School Staff accompanying Pupils to their School Swimming and Water Safety Lesson

For all school swimming and water safety lessons, at least 2 members of school-appointed staff, who know the pupils, should accompany the class to the swimming pool (this applies to both school pools and leisure provider pools). At least one of these should be the class teacher. Primary School Teachers should accompany their own class to swimming, whenever possible, as they know their pupils in a unique way. There should always be someone on the poolside who knows the specific medical or additional needs of the pupils. 

This is in accordance with both Swim England recommendations and the Association for Physical Education (AfPE) who state: ‘Where specialist swimming teachers are employed to lead the lesson, it is strongly recommended that school staff remain on poolside to provide an assisting role.’

 All school staff accompanying pupils to swimming lessons should:

• understand what their qualification enables them to do,
• ensure that their qualifications are kept up to date and are refreshed when required,
• make it clear what standard of swimmer they are confident to teach,
• understand the limits of the role,
• be confident at the poolside,
• demonstrate good knowledge and be able to communicate this clearly to the pupils,
• follow their school Behaviour Policy, ensuring good discipline of the pupils,
• regularly carry out headcounts during, as well as at the beginning and end of sessions,
• know, understand and be able to apply the pool's normal operating procedures (NOPs) and emergency action plan (EAP),
• be suitably dressed for the role they are to play in the lesson,
• adapt their approach to suit the needs of different pupils,
• ensure they maintain a good teaching position at all times - this often means having to move frequently to overcome anything that makes visibility difficult (e.g. glare, shadow, sunlight),
• not enter the water without leaving a lifeguard/lifesaver and a qualified member of school staff on the poolside,
• not exceed the recommended teacher: pupil ratio arrived at through a risk assessment of each group,
• maintain good relationships with the pool operators and aquatics teachers, ensuring that communication is effective in ways that benefit the pupils, and their roles and responsibilities regarding water safety cover remain clear and understood.

(Based on Safe Practice: in Physical Education, School Sport, and Physical Activity 2016 Edition)

 Accompanying school staff needs to work in partnership with specialist swimming teachers.  The Partnership Agreement (Appendix Z1) helps them to do this.

Important Information

To clarify, in addition to trained specialist swimming teachers, there should be two members of school staff on the poolside who are suitably qualified, confident, and competent. Staff must hold, as a minimum, the Swim England Support Teacher of School Swimming Certificate. Please refer to the section on Teaching Qualifications, along with the overview of the Swim England National Curriculum Training Programme for teaching School Swimming.

For schools with their own pools, it is highly recommended that staff also undertake the Swim England Teacher of School Swimming, which completes the Swim England National Curriculum Training Programme. The names and dates of staff trained should be kept in the School Swimming Folder (BSSP holds the County Database for all trained staff). Where individuals hold qualifications gained from other providers, they must submit copies of certificates to the BSSP Swimming Team.