YEARS 3 & 4 Swimming

Swim England Framework

As a school we are delighted to announce that we have joined in partnership with Swim England, the national governing body for swimming, to help our pupils become confident and capable swimmers.

The school has signed up to ‘take school swimming seriously’ by implementing the Swim England School Swimming and Water Safety Charter. The Charter will provide us with a comprehensive package of support to ensure the school has the necessary knowledge and resources required to deliver exceptional school swimming programmes.

With the Charter in place, we plan to deliver high quality swimming lessons that enable pupils to not only meet but exceed the national curriculum minimum standards and provide them with awards at each stage that they progress.

Below you will find information about the awards.

Awards & Certificates

Swim England provide children the opportunity to achieve eight awards in their time at Wollescote, ranging from Awards 1-6 and then two awards for water safety (Self Rescue & Aquatic Skills) which is a really exciting change from the last few years.

When pupils achieve each award we will reward them with a certificate with their name on and how they have achieved each award on the back of the certificate.

A look at the certificate are shown below:

Award 1                                   Award 2                                   Award 3

Award 4                                  Award 5                                   Award 6

Self Rescue                                 Aquatic Skills

Aquatic Skills & Self Rescue

Water safety is something that is really high on the minds of all swimming teachers, whether that be at Wollescote or elsewhere. Swim England have now introduced Aquatic Skills and Self Rescue to lessons so young children learn about the dangers of water and how we can learn to be safe around the water.

Water can be fun and enjoyable when care is taken, swimming is the only sport that saves lives, but having the swimming and water safety awareness to save yourself or others doesn’t come instinctively, it has to be taught. 

The mnemonic SAFE was used previously but this has now been replaced with updated messages, developed after extensive research with all age groups, from primary through to teens.
Our four key water safety messages specifically  for swimming are:

• Always swim in safe place.

• Always swim with an adult.

• If you fall in, float, breathe, relax.

• If someone else is in trouble call 999/112

This year more focus is taken on water safety and the children will learn different methods of life saving and self rescue to enable them to be safe in or around water. The children will receive awards/certificates (as seen above) once they are capable of showing these skills in lessons.

Swimming Timetable