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Charity formed to tackle child 'swimming crisis'

Lucinda AdamSussex political reporter
News imageBBC/Lucinda Adam A boy and two girls aged 8 look up from the side of a swimming pool. They are submerged to their shoulders and all three have goggles on their heads.BBC/Lucinda Adam
Maisey, Oliver and Harper are enjoying discounted swimming lessons this summer run by the community interest company Aquatic 2012

A group of teachers say a "crisis" in children's swimming proficiency prompted them to form a charity to try to close the gap.

In Worthing, six swimming teachers formed the community interest company (CIC) Aquatic 2012 to offer discounted swimming lessons to all children and free lessons to those unable to swim adequately to top up what's offered by schools.

Windlesham House School, a private school in Pulborough offers its swimming pool and minibuses to the CIC free of charge and other local businesses are sponsors.

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.

News imageBBC/Lucinda Adam Russell has short black hair and a black bears. He stands smiling a swimming pool wearing a swimming teacher uniform and lanyard. BBC/Lucinda Adam
Russell Clough is one of the founders of Aquatic 2012 CIC, a charity offering free and discounted swimming lessons to children

Russell Clough, owner of Russell's Swim School and one of the founders of Aquatic 2012 said the CIC aims to spread awareness and increase participation in swimming.

He said: "Since the pandemic, we're seeing an increasing amount of children not being able to swim and do the fundamentals.

"We've done school swimming lessons where a child has told us it's their first time in a swimming pool.

"Living right on the coast, it is a crisis.

"It's a basic life skill children need. It's hard to start learning later, it's much better to start early."

The 'pupil premium gap'

Clough and his co-founders said transport can be one of the biggest barriers because not many schools have their own pool.

He added: "We've got a group of six local primary schools that come annually here and get a week's worth of free swimming lessons. It really addresses the gap of pupil premium children having lower swimming skills.

"But we tried to expand it to another primary school in Worthing and the cost of the coach alone was going to be £1,600 for the week."

Windlesham House School stepped in to offer their minibuses free of charge to transport pupils to and from their pool.

News imageBBC/Lucinda Adam Three girls aged 7 and 8 look up from the side of a swimming pool. They are submerged to their shoulders and all three have goggles on their heads.BBC/Lucinda Adam
Felicity, Nola and Clemmie's 30-minute community swimming lesson costs £8 per child

Mallory, mum to eight-year-old Nola, said swimming was really important to them as a family.

She said: "It's just a choice that you have to make I guess. It's tough with the cost of living but it was something we felt was important."

Jo, said giving all of her three children, including eight-year-old Clemmie, the ability to swim was important to her.

She said: "We just wanted that water safety from the outset because bodies of water are dangerous aren't they?"

The Department for Education said its new PE Partnership network would provide £580m of targeted support over the next three years to boost swimming lessons from Spring 2027.

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