We feel strongly that school swimming isn’t enough and this was proven by a research from Swim England which shows that one in four youngsters currently leave primary school unable to swim 25m or self-rescue – despite swimming and water safety being part of the National Curriculum. It is feared this could rise to three in five children by the 2025-26 academic year.
Another report by the Curriculum Swimming & Water Safety Review Group concluded that just over a third (36%) of primary schools provide lessons, with all children achieving the national curriculum targets. It suggested that there were many barriers to schools offering proper swimming and water safety instruction, including teachers not feeling confident in teaching the subject because of lack of formal training, hiring pools and swimming instructors and concerns that time away from the classroom disrupts the school day.
We believe that learning to swim is essential
Swimming is an essential life skill and parents have a duty to ensure that their children can swim. Whilst a range of extra-curricular skills are important for children to develop as rounded individuals, none are quite as vital and fundamental as learning to swim.
In order to be a competent swimmer, children should be able to:
- Swim at least 100 metres without stopping
- Tread water for at least 30 seconds
- Experience swimming in clothing
- ‘Float to live’ (performing a star float on their back for at least 30 seconds)
Swim England is recommending that parents and guardians only consider stopping lessons for their children when they are ‘competent’ swimmers, rather than just displaying confidence in the water.
In summary…
Teaching young children basic survival swimming skills can have a life-long immunisation effect against drowning. This gives parents immeasurable peace of mind, whether their children are playing in and around the pool on holiday as young children, or go swimming on their own with friends as older children. Our lessons focus on technique in a small group environment whereas school swimming tends to be in much larger groups.
Swim Generation are therefore committed to children learning to swim from as young as two years old – we believe you can’t start teaching swimming too early!
Taking the plunge
In the shallow end, position yourself away from the wall. Hold onto your child to they are standing on your knees, your hands supporting their waist. Ask them to jump off your knees and grab onto the wall. This technique slowly gets your child used to swimming independently. Gradually increase the distance from the wall and they will progress slowly.
For the older children…
Ping Pong
Buy some ping pong balls and throw them into the pool and watch your kids love racing around trying to capture them all.
Diving for treasure
Throw some change into the pool and get your kids to pick up the coins from the bottom of the pool. A new way to earn their pocket money on holiday!
Quick jump quiz
One person asks the questions while the other children line up at the deep end. The person asks a question such as ‘what colour is the sky’ and the jumper needs to answer the question while in the air but before they hit the water.
Shark Attack
One person is the shark and everyone else is the fish. When the shark shouts ‘shark’, the fish swim off. Once they have escaped, the shark shouts ‘shark’ and tries to catch one. As soon as a fish has been caught, they become the shark.