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CLARE JOHNSTON: Why I’m backing Dundee pool campaigners in the fight for school swimming lessons

swimming lessons schools
Swimming lessons are an equaliser, writes Clare Johnston.

Those of us of a certain age might have mixed memories of swimming lessons at school.

Chief for me is the struggle to apply those dreaded rubber socks and swimming caps.

This usually involved a blizzard of talcum powder.

Often I would wander out to the poolside with tangled, whitened hair sticking out from all sides of the cap, which sat uncomfortably scrunched on my head.

And on those days when we were required to plunge into cold water fully clothed as part of a safety lesson, I could not have imagined that several decades later I’d be arguing that every child should have the same experience.

But here I am.

Learning to swim was something I took for granted.

It meant that in the older teen years that followed when I was at the beach or down by a river with friends, I could splash around and swim with relative confidence.

I understood the water and my limitations in it.

My sons also had swimming lessons in school – although unlike me they didn’t have to don an uncomfortable rubber cap and verruca socks to take part.

Swimming is just a natural life-skill for them.

One I’ll bet they couldn’t imagine being without.

The dreaded latex cap of my youth wasn’t enough to deter me from learning a lifelong skill.

We live in an island nation.

Swimming is a safety issue for our children.

But it’s also an equaliser.

And for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, not being able to swim is just another in a list of things setting you apart from those who have.

Petition calls for new school campus to include a pool

That’s why former swimming instructor Stephen Massey has launched a petition calling for a swimming pool to be included in plans for the £60million merged Braeview Academy and Craigie High School facility.

Both schools currently have a pool. But, bizarrely, the proposed new East End Community Campus, built to hold more than 1800 pupils, does not.

Swimming should be right up there as a way of ensuring all children have the same learning chances

It will however include a floodlit 3G football and rugby pitch, as well as a basketball and netball court and a grass track and field area.

Each one of those sporting facilities sounds like a fantastic addition that will give kids the opportunity to try out and get involved in a range of physical activities.

But swimming is more than just a sport. It’s a life saver.

Swimming lessons compulsory in English school curriculum

Swimming and water safety has been a statutory element of the national curriculum for PE in England since 1994.

But in Scotland the provision of swimming lessons varies on a council-to-council basis.

Research in 2017 revealed an estimated 40% of children were leaving primary school without being able to swim.

Architect’s drawing of the planned new East End Community Campus.

When our schools team looked into the provision of swimming lessons in Tayside and Fife last year they found some councils offered up to 15 weeks of lessons to primary school pupils.

Others only provided lessons to young people who couldn’t already swim.

Dundee City Council offered a six-week swimming programme, consisting of three weeks of universal provision followed by three weeks of targeted provision. This was usually delivered during the summer term at the primary 5 or 6 stage.

School swimming lessons are just the start

We all know it takes practice to turn into a confident swimmer.

And the provision of a block of lessons is no substitute for having regular and free access to a pool.

With the exception of Morgan Academy, all of Dundee’s secondary schools have on-site swimming facilities.

For as an ambitious a project as the East End Community Campus, and for one of such a large scale serving so many,the absence of a pool is mystifying.

Such an addition would not only produce safe swimmers, but also potentially the Olympians of tomorrow.

Equal access to lessons and training facilities could be an ideal social leveller when you have so many pupils on the one site.

Pool campaigners deserve to be heard

It’s always a question of priorities when it comes to decisions on how budgets are spent. But swimming should be right up there as a way of ensuring all children have the same learning chances.

Access to pools and swimming lessons is not something we can allow to drain away over time.

And the campaigners calling for a pool to be installed in the new school campus deserve to have their voices heard.

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