Swimming lessons 'vital' as schools gap revealed

Children at English primary schools with more pupils on free school meals are less likely to leave able to swim 25m, BBC research has found.

While 72% of Year 6 children on average left school able to swim 25m in 2024-25, this drops to just 55% for schools with a higher proportion of disadvantaged children.

Ashley Jones, head of water safety and education at the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS), said it was "absolutely vital" children were equipped with basic swimming and self-rescue skills.

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said it was aware of the gap and it "needs to change".

The national curriculum in England, external states when they leave Year 6, all pupils should be able to:

A BBC Freedom of Information request to the DfE has revealed the proportion of Year 6 pupils at individual state schools, excluding special schools, who are able to meet the targets.

While 70% of 2024-25 Year 6 leavers nationally could on average perform a safe self-rescue, only half of children from schools with the highest level of free meal eligibility could do so.

A safe self-rescue includes being able to tread water for 30 seconds, children being able to float on their back for 60 seconds and swim 15m to exit the water unaided.

Most school groups only get six weeks of 30-minute sessions to learn basic swimming skills – three hours in total.

School performance ranged from no pupils leaving Year 6 able to swim 25m to others meeting the target at 100%.

Only 38 schools in the highest category for disadvantaged pupils hit the swimming target. Meanwhile, it was met by nearly 400 schools with the lowest proportion of children on free school meals.

For parents, there can be several obstacles when it comes to helping their children learn to swim and become water competent.

In 2021, Swim England published its Decade of Decline report, external warning almost 2,000 swimming pools could be lost forever by 2030.

Accessibility is one of the factors Ashley Jones from the RLSS says limits children's swimming education.

"We've got some incredible public leisure facilities, just not enough of them," he said.

"That means people have got to travel further.

"Then you are dependent on public transport, which can be costly, and access to a swimming pool in terms of cost and time is still really challenging."

The RLSS works to help people stay safe in, on, and around water. A key element of its work is using education to help people become water competent.

Jones explained: "You can be a really competent pool swimmer, but we wouldn't dare put you in 6ft of surf or throw you in a raging river.

"Building competence, you've got to have knowledge, you've got to have skills, you've got to have experience, crucially, and you've got to have training."

In order to help children build water competency, Jones believes swimming lessons need to be universal, engaging and accessible.

The RLSS would like to see "a fully funded, fully supported, high-level learn to swim programme" that is supported by water safety education and then applied in an outdoor environment.

Hampshire-based swimming teacher Bethany Harris said it was "really tough" to teach a life skill in that time to children who have not had much access to swimming.

She believes school swimming lessons should start earlier in life to ensure nobody is left behind.

"Ultimately, in three hours you can't take someone from being a nervous swimmer to confidently being able to swim 25m with a stroke that is calm and is going to keep them safe," she said.

"I don't think many of us would come out of that with something that was going to save our lives potentially.

"I think it needs to come in basically as we're teaching them to read and write in the infant school."

Harris lives "on the doorstep" of Hawley Lake, where a 14-year-old died after being reported missing while swimming.

"Even being inland away from the coast you've got dangerous water all about," she said.

The bottom fifth of local authorities for the average proportion of children able to swim 25m were all urban areas.

Only four out of 31 of those council areas were coastal, with the remaining areas being landlocked.

Overall, fewer children in urban areas could swim the distance proficiently than in rural areas.

Harris would also like to see pools offer more initiatives to ensure they are accessible to all families.

She said: "Ten years ago, there used to be a summer scheme where you could swim for £1 all summer long through some leisure centres.

"I haven't heard of anything like that happening locally these days."

A spokesperson for the DfE said a new PE Partnership Network would help close the gap seen by disadvantaged children.

It will bring together schools, local clubs and national bodies like Swim England.

"This means targeted support for the areas and pupils who need it most, so that every child, wherever they live, gets the same chance to learn to swim," the spokesperson said.

Swim England is working closely with the government to support the delivery of school swimming lessons.

"Swimming is a life skill, not just a sport, and every child should have the opportunity to leave primary school able to swim and be safe in, on and around water," a spokesperson said.

"However, schools have faced significant pressures in recent years, particularly those serving disadvantaged communities, including competing curriculum demands, increasing transport costs and access to suitable swimming pools.

"These challenges are real, so it is more important than ever that there is a collective approach to helping children gain a skill that could one day save their life."

Additional reporting by Jonathan Fagg and Emily Unia