Swimming at St Mark’s C.E. Primary:

At St Mark’s C.E. Primary, we are committed to offering high-quality swimming lessons to ensure that our children develop this vital life skill. We are proud to be able to offer swimming to our pupils due to being fortunate enough to have our own school swimming pool. Our children become proficient swimmers due to the carefully planned and sequenced lessons which build on children’s skills. In Key Stage Two, children are given the opportunity to compete in gala competitions.

In EYFS, there is always one adult poolside and two adults in the water, a ratio of 1:5 at all times (only 15 children swim at a time).  The ASA guidelines for beginners, non-swimmers and young children when swimming in school are a ratio of 1:12 for health and safety and 1:8 for quality of delivery, therefore our ratios at 1:5 are significantly better than this.

Parents do not need to come and help with changing but please encourage your child to be as independent as possible.  The children have back floats and woggles; they can have arm rings too - these are provided by the school.  If you would like your child to wear goggles, please equip them with a named pair. It is optional for the children to put their head in the water. The pool is 95cm at the shallow end and 1.4m at the deep end.  The children need to wear a swimming hat; these can be purchased from the school office at £3.50.

In their first lesson, the children will learn about how to stay safe in the swimming pool environment including the pool rules and the emergency evacuation procedure. They will be taught how to enter the pool safely and play a few games with flotation aids on.