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Tuesday 20 Nov 2007 @ 09:19
Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted)
Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted)
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Swimming teachers need to do more to encourage all pupils to meet Key Stage 2 swimming standards
Although most 11 year olds can now swim 25 metres, some groups of pupils are missing out. These include pupils with learning difficulties when staff are not well trained to deal with them; and some pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds who begin school with little or no experience of swimming.
A report by the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) reveals that the reason some pupils failed to meet expectations for the end of Key Stage 2 was usually because too little time had been given to swimming and staff had been unable to help them overcome their fear of water in the available lessons.
Today’s report Reaching the Key Stage 2 standard in swimming: Standards and provision including the impact on swimming of the Physical Education and School Club Links strategy, found overall that swimming lessons in the majority of schools and sports partnerships surveyed were good. In almost all cases, schools in the survey sample had given responsibility for organising swimming to the local authority under a service-level agreement that included transport, curriculum planning, teaching, assessment and accreditation.
Miriam Rosen, Ofsted’s Director of Education said:
“Pupils are recognising the importance of swimming as a life skill which will help them to enjoy life, be healthy and stay safe, particularly in cases of emergency. Their views on the swimming programmes have been overwhelmingly positive.
“However, more needs to be done to address the barriers that prevent all pupils participating in swimming activities in order to build self-esteem, keep fit and healthy and to meet swimming standards.”
The standards reached by pupils were good in nine of the 30 schools surveyed, satisfactory in 16 but inadequate in five. In most schools, many pupils started as novice swimmers with little confidence in the water. But by the end of the swimming programmes and after top-up lessons, around three quarters of pupils had made good progress and met the expected standard by the end of Key Stage 2.
Most pupils in the schools surveyed took swimming and enjoyed it. The sport helped their physical development and increased pupils’ sense of well being. Most pupils also reached the expected standard, swimming 25 metres unaided. Those pupils, still unable to swim 25m unaided by the end of their swimming programmes, benefited from additional teaching to try to get them up to standard by the end of the Key Stage. Top-up funding from the Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) paid for extra lessons to help them reach the goal.
Nine of the schools visited did not allow enough time for swimming and, as a consequence, some pupils failed to meet the required standard. Although the needs of most learners were met, some schools gave too little attention to particular groups of learners, notably gifted and talented swimmers and the least able or experienced.
Pupils with social and behavioural difficulties made only adequate progress, often because staff did not use a wide enough range of strategies to improve pupils’ attitudes and behaviour. Inspectors found that some swimming teachers lacked the experience, and/or confidence to deal with these pupils and sometimes resorted to excluding them from lessons for health and safety reasons.
Some schools did not allow for the needs of minority ethnic pupils in their planning. Where good practice was found swimming teachers succeeded in resolving any difficulties, for example, by consulting local mosques on how to improve participation of Muslim pupils and by launching family swimming programmes involving parents from black and minority ethnic groups.
Where achievement was low the reasons tended to be: an inappropriate curriculum; lack of time allocated for swimming; ineffective teaching; and poor leadership and management, including a failure to tackle known weaknesses.
Today’s report recommends schools should allow sufficient time in the curriculum for swimming. They should also make sure there are enough lessons particularly for those pupils identified as making least progress.
It says local authorities should ensure swimming teachers are properly trained to work with the full range of learners, including disabled pupils and those with learning difficulties.
School sport partnerships should ensure that talented pupils have opportunities to continue to develop their swimming outside the curriculum, it says. The report goes on to say they should promote better liaison and collaboration amongst schools, local authorities and themselves to tackle known weaknesses.
It says the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) should require all school sport partnerships to have a target for the proportion of pupils that should meet the expected swimming standard at the end of Key Stage 2. The DCSF should also monitor progress towards those targets; encourage partnerships and schools to organise, plan and implement the top-up programme; and improve the effectiveness of the top-up programme by extending it into Key Stage 3 to help the significant minority of pupils who currently fail to meet the expected standard at the end of Key Stage 2.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. Reaching the Key Stage 2 standard in swimming: Standards and provision including the impact on swimming of the Physical Education and School Club Links strategy is published today on the Ofsted website at www.ofsted.gov.uk
2. In November 2000, Ofsted reported on standards and provision for swimming at Key Stage 2. This was followed by the establishment of the then Department for Education and Skills (DFES) Swimming Advisory Group in January 2001, the Government’s swimming strategy in 2002 and the DfES swimming charter in 2003. The charter provided guidance for all those involved in planning and implementing provision for swimming. This latest survey was designed to assess the impact of these initiatives. It evaluated the quality and effectiveness of provision in primary schools, with a particular focus on the impact of the (then) DfES’s national top-up swimming programme for pupils who have difficulty reaching the Key Stage 2 standard.
3. Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) and Additional Inspectors visited 30 primary schools in 12 local authorities and 17 school sport partnerships. The schools were selected from within partnerships which had received additional funding under the Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) strategy to boost the quality and effectiveness of provision for swimming in primary schools.
4. From 1 April 2007 a new single inspectorate for children and learners came into being. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) has the responsibility for the inspection of adult learning and training - work formerly undertaken by the Adult Learning Inspectorate; the regulation and inspection of children's social care - work formerly undertaken by the Commission for Social Care Inspection; the inspection of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service - work formerly undertaken by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Court Administration; and the existing regulatory and inspection activities of Ofsted.
A report by the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) reveals that the reason some pupils failed to meet expectations for the end of Key Stage 2 was usually because too little time had been given to swimming and staff had been unable to help them overcome their fear of water in the available lessons.
Today’s report Reaching the Key Stage 2 standard in swimming: Standards and provision including the impact on swimming of the Physical Education and School Club Links strategy, found overall that swimming lessons in the majority of schools and sports partnerships surveyed were good. In almost all cases, schools in the survey sample had given responsibility for organising swimming to the local authority under a service-level agreement that included transport, curriculum planning, teaching, assessment and accreditation.
Miriam Rosen, Ofsted’s Director of Education said:
“Pupils are recognising the importance of swimming as a life skill which will help them to enjoy life, be healthy and stay safe, particularly in cases of emergency. Their views on the swimming programmes have been overwhelmingly positive.
“However, more needs to be done to address the barriers that prevent all pupils participating in swimming activities in order to build self-esteem, keep fit and healthy and to meet swimming standards.”
The standards reached by pupils were good in nine of the 30 schools surveyed, satisfactory in 16 but inadequate in five. In most schools, many pupils started as novice swimmers with little confidence in the water. But by the end of the swimming programmes and after top-up lessons, around three quarters of pupils had made good progress and met the expected standard by the end of Key Stage 2.
Most pupils in the schools surveyed took swimming and enjoyed it. The sport helped their physical development and increased pupils’ sense of well being. Most pupils also reached the expected standard, swimming 25 metres unaided. Those pupils, still unable to swim 25m unaided by the end of their swimming programmes, benefited from additional teaching to try to get them up to standard by the end of the Key Stage. Top-up funding from the Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) paid for extra lessons to help them reach the goal.
Nine of the schools visited did not allow enough time for swimming and, as a consequence, some pupils failed to meet the required standard. Although the needs of most learners were met, some schools gave too little attention to particular groups of learners, notably gifted and talented swimmers and the least able or experienced.
Pupils with social and behavioural difficulties made only adequate progress, often because staff did not use a wide enough range of strategies to improve pupils’ attitudes and behaviour. Inspectors found that some swimming teachers lacked the experience, and/or confidence to deal with these pupils and sometimes resorted to excluding them from lessons for health and safety reasons.
Some schools did not allow for the needs of minority ethnic pupils in their planning. Where good practice was found swimming teachers succeeded in resolving any difficulties, for example, by consulting local mosques on how to improve participation of Muslim pupils and by launching family swimming programmes involving parents from black and minority ethnic groups.
Where achievement was low the reasons tended to be: an inappropriate curriculum; lack of time allocated for swimming; ineffective teaching; and poor leadership and management, including a failure to tackle known weaknesses.
Today’s report recommends schools should allow sufficient time in the curriculum for swimming. They should also make sure there are enough lessons particularly for those pupils identified as making least progress.
It says local authorities should ensure swimming teachers are properly trained to work with the full range of learners, including disabled pupils and those with learning difficulties.
School sport partnerships should ensure that talented pupils have opportunities to continue to develop their swimming outside the curriculum, it says. The report goes on to say they should promote better liaison and collaboration amongst schools, local authorities and themselves to tackle known weaknesses.
It says the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) should require all school sport partnerships to have a target for the proportion of pupils that should meet the expected swimming standard at the end of Key Stage 2. The DCSF should also monitor progress towards those targets; encourage partnerships and schools to organise, plan and implement the top-up programme; and improve the effectiveness of the top-up programme by extending it into Key Stage 3 to help the significant minority of pupils who currently fail to meet the expected standard at the end of Key Stage 2.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. Reaching the Key Stage 2 standard in swimming: Standards and provision including the impact on swimming of the Physical Education and School Club Links strategy is published today on the Ofsted website at www.ofsted.gov.uk
2. In November 2000, Ofsted reported on standards and provision for swimming at Key Stage 2. This was followed by the establishment of the then Department for Education and Skills (DFES) Swimming Advisory Group in January 2001, the Government’s swimming strategy in 2002 and the DfES swimming charter in 2003. The charter provided guidance for all those involved in planning and implementing provision for swimming. This latest survey was designed to assess the impact of these initiatives. It evaluated the quality and effectiveness of provision in primary schools, with a particular focus on the impact of the (then) DfES’s national top-up swimming programme for pupils who have difficulty reaching the Key Stage 2 standard.
3. Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) and Additional Inspectors visited 30 primary schools in 12 local authorities and 17 school sport partnerships. The schools were selected from within partnerships which had received additional funding under the Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) strategy to boost the quality and effectiveness of provision for swimming in primary schools.
4. From 1 April 2007 a new single inspectorate for children and learners came into being. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) has the responsibility for the inspection of adult learning and training - work formerly undertaken by the Adult Learning Inspectorate; the regulation and inspection of children's social care - work formerly undertaken by the Commission for Social Care Inspection; the inspection of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service - work formerly undertaken by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Court Administration; and the existing regulatory and inspection activities of Ofsted.
