Schools are required to publish information related to their students and their swimming abilities. The guidelines are quite straightforward around Ofsted swimming requirements and that’s the great news! So how do you get this spot on?

Current Ofsted swimming requirements?

Swimming and water safety has been a requirement of the curriculum since 1994. The aim is for all children to leave primary school with a basic ability to swim competently. Requirements are broken down into three; swimming 25 metres, using a range of strokes, knowing how to self-rescue. According to Swim England research in 2016, “89 per cent work towards children being able to swim 25 metres; 63 per cent focus on teaching children how to do strokes; 48 per cent focus on water safety.” So there is a long way to go to make sure schools have met this requirements in full.

The requirements in specific regard to your website are around the publication of your school’s performance. Also, this requirement has come from the Swim Group’s recommendations.

The requirements state; “For the 2017 to 2018 academic year, there is a new condition requiring schools to publish how many pupils within their year 6 cohort are meeting the national curriculum requirement to swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres, use a range of strokes effectively and perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.” (see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pe-and-sport-premium-for-primary-schools#accountability)

The deal is that you have to publish information on your website about how many students are meeting these requirements.

What is the best way to meet the current swimming requirements?

The very best way to display this information is as clearly and naturally as possible. It’s also really important to make sure that the information is easy to find.

Schools can meet the Ofsted swimming requirements by adding content in a way that makes sense to everyone. In reality, it’s only inspectors that will be looking for this information. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth making it accessible to anyone who may want to read it.

So, here’s our key recommendations to make sure your school is meeting the latest Ofsted swimming requirements:

• Make sure you include the relevant swimming information on a page related to sports.
• Don’t forget to include how you’re spending PE and Sport Premium to report on how you’ve spent money to provide additional swimming support to meet the requirements of the national curriculum.
• Make policies and supporting documents accessible on any device.

Fairfield Primary School give us a brilliant example of a school that is displaying the relevant information clearly and in a well structured way. It’s also really easy to find.

The best way to achieve this is to use a service such as the Document Groups feature provided to Schudio school website clients as part of the School Website Software.

Other resources related to Ofsted swimming requirements

Guidance on PE and Sport Premium for Primary Schools (.gov)
Swim England Schools Research 2016
National Curriculum Swimming and water safety

Checking your website against the latest swimming requirements (and everything else …)

There are countless lists, websites, companies offering you the most recent checklist. It’s time-consuming, cumbersome and labour-intensive. The better way is to use the School Website Compliance Software. Our team keep this up to date with the latest requirements.

If you’re looking for a way to make sure that your website is compliant with all the latest School Website Requirements and access ongoing advice then this is the best tool available.