Swimming and Water Safety in Schools
National Campaigns
Each year a number of national campaigns are held to help make the most of term time swimming and water safety lessons.
These events and projects are free to sign up to or get involved with. They come with a host of resources to support delivery.
Big School Swim
A week-long event in the autumn term November which is a great opportunity for school pupils to celebrate the fun – and importance – of learning how to swim and learning about water safety.
It helps reinforce why it’s so important that swimming takes place in PE lessons – and that it is a requirement of the curriculum (not an optional subject).
Aquasplash and School Games
The School Games is a government led, inclusive programme designed to get more young people involved in competitive sport at school and achieve their personal goals. It is funded by Sport England and run by Youth Sport Trust.
We support the School Games through Aquasplash – a water-based festival that you can run at any time during your school swimming programme. Aquasplash encourages pupils of all abilities to get involved and enjoy the water, as well as engage in healthy competition.
School Swimathon
School Swimathon is a swimming programme designed specifically for school children. It encourages them to improve technique and confidence, culminating in a challenge to swim further than ever before.
The aim is for participating schools to use their national curriculum weekly swim lessons throughout the Spring Term to improve pupils’ swimming ability.
This builds up to a final session where pupils challenge themselves to swim further than ever before. They should show an improvement of their initial swim at the start of their school swimming year.
Swim Safe
Delivered by Swim England and the RNLI, Swim Safe provides free outdoor swimming and water safety sessions for seven to 14 year-olds.
The sessions teach children how to swim safely outdoors, the difference between swimming inside and out, and what to do if they get into trouble.
Drowning Prevention Week
The Drowning Prevention Week campaign is led each year by the RLSS (Royal Life Saving Society) and run in partnership with Swim England and the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution).
The aim is to reduce the number of drowning and near drowning incidences that occur in the UK. Schools and lesson providers are encouraged to promote water safety education through lessons, games, events and activities throughout the week.
Inclusion 2024
Inclusion 2024 is an exciting initiative, inspired by the 2020 Paralympic Games and funded by Department for Education (DfE).
Its aim is to increase and improve opportunities for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to participate in school sport.
National School Sport Week
YST National School Sport Week is a week-long celebration of the power of PE and school sport to improve young people’s wellbeing.
The theme for 2019 was Five Ways to Wellbeing: being active, connecting, giving back, taking notice and learning.
YST National School Sport Week (NSSW) is intended to inspire schools and supporters to use Physical Education and school sport much more intentionally to promote wellbeing and support the personal development of young people.