PARENTS thought headteacher Greg Edwards was joking when he told them he intended to hire a heated, outdoor pool so that pupils could be taught to swim in school – rather than at a public swimming baths.
But when those parents returned to school with their children after their Easter break, there it was.
I don’t think they could quite believe it,
Within hours, the 32ft by 16ft pool was in use – and children, some of whom had never been in a pool before, were learning to swim and gaining confidence in the water.
“I am a huge believer in children learning essential life skills,” said Greg. “And swimming is a big one.”
Children are expected to be able to swim at least 25 metres when they leave primary school.
But in poorer areas, many pupils cannot.
Over the past two years, school swimming lessons have been widely disrupted by COVID-19.
Swim England said more than five million swimming sessions had effectively been lost because pools were closed.
Greg said the pandemic hadn’t helped, but there had always been difficulties.
“We have been battling with a swimming system that doesn’t really work for many years,” he said. “Getting time in our local pools was always the first challenge. We tried a few different models to try and make best use of the time, but none really made much of a difference.”
He said the number of swimmers did improve when children could swim for free in the school holidays, but free sessions stopped.
“For many in our community the cost of taking the family swimming is just too much and not a priority,” he said. “Essentially, for over 90% of our children, the only time they get to swim is with the school.”
But Greg said he viewed learning to swim as a priority, not least because Priory Parish Primary School is in Birkenhead on The Wirral peninsula.
Water safety here is really, really important,
To ensure every child benefited from the outdoor pool and the two swimming coaches, the school’s ‘amazing’ PE lead drew up a military-style timetable.
“It meant that children across the school had more time in the pool in three weeks than they would have had in four years,” he said.
The pool was funded through INEOS’ Forgotten Forty initiative.
Brian Padgett, who is a member of the Forgotten Forty team, had called at the school during a swimming lesson.
“This is just the sort of innovative approach to problem solving we had hoped to encourage,” he said. “The kids were having a great time.”