A revolutionary temporary swimming pool has been installed into the sports hall at King Edward VI School in Birmingham to ensure that children achieve government learn to swim targets.

Total Swimming, the company led by Olympic bronze medallist, Steve Parry, came up with the ‘Pools in Schools’ concept out of a passion to ensure that every child has the opportunity to learn to swim. The major initiative is supported by the Department for Children Schools and Families (DSCF) and the asa and is being delivered off the back of incredible success by Britain’s swimmers in Beijing.

The 12m pool has been installed into the sports hall, and is being used by fifteen different schools in the area. In total 4000 children across the country will learn to swim by the end of the project.

Steve Parry said: “The focus of the programme is to support young people in achieving the National Curriculum target of swimming 25m and to gain an understanding of water safety. Birmingham is a key target area and this project, partly based on the high minority population in the area. It will ensure that children are given an opportunity that they might not have had.”

The project is running from 8 September until 17 October 2008 at the Trinity Street site of the King Edward VI School. In addition there is a Community Programme catering for members of the public who wish to learn or improve their skills.

Alex Smith is the Partnership Development Manager on site, she said: “It’s going amazingly well. Our curriculum timetable is completely full. We teach groups of 30 children in one go and we’re doing things a little differently by giving 45 minute lessons rather than the standard 30 minutes. We have three well qualified swimming coaches in the water with them and the teachers are already noticing the big improvements being made.”

“The children are so excited to have a pool in a school sports hall. It’s branded up with pictures of Olympic heroes and they are really excited. Many of the boys were reluctant to put on swimming caps but when we told them that swimmers wear caps at the Olympic Games they put them on straight away.”

Birmingham has traditionally under performed in school swimming, and this project is designed to address that. Total Swimming is set to deliver the programme around the country, with Birmingham being the first stop of the 2008-2009 school year.

MEDIA ARE INVITED TO ATTEND AN OPEN DAY ON 30th SEPTEMBER, PLEASE REQUEST MORE DETAILS via helen.gorman@perfectmotion.org.

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Editors notes:Following on from Birmingham, the pool will go to Sheffield, Aylesbury and Manchester.

The pool is small enough to fit into a school hall and a whole school can be taught at once rather than just one class at a time attending lessons.

Many schools are struggling to find facilities to meet the National Curriculum target of all children being able to swim 25 metres by the age of 12. The Pools in Schools project aims to offer intensive swimming lessons, not only to the host school but also to others in the area.

Total Swimming was established by Olympic Bronze medallist, Steve Parry, to ensure that all children have the opportunity to learn to swim and enjoy good quality lessons.

For more information:

Contact Helen Gorman of Perfect Motion Sports Marketing on 07739 456644 / Helen.gorman@perfectmotion or Pauline Pick of Total Swimming on 0844 800 4323 / Pauline@totalswimming.co.uk.

The Government has announced how it will allocate the £60m to improve swimming facilities as part of its Free Swimming programme – and the asa will play a key part.

The Free Swimming Capital Modernisation Development Programme (SCMP) has been set up to distribute the capital element of the free swimming programme, where money will be used specifically for improvements to publicly accessible swimming pools in local authority or maintained school ownership.

The SCMP is a collaboration of key partners including the asa, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), Sport England and the Local Government Association.

Sport England will be providing strategic co-ordination for this programme on behalf of all the partners and will undertake the assessment, payment, compliance and monitoring function for programme. But the asa will also play a key role and will help Sport England to provide development support and will jointly sign off the designs for swimming facilities.

David Sparkes, the Chief Executive of the asa, said: “We very much welcome the fact we will be working so closely with Sport England to make sure this funding will go to create the best possible facilities. It represents the intentions of the government to provide the opportunity for people to enjoy swimming as part of an active and healthy lifestyle.

“Enhancing swimming facilities is one of the steps that will ultimately help lead to this increased participation in swimming because if people visit a pool and are greeted with good facilities it can only help them to have a good experience. Especially as swimming is unique as a sport that provides pleasure to all the community and is suitable to all age groups.

“This money is very welcome but we are aware it will only go someway to meeting the investment needed in the nation’s swimming pools to bring swimming facilities up to the standard expected by the public. We hope that by the end of 2011 the government will see that by investing in facilities they can encourage more people to come to the pool and this will push them into providing further funding to improve the stock of pools and make free swimming for all a reality.”

The £60m will be split into £10m in 2008/09 and £25m in each of the financial years 2009/10 and 2010/11, with half supplied by DCMS and half by DCSF. The £30m capital from DCSF is primarily aimed at pools on school sites. 

The SCMP has produced a prospectus, which provides detailed information on how the capital element of the programme can be accessed. For full details on the programme and prospectus CLICK HERE.

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For more information contact the asa PR Manager Sharon Rose on 01509 632262, 07876 652318 or email sharon.rose@swimming.org

The asa is the English National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Open Water, and Synchronised Swimming. It organises competition throughout England, establishes the Laws of the Sport and operates comprehensive certification and education programmes for Teachers, Coaches and Officials as well as its renowned Learn To Swim Awards scheme. The asa supports 1,220 affiliated swimming clubs through a National/Regional/County structure. The asa aims to ensure everybody has an opportunity to learn to swim.

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