SCHOOL SWIMMING
- Session: 2013-14
- Date tabled: 03.06.2013
- Primary sponsor:
- Sponsors:
That this House is concerned by new research by the Amateur Swimming Association contained within their report entitled, Learning the Lesson - The Future of School Swimming, which reveals that 51 per cent of children aged between seven and 11 years old are unable to swim the length of a typical swimming pool and that 1.1 million primary schoolchildren lack the skills to be safe in and around water; recognises the importance of swimming as a lifesaving skill and as a foundation for a healthy and active lifestyle; believes that swimming and water safety skills are not instinctive and that schools are an essential place for these skills to be taught; further believes that the £150 million of ring-fenced spending for primary school sport represents an opportunity to improve attainment levels in swimming; and calls on the Department for Education to reiterate the expectation that all children be able to swim at least 25 metres unaided by the time they leave primary school, and to support schools appropriately in supporting this aim.