Olympic silver medalist urges MPs to act as a quarter of children can't swim ... trends now
9 shares
6
View
comments
Olympian Sharron Davies has urged Ministers to take action after new figures revealed more than a quarter of children can’t swim 25 metres by the time they leave primary school.
Sport England said 72 per cent of those in their first year of secondary school can make it from one end of a standard recreational pool to the other. This compares to 78 per cent before lessons were stopped during the pandemic.
Four in ten primary schools do not offer swimming lessons at all – despite it being a National Curriculum requirement – and pools are struggling to stay open due to rising heating costs.
Davies, an Olympic silver medal winner in 1980, said: ‘We had a problem with this before Covid – and then Covid came along and closed all the pools. Lots of swimming teachers left the occupation, and now we’ve got the
