Swim Confidence Club
Swimming and water safety are statutory elements of the national curriculum where, ‘all 11-year olds should leave primary school with skills to keep safe while enjoying swimming with friends and family’.
Our 9 partner primary schools in the Outer West Learning Trust have struggled to meet this need due to the closure of the local ‘West End’ Pool. Where they have been able to arrange swimming, they have noticed a group of students in every school miss the minimum statutory standards and have no opportunity to supplement school lessons with family visits to the pool.
RGS Swimming Confidence Club is a Partnerships project designed to offer weekly swimming for KS2 students alongside RGS Junior School children who struggle with swimming confidence.
Each school travels to RGS for a 5-week block of lessons. Schools may combine for visits to maximise efficiency. Sessions will be delivered by RGS Swimming Coaches with trainee volunteers from NEP SCITT (Northumbria University accredited). We aim to increase confidence in both swimmers and coaches; providing role models and building friendships across the OWL trust and RGS.
There is a Swimming Gala to end this annual programme: a fun, non-competitive occasion, where progress is celebrated.
Aims
The aims are five-fold:
1. To improve Swimming Levels in participants [this will be assessed via swimming lesson pre- and post-intervention];
2. To increase confidence in Swimming [this is more qualitative and will be assessed via verbal and written feedback from schools];
3. To improve local P.E. trainees' confidence and skill in coaching P.E. sessions. [In 2021-22 we asked for volunteers from the local NEP SCITT and all trainees signed up, we have the same buy-in in 2022-23, with excellent feedback from the course leaders];
4. To create friendships between children from RGS and partner schools [we will invite RGS JS children to the sessions and to the swimming gala in mixed groups];
5. To provide positive role models [NEP SCITT trainees to provide the lead on this, and were superb in the pilot programme in 2021-22, this is an explicit expectation of the trainees from the start of the programme].
Background
This project was the brainchild of the Director of Sport, in partnership with the head of the NEP SCITT. They saw an opportunity to fill a gap in the training of the trainees in the SCITT as well as raising swimming confidence in the participants.
With the closure of the West End swimming pool, it made sense to invite the schools from the Outer West Trust, with whom we work on a range of projects [the Director of Partnerships sits on their Board].
We trailed the project in 2021-22, with 30 Trainee volunteers and 4 schools benefitting from 5 weeks each: a 20 week pilot. We funded the pilot in 2021-22 from RGS funds to gain proof of concept, and expanded to 30 weeks and 6 schools in 2022-23, with help from funding from the HMCK charity.
Resources
The HMCK charity provided generous funding for this project in 2022-23. These funds cover the travel for schools and a range of equipment, such as goggles and flippers.
RGS Swimming Staff are involved in delivering the sessions.
RGS Swimming Pool and Changing Rooms are used for the event weekly.
Impact
We collect both qualitative and quantitative data from the blocks of sessions from each school.
Each child is assessed against a swimming level rubric at the first session. We then re-assess each child at the end of the final session. The progress has been superb and we share the data with partner schools in order to give awards in assemblies.
We collect testimonials and feedback from schools, and from the SCITT leades, which has been uniformly positive to date.
Pupil Involvement
RGS Junior School students join the sessions. They are selected for these extra 'Swim Confidence' sessions on a similar basis to the children from partner schools. That is, those students who have struggled to meet the expected standards in swimming for various reasons, and need additional, intensive support.
All children are Primary age; we allow schools to select students from any year group in their school, but the vast majority are Year 5 or 6.
Frequency
The activities occur in 5-week blocks - schools attend weekly during term time.
The scheme has been running since January 2022, and we expect it to continue into school year 2023-24.
We are planning a Swimming Gala event in July 2023, which will be open to partner schools and those RGS students who have benefited from the scheme during the school year.
