A coroner is concerned that primary schools are not fulfilling their statutory duty to offer swimming lessons following the drowning of a teenage boy.
Alex Crook, 15, died while paddling with friends at a lake known as Scotsman’s Flash, in Wigan, during warm weather last September. He was paddling at the edge and reportedly slipped into deeper water – but was unable to swim.
Following an inquest last month, coroner John Pollard has issued a prevention of future deaths report to Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council.
“[Alex] did not have statutory swimming lessons at key stage 1 or 2 and I am informed that three schools in the Wigan area are still in breach of their statutory duty to deliver such lessons,” said Pollard in his report.
Primaries have swimming lesson duty
The national curriculum says all primary schools “must provide swimming instruction either in key stage 1 or key stage 2”.
Pupils must be taught to swim “competently, confidently and proficiently” over a distance of at least 25 metres. They should be able to “use a range of strokes effectively” and to “perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations”.
But a Teacher Tapp survey of more than 3,000 primary school teachers last August found 22 per cent said that swimming was not offered by their school.
Figures from Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey show that, in 2023, 71 per cent of year 7s were able to swim 25m unaided. This was down from 77 per cent five years earlier.
The number of child drowning deaths in England has doubled in four years to 41 in 2023, Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) figures show.
Schools ‘allowed to slip through net’
“With [swimming] being in the national curriculum, it should be 100 per cent of kids,” Alex’s father Neil Crook, who now campaigns for better water safety, told Schools Week. “It’s something they need to be acting on straight away.
“The schools all over the country that aren’t [providing swimming lessons], they are allowed to slip through the net. It’s not being looked at properly and they are just letting it pass.”
Crook said schools should make swimming lessons a priority, while the government should be doing more to ensure schools are fulfilling their statutory duty.
The Sport England study found teachers at 36 per cent of state primaries said their schools offered fewer than 10 lessons per pupil. Five years earlier, that figure was around 28 per cent.
Philip Brownlie at Swim England, the national governing body for swimming, said budgetary constraints were “undoubtedly a factor” in the falling rate of swimming proficiency. The cost of swimming pool entry and transport has also increased.
But he added: “It’s absolutely no exaggeration, sadly, to say this can be a matter of life and death.”
Budget impacts and closing pools
Brownlie continued: “Drowning is one of the most common causes of accidental death in England still and, for many children, particularly from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, school could be the only opportunity they have to learn that. The stakes are huge.”
Swim England’s 2023 report highlighted “persistent inequalities” in swimming proficiency. Just over half of black and Asian pupils could swim 25m unaided by the time they left primary school.
Meanwhile, many local pools are closing. Swim England’s report revealed that more than a thousand public pools, including 450 council-owned pools, have shut since 2010.
Brownlie said a “fundamental problem” was also the “real lack of data and accountability” on which schools are fulfilling their statutory duty. “Who’s monitoring if a school isn’t doing it? What is the comeuppance?”
This is “not about finger-pointing” but “saying this is a really big issue… and seeing what support can be provided [to boost swimming] where needed.”
Some progress does appear to have been made on accountability. From this academic year, primary schools are required to publish attainment levels for curriculum requirements to the DfE.
Brownlie stressed that the government must take action, once figures paint a clearer picture of swimming attainment.
Swim England believes Ofsted should be “checking on school swimming and water safety much more frequently than [they are] currently” to ensure that schools are fulfilling their requirements.
Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council said that, since the coroner issued his report, a letter has “been sent to all schools to remind them of their duties in relation to providing swimming lessons”. The authority “will be following this up with individual schools where required”.
Ofsted and the DfE have been approached for comment.
“We will never get over losing Alex and we don’t want another family to have to go through this pain,” Crook said.
It truly sad that s young man has lost his life but the parent pointing the finger at schools isn’t really on. Yes swimming is on the national curriculum and most children get a weekly half an hour lesson for twelve months. However, as parent it is also your responsibility to keep your own children safe. We taught our children to swim, paid for lessons and ensured they practiced. My parents taught me to swim and made sure I had time to practice and warned me about the dangers of open water.
It is impossible to ensure that every child in a primary school will learn to swim to the required standard, just as not all children will leave high school with the same amount of GCSE’s at the same grade.
My school had it’s own small pool, suitable for KS1. We couldn’t afford the repairs and upkeep. It’s been sold. We can’t afford Teaching Assistants, the only support staff is one nursery nurse and LSAs who support pupils with SEND. I used to love teaching swimming, and am concerned about the impact on children. Unless the Government and Third sectors start to find schools properly, swimming will continue to be a low priority on the curriculum.