Swimming Curriculum

Swimming Curriculum

For Reception children there is always one adult poolside and two adults in the water, a ratio of 1:5 at all times (only 15 children swim at a time). The ASA guidelines for beginners, non-swimmers and young children when swimming in school are a ratio of 1:12 for health and safety and 1:8 for quality of delivery, therefore our ratios at 1:5 are significantly better than this.
Parents do not need to come and help with changing but please encourage your child to be able to do as much as possible themselves.
The children have back floats and woggles, they can have arm rings too if they wish them, these are all provided in school.
Reception children only ever swim at the shallow end until they are ready to go deeper, the deep end is roped off.
If you wish your child to wear goggles, please equip them with a named pair.
It is optional for the children to put their head in the water.
The pool is 95cm throughout.
The children need to wear a swimming hat, these can be purchased from the school office at £2.50.
In their first lesson the children will learn about how to stay safe in the swimming pool environment including the pool rules and the emergency evacuation procedure. They will be taught how to enter the pool safely and play a few games with flotation aids on.

We are very proud to be offering swimming to our pupils each year; many parents choose St. Mark’s because of this facility. Our children become very good swimmers and in the top years of the school they win many trophies and medals for their achievements, which we are very proud of.

St Mark's C.E. Primary School