Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the proportion of KS3 school children who have been taught water safety during academic year 2019-20.

Swimming and water safety are compulsory elements of the PE curriculum at Key Stages 1 and 2. The curriculum sets out the expectation that pupils should be taught 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.

The Department does not collect data centrally on the proportion of pupils at Key Stages 1 to 3 that have been taught swimming and water safety lessons, but all primary schools are required to publish information on the percentage of their pupils in year 6 who met each of the three swimming and water safety national curriculum requirements. Further details are available in the online reporting section of guidance on the Primary PE and Sport Premium, available here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pe-and-sport-premium-for-primary-schools#online-reporting.