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<p>Swimming is a vital life skill, which is why swimming and water safety are compulsory
elements of the national curriculum physical education (PE) at key stages 1 and 2.
It sets out the expectation that pupils should be taught to:</p><ul><li>swim competently,
confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres;</li><li>use a
range of strokes effectively; and</li><li>perform safe self-rescue in different water-based
situations.</li></ul><p> </p><p>The government asked the Swim Group, which includes
representatives from across the swimming and education sector, to submit an independent
report setting out recommendations for improving curriculum swimming, as part of the
Sporting Future strategy. The department has worked closely with Swim England and
other members of the Swim group to review the recommendations in their report. In
October 2018, we announced that schools would receive extra support to help all pupils
to swim and know how to be safe in the water by the time they leave primary school.
This included guidance to schools on:</p><p> </p><ul><li>effective use of the PE and
sport premium to support additional teacher training and top-up swimming for those
children not yet able to meet the national curriculum requirements after core lessons;</li><li>a
drive to boost partnerships between independent schools to offer the use of facilities,
coaching and other forms of support to schools in their area;</li><li>new guidance
from Swim England and the Swim Group for swimming providers, primary schools, swimming
teachers and parents and carers.</li></ul><p> </p><p>Information on school swimming
pools is not held centrally. Since 2012, Sport England has invested £67 million into
46 new local authority facilities which include pools, resulting in around £700 million
investment from those authorities. In addition, Sport England is currently working
with around 100 local authorities which have plans for new pool provision.</p><p>
</p><p>Sport England also provide guidance to local authorities on facility management
options and specifications, this guidance is currently under review and will be available
in the forthcoming months.</p><p> </p><p>The new guidance will contain information
on pool programming from Swim England and will reference good practice where facility
management organisations have worked in cooperation with primary schools to improve
logistics in relation to delivery of school swimming.</p>
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