Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Lab):...Swimming comes under physical
education, and the narrowing of the curriculum since the
introduction of the EBacc has reduced opportunities as a result.
Recent research in secondary schools by the Youth Sport
Trust found that timetabled PE time is decreasing, and the
reduction is greater as students get older. At key stage 4, 58% of
schools had reduced timetabled PE in the past five years, and
nearly a quarter had done so in the past year. By the...Request free trial
(Lab):...Swimming comes under physical education, and the
narrowing of the curriculum since the introduction of the EBacc has
reduced opportunities as a result. Recent research in secondary
schools by the Youth
Sport Trust found that timetabled PE time is
decreasing, and the reduction is greater as students get older. At
key stage 4, 58% of schools had reduced timetabled PE in the past
five years, and nearly a quarter had done so in the past year. By
the time young people are in sixth form, they are doing barely half
an hour a week...
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education (Lord Agnew of Oulton) (Con):...The noble Lord,
Lord Watson, asked about progress in implementing the
recommendations. To date we have implemented four of them. Sport
England is also updating its facilities guidance for local
authorities. We have increased the flexibility of pupil premium
funding, and we are including a communications strategy, which
was recommended, for educational stakeholders. For secondary
schools we are also including an updated communications strategy.
We took the recommendations very seriously, and we are endeavouring
to implement as many as possible...
...The noble Lord, , asked about SEND pupils.
We agree that it is most important that all pupils have the ability
to learn to swim. The Swim Group reported that not all pupils with
SEND have access to swimming and water safety lessons in school.
More work needs to be done to understand the current provision, and
any barriers to inclusive lessons. We have funded a project to help
address this issue—the Youth
Sport Trust-led Inclusion 2020 project has identified five
local areas to form partnerships to improve swimming and water
safety: Durham, Dorset, Milton Keynes, Northamptonshire and West
Yorkshire. We will review the evaluation of these local innovation
partnerships when it is available in 2020...
...The noble Lord, also asked about the
resources available for swimming generally, and I can reassure him
that, again, there is a lot going on. Sport England is working with
nearly 100 local authorities that have plans for additional
swimming pool provision. Since 2012 it has invested £67 million in
46 local authority facilities to include pools, which results in
about £700 million in investment from those authorities....
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