Pools 4 Schools

British Gas Pools 4 Schools programme is a highly innovative solution to school swimming. One in five children leaving primary school are unable to swim and this can be down to a number of factors, no swimming pool or closing swimming pools in the area, cost of transport and leisure centre hire and swimming not placed as priority in that community. By constructing temporary pools in school building (gyms, halls and play grounds) Total Swimming is able to bring swimming right where it is needed and tackle, head on, this worrying statistic. The British Gas Pools 4 Schools is revolutionising the way swimming is delivered in schools and communities with some amazing results.
 

The Pool
By employing leading pool technology this enables us to build swimming pools in almost any space. In 5 days the Total Swimming build team can construct a fully functional swimming pool. A typical pool is 12 metres by 6 metres and 1 metre deep, the optimum size for teaching a primary school class to swim. Total Swimming experts deliver all health and safety provisions, maintenance and we even have a 24hr emergency line to provide complete peace of mind for the hosts.

 

The Programme
The focus of the programme is to introduce as many people to ‘aquatics’ as possible and teach 10,000 school children to swim through 5 hour quality teaching. The pool is in situ for 6 weeks and throughout that period the pool is used by schools to work towards their National Curriculum requirements and by the community in after schools and pre schools hours. To best tackle National Curriculum requirements Total Swimming supports an intensive programme of lessons using three (ASA level 2 qualified) swimming teachers per class. The community hours can been used to tackle local needs, for example, lady’s only sessions, adult learn to swim classes and multi aquatics.

The Results
The British Gas Pools 4 Schools teaches 10,000 people to swim a year. The key focus of the programme is to help school children tackle their National Curriculum requirement of being able to swim 25metres by the time they leave primary school, hitting 80% attainment at some venues. With on average 14 schools per programme using the pool and large percentages of non-swimmers and ‘aquaphobics’ at the outset the impact on these children is highly significant. The pool has also been used to introduce whole communities to swimming and other aquatic sports, getting people active and providing learn to swim opportunities for whole families not just the children at school.

A Pool in Your School?
Total Swimming is always looking for partners for this exciting project. We work closely with all our partners to ensure a comprehensive Pools 4 Schools programme delivering excellent results. If you are a head teacher, partnership development manager, PE teacher or simply interested in what it takes to have a pool in your school enter your details and submit the form above to receive more information.