Clare Kershaw (Director of Education) and Dawn Emberson (Relationship Manager), from Essex County Council, will be in attendance to enable members of the committee to discuss how all schools can meet their statutory duty and move towards 100 per-cent of the districts children learning to swim before they leave primary school education.
The motion was considered at the meeting of the Council held on 27 November 2018, where it was agreed:-
“That this Council takes the following steps in order to see that every child in the District of Tendring can be taught to swim, before they leave primary school education;
(a) The Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee invite the director for Education from Essex County Council to attend a future meeting of that Committee in order to discuss how all schools can meet their statutory duty and move towards 100 per-cent of the Districts children learning to swim before they leave primary school education; and
(b) That Officers continue to work with partners to develop a cohesive plan to further improve safety measures across the Districts coastline and report back with findings and any recommendations to Cabinet in February 2019, for implementation prior to the 2019 season.
Minutes:
Clare Kershaw (Director of Education, Essex County Council) and Dawn Emberson (Relationship Manager, Active Essex), attended the meeting to discuss with Members how all schools can meet their statutory duty and move towards 100 per-cent of the Districts children learning to swim before they leave primary school education.
Members recalled that at the meeting of the Council held on 27 November 2018, it was agreed “That this Council takes the following necessary steps in order to see that every child in the District of Tendring can be taught to swim, before they leave primary school education;
(a) The Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee invite the Director for Education from Essex County Council to attend a future meeting of that Committee in order to discuss how all schools can meet their statutory duty and move towards 100 per-cent of the Districts children learning to swim before they leave primary school education; and
(b) That officers continue to work with partners to develop a cohesive plan to further improve safety measures across the Districts coastline and report back with findings and any recommendations to Cabinet in February 2019, for implementation prior to the 2019 season.
(c)
Clare and Dawn set out for the Committee the statutory requirement under the National Curriculum for swimming which is as follows:-
All schools must provide swimming instruction either in key stage 1 or key stage 2.
In particular, pupils should be taught to:
· swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
· use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke]
· perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.
After discussion by the Committee, it was RESOLVED that;
Essex County Council / Active Essex will lead on the following actions:-
(a) To undertake a review to determine how many pupils do not reach the required level of proficiency by the end of year 6. A piece of work will then be undertaken to work with schools to target those children that are not reaching the required proficiency;
(b) to investigate how it was decided that the swim safe programme is centred on Clacton, Walton and Dovercourt and whether there would be any funding available to extend the programme more widely across Tendring;
(c) to look at whether the swimming pools available at local caravan parks could be used to provide swimming lessons to school children;
(d) to investigate whether local bus providers could assist with taking pupils from schools to pools as the cost of transport is cited as one of the biggest barriers for schools in providing swimming lessons;
(e) to review the affordability of providing swimming lessons for schools and the capacity to provide enough lessons. Although it was commented that the latter point is not thought to be an issue;
Tendring District Council will lead on the following actions:-
(f) To look into whether Tendring District Council’s beach patrol staff could provide swimming lessons in the sea for young people as swimming in the sea is different from swimming in a pool;
(g) to consider whether the ONE card or something similar could be re-introduced for use at local Leisure Centres;
(h) to look at extending the promotion of water safety advice around the coastline during the summer including liaising with partners such as Clacton Pier and voluntary and community groups such as the scouts.