Calderdale school swimming lessons return to teach pupils life-saving skills

Children at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 in schools around the borough will be taking part in swimming lessons at Brighouse, Sowerby Bridge and Todmorden pools, as part of the national curriculum.

As well as learning to swim the basic strokes, young people will learn how to be safe around different water environments such as beaches, lakes, and canals.

The skills learnt in these swimming lessons can be used in an emergency situation, making it important that children can return to the pool to learn this vital life skill.

Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Services and Communities, Councillor Jenny Lynn, said: “Following the easing of restrictions, we’ve been able to introduce more activities at our leisure centres. As part of this, we’re now also able to restart school swimming lessons, giving children an opportunity to learn important skills to be safe in and around water.

“Drowning is the third most common cause of accidental death amongst children and sadly we’ve seen some tragic cases in Yorkshire this summer. Skills learnt within school lessons not only allow young people to enjoy the benefits of swimming, but could also be potentially life-saving.”

Since the easing of COVID restrictions, Calderdale sports centres have been able to steadily introduce a wider range of activities and increase capacity of sessions to get back to normal as safely as possible.

Increased cleaning is still taking place, hand sanitiser is available and the wearing of face coverings in reception areas, for children aged 11+ and adults, is still encouraged.

New timetables for public sessions are now online and it’s recommended to book in advance for both swim and gym sessions.

The return of school swimming lessons does mean that some public swimming sessions will be affected, and sites are doing all they can to safely accommodate swimming clubs, lessons and public swimming sessions.

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