The School Swimming Improvement Programme is an intervention designed to enable every child to achieve the Key Stage 2 standard in swimming. Each pupil needs to develop a range of skills during The School Swimming Improvement Programme and not just be limited to the measure of achieving 25 metres. General water confidence and skills will also hold them in good stead for the future. It exists to assist pupils who need extra support in addition to their school swimming provision, which can be in the form of booster swimming lessons.

Aim: To provide opportunities for primary school pupils to reach Key Stage 2 swimming requirements

Objectives:

• Provide intensive swimming instruction during the Easter Holiday period
• Identify pupils that need extra support in order to reach KS2 swimming requirements
• Support the education and training of KS2 pupils through intensive swimming sessions and providing schools with additional experienced and qualified swimming instructors

Colchester Blackwater SSP are delivering the programme through two methods

1. To build on a school’s existing swimming provision by providing an additional teacher to work with the swimmers that cannot swim 25m unaided. This method requires the schools to already have a school swimming programme in place
2. To provide intensive swimming sessions at two locations in Colchester over the Easter Holiday. We expect over 100 KS2 pupils to benefit from these free sessions. Schools have identified pupils who they think would benefit from the extra sessions and parents/carers should have received a letter detailing times and dates of the forthcoming sessions as well as an application form that needs to be returned in order to successfully book a child on the course. The letter can also be downloaded from this site. There are still places available but demand is high and the sooner entries are submitted the better!

Update - April 2009

The Easter Holiday Swim Programme was very successful, with over 100 children aged 8-11 benefitting from 8 free intensive swim sessions to help increase their water confidence and improve their swimming ability. The venues were the pool at Sir Charles Lucas School and within the new Colchester P-RTC centre at the Garrison.

Due to the dedication and expertise of the swimming teachers, and the intensive nature of the lessons, we are pleased to announce a success rate of over 90% able to swim 25m unaided by the end of the course. We expect the programme to run again during the Easter holidays 2010, as long as the funding is still available.

An alternative delivery method we have used in the School Swimming Improvement Programme is supplying schools with an additional swim teacher during their existing swim lessons. Brinkley Grove Primary school and St John’s Green have both benefitted from having an extra teacher and results show a remarkable improvement in the numbers of KS2 pupils able to swim 25m.