Press Release

Untrained school swimming teachers are ‘loaded gun’ warns leading industry body

12th January 2007

An explosive feature in today’s Times Educational Supplement (TES) will shock parents across the length and breadth of the UK by highlighting the fact that many PE Teachers are being asked to take swimming lessons when they are not qualified, and may not even be able to swim themselves.

One teacher interviewed by TES for the article, referenced only as ‘Helen’, admitted that she’d been given a handout on swimming during her PGCE course and is now expected to teach swimming when she can barely swim herself. One teacher also said “It’s one thing to be asked to teach French if you don’t speak it yourself – you can always do some research. But with swimming, there is always that element of risk and danger.”

TES also spoke to Stephen Hargreaves who is a primary teacher and has been a qualified swimming teacher for over 15 years. He interviewed eight teachers for a small-scale research project in Leeds last year and found that none had a lifesaving qualification, three were not qualified to teach, none taught water safety, and two could not even swim themselves.

The Swimming Teachers’ Association (STA) contributed to the article, and has previously expressed grave concerns about the lack of experience of many teachers who take swimming lessons. “For someone to take a swimming class when they are not qualified, may not be a trained lifesaver, and in some instances are not even a strong swimmer themselves, is like playing with a loaded gun” STA Operations Director Steve Franks stated.

Drowning is a serious issue, indeed RoSPA states that drowning is the third most common cause of accidental death in under 16’s, and yet the number of children who leave school without mastering even the basics of water safety is rising. A recent survey shows that more than a third of children left primary school last year without the basic swimming skills which could save their lives, and at the recent National Water Safety Congress (organised by RoSPA) it was highlighted that 200,000 children in the UK currently leave Primary School each year without the basic skills needed to survive in the water.

The Government has made no secret of the importance it places on youngsters being able to swim, and has stated that it wants every primary school pupil to be able to swim 25 metres by the end of key stage 2; last June it announced a £5.5 million ‘top up’ scheme to achieve this, however this is likely to be used to meet transport costs and the hiring of facilities, for example, rather than on improving teaching standards or qualifications. Ministers say teachers are trained to teach the full requirements of the national curriculum, including teaching swimming, but according to Steve Franks this just is not the case, as the TES article demonstrates.

Guidelines drawn up by the British Association of Advisers and Lecturers in Physical Education are regarded as ‘the bible’  and are endorsed by the Government. These guidelines recommend that swimming teachers and staff responsible for classes hold teaching and life-saving qualifications like the Pool Safety Award offered by STA, which is specifically designed for PE teachers and support staff.

“Parents across the UK need to be asking why their children are being short-changed and why PE Teachers are being put under pressure to take classes that they are not prepared for and not qualified for” said Steve Franks. “In a culture with growing childhood obesity and 50 children dying needlessly each year from drowning related incidents, we need to push swimming to the top of the agenda and ensure that this, and future generations, are taught swimming for fun, exercise and recreation, but also as a potentially life saving skill.”

For further information about STA, please call 01922 645097,
email sta@sta.co.uk, or visit www.sta.co.uk.