Swimming

Year 4, 5 and 6 take part in swimming lessons each year. This is part of the Physical Education curriculum.

Where do we swim?

The children swim at Halo Highworth Recreation Centre. This is only a short walk from our school. The children walk with our teachers, learning support assistants and volunteers to get to and from their swimming lessons.

The children complete an eight week swimming course each year. They participate in 45 minute lessons in which they learn different strokes and then practice these by completing lengths of the pool. To ensure the children's need are met, the class are split into three groups:

1. Non- Swimmers - this group is designed for those children who either have never swam before or have little experience. This group's aim is to build the children's confidence in the pool and help them to develop their core strokes.

2. Developing swimmers - this group is designed for those children who have had experience of swimming and know the core strokes. The aim of this group is to develop their skills and for them to use them over a longer distance of swimming.

3. Confident swimmers - this group is designed to develop existing skills and ensure that the children are technically accurate when applying them over longer distances.

Children's quotes

"I like it when we swim lengths of the pool because it makes our swimming strokes better." Henry, Year 4.

"I like the fun session at the end because we get to play games with our friends using balls and floats. We also get to go on the diving boards!" Edward, Year 5.

Galas

The local schools compete in annual swimmers galas. It is an excellent opportunity for the children to represent their school in a variety of swimming races. The races are organised according to swimming stroke and the age range. The gala is a team event which means in each race points can be earned and at the end they are collated for each school.

Swimming 2019

At the end of Key Stage 2 (2019) 51 out of 56 children (91%) were able to:

Swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 meters

At the end of Key Stage 2 (2019) 46 out of 56 children (82%) were able to

Use a range of strokes effectively
Perform safe self rescue in different water-based situations