We are very fortunate to have our own school pool, and we were so pleased to be able to finally make some much-needed improvements to the changing facilities recently.  Very few schools have their own pool, and it means every child at Great Wakering can learn to swim as part of their normal school week in the summer, throughout their time from EYFS to Year 6. We are proud that generations of Great Wakering families have learnt to swim in our pool and we see the enjoyment that the swimming lessons, alongside their peers, gives the children.

Swimming is a vital life skill, and we see the difference it makes. Children grow in confidence, fitness and resilience, and many discover a real love of the water as well as learning important lessons in water safety.  This is particularly important given our close proximity to the coast and to local areas of open water, rivers and lakes and you will no doubt have seen the national press coverage over the summer stressing the importance of teaching water safety and learning to swim.

We want to be open with you about how the pool is funded. The school receives no additional government funding for it and our school is funded at exactly the same level as schools without a pool, so the costs of heating, water treatment, maintenance, equipment and qualified staffing must be found in addition to our usual school curriculum. We cannot meet these costs from the main school budget alone and any difference between voluntary parental contributions and the running costs for the pool are paid for by using funding which would otherwise be able to be spent elsewhere in school.  The government ambition is for all children to be able to swim 25m by the time they leave year 6.  If we were not able to keep our school pool open after this year, the children would have to travel to a local pool for lessons, which itself incurs a significant cost, and lessons would be provided for a much smaller period of time over the course of the pupils’ education.

Our children in KS1 swim twice each week in the summer term and KS2, once a week.  This is linked to a carefully planned swimming curriculum delivered by our highly experienced swimming teacher who has a long history with our school.  This is, of course, a voluntary contribution, but unfortunately, without your parental contributions it may not be financially viable to continue to run the pool after this year. 

Contributions can be made online or via the SCOpay app.