As Olympic and Paralympic champions finalise their preparations for the upcoming Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, a campaign is being launched to raise awareness of the vital importance of school swimming across the country.
Aquatics GB, Swim England, Scottish Swimming and Swim Wales are joining forces to highlight this issue and rally support from families, aquatic fans and the Government to ensure that every child leaves school set up to enjoy the water safely.
Ensuring children are able to swim is not just about providing health, wellbeing and enjoyment benefits, but ultimately offering them a vital, life-saving skill as well.
Despite swimming being a National Curriculum requirement, only 50 per cent of children from the poorest families in England are leaving primary school able to swim 25m, while only 35 per cent of children in Wales from years 3-6 can swim that distance – a record all-time low for Wales. Meanwhile, a sportscotland review in 2024 found that the cost of community swimming lessons had risen by 53 per cent over the previous five years.
With 90 per cent of children saying they either like or love swimming* and 74% of children wanting to swim more, we know that children are desperate for the opportunity to swim.
Speaking ahead of the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, the chief executives from Aquatics GB, Swim England, Scottish Swimming and Swim Wales said:
“When fans are cheering our Olympic and Paralympic champions on to their incredible performances in the pool, they are watching one step in a journey that began with these athletes learning how to swim as children.
“Those vital water safety skills and a love for being in the water are the most important elements of our sport. For many children, school swimming lessons may be the only opportunity they have to gain those skills and develop that passion.
“Across Aquatics GB and our Home Nations partners, we want to shout about the huge value of school swimming and ensure that more is done to improve the chance for every child in the country to benefit. We acknowledge the pressures on schools, so we are keen to work with schools to help improve that picture.”
The ongoing National Curriculum review in England presents a great opportunity to put school swimming and water safety at the heart of the PE syllabus, giving it greater priority within schools and raising its importance for school children across the country. Making PE a core subject would be a huge step towards that. In Scotland, meanwhile, there is an ongoing push to lobby Government for additional funding into school swimming.
All of this comes with less than a month to go until the likes of Duncan Scott, Maisie Summers-Newton, James Guy and Alice Tai – all gold medallists from last year’s sensational Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games – take to the London Aquatics Centre pool to compete in the biggest domestic swimming event in the UK. That world-class event also gives us the chance to turn the spotlight on ensuring every child is able to get into the pool, learn water safety skills, enjoy themselves in the water through high quality school swimming lessons and maybe even one day be the next Team GB or Paralympics GB hero.
Multiple Paralympic champion Summers-Newton, who has qualified as a teacher alongside training as an elite athlete, said: “Giving children the opportunity to swim throughout their time in school is so important. Not only is swimming one of the only sports that can save your life, it gives the children so many different skills, whether that be physically or socially, that will stay with them forever.
“Seeing first-hand the different children that come into school and the lack of swimming experience that some have, it's shocking to me as an athlete to see how many children can't swim 25m by the time they leave Year 6. Hopefully with more promotion and support, schools can provide children with those lessons they need to become confident in the water, while also being able to enjoy it and love the sport like so many of us do."
The Support School Swimming campaign is today (Wednesday 26th March) being launched at an event in Bethnal Green, less than three miles from the London Aquatics Centre, where hundreds of schoolchildren from the local community will take part in a school swimming water safety assembly, to build their confidence with the water and help them further embrace school swimming lessons.
*Only children in years 1 and 2 were asked this question
