Swimming

Swimming is an important life skill that not only helps to keep children safe but also encourages a healthy and active lifestyle.

We are excited to introduce our new swimming programme, designed to give children essential skills and confidence in the water. In line with the national curriculum requirements, pupils should leave primary school able to swim at least 25 metres confidently, use a range of strokes effectively, and demonstrate safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.

To support this, Year 4 pupils will take part in around six swimming sessions, where they will be initially assessed before receiving high-quality teaching to develop and refine their strokes, alongside learning vital water safety skills.

Later, in Year 6, pupils will revisit swimming with 3–4 refresher sessions, giving them the opportunity to recap and strengthen their abilities. This approach ensures that as many children as possible leave primary school meeting the national standard, equipped with both strong swimming skills and essential knowledge to stay safe in and around water, while also being prepared for secondary school and beyond.

Year 6

When assessing children’s swimming abilities, we look at the following:

• Swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25metres
• Use a range of strokes effectively (for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke)
• Perform safe self- rescue in different water-based situations

2024-2025 - 75%

2023-2024 - 71%

2022-2023 - 76%

2021-2022 - 71.6%

2020-2021 - 74%

2019-2020 - 73%