11-year old child should leave primary school with the skills to keep themselves safe while enjoying swimming with friends and family. Swimming is a compulsory subject and we expect all pupils to take part in these valuable lessons.
The three national curriculum outcomes
Swimming is the only sport to be included within the national curriculum physical education programme of study. All primary schools must provide swimming and water safety lessons in either Key Stage 1 or 2.
Each pupil is required to be able to do the following:
- Perform safe self-rescue in different water based situations
- 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.
We take our pupils in Year 5 and Year 6 to Moorhouse School where we enjoy the use of their swimming pool. The Moorhouse School pool is a ten minute walk from our school.
Children attend swimming lessons during their time in KS2. In our Year 6 cohort (leavers of Summer 2022) their swimming skills as are follows;
• 49% of Year 6 pupils can swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25m.
• 49% of Year 6 pupils can use a range of strokes effectively.
• 41% of Year 6 pupils can perform safe self-rescue in different water-based activities.
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