Swimming
At Ryders Green we provide swimming lessons that follow the Swim England school swimming scheme for children from Year 2 to Year 6, ensuring they develop essential water safety skills and confidence in the water. The school swimming programme is designed to support every child in achieving awards 1-6 with the goal of each child achieving a minimum swimming distance of 25 metres. The learning outcomes of each award can be seen below.
Award Winning Swimming Provision
Our swimming provision is award winning! At the Swim England National Awards (November 2024), we were awarded the Bronze Swim England School Swimming Award! This celebrates the outstanding swimming provision and water safety education we provide to our students. We are very proud that our children are encouraged to develop a love of swimming, improve their swimming techniques, gain water safety knowledge and achieve distance badges.
Every half term, Ryders Green has a Swimming Award Assembly which allows children to be recognised for their swimming awards and further enforces water safety by looking at the RLSS Water Safety Code which is practiced in swimming lessons. Currently (Summer 2025), 85% of Year 6 can now swim 25 metres, meeting the National Curriculum objective.
Swimming and diving lessons at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre provides our children with access to exceptional facilities, including the chance to dive from height without any payment required from parents. These enjoyable and engaging lessons have deepened their love for aquatic sports, especially now that they can swim confidently and safely.
Aspirations
We also explore with the pupils the wider benefits of swimming. The children understand that swimming can be fun and help to keep us safe, however the skill of swimming can also open up a whole career in the future. The path to a career in swimming starts right here at Ryders Green.
Swim into a career – MSU Extension
Swim Awards
Each of the Swim Awards has a list of clear outcomes that need to be completed in order to gain each Award.
An example of Award Expectations:
Award 1:
Pupils can complete these outcomes with floatation equipment or support.
1.Enter the water safely.
2.Move forwards, backwards and sideways for a distance of 5 metres.
3.Scoop the water and wash face comfortably.
4.Blow bubbles with nose and mouth submerged.
5. Participate in a movement game.
6.Give examples of pool rules.
7.Recognise and identify the purpose of beach flags.
8.Exit the water safely.
Our Role Models
When considering our future aspirations, we also look to people in our local area who have achieved incredible things with swimming being the main contributing factor.
Isabelle Thorpe made history by winning Team GB’s first-ever Olympic artistic swimming medal at Paris 2024. In Tokyo, Thorpe achieved bronze at the 2023 European Games in Poland, their first medal for Team GB. We even managed to meet her at the Swim England National Awards!
Ellie Simmonds – from Aldridge, less then ten miles away from West Bromwich, Ellie has had worldwide success. Gaining medals at championships all around the world, she became a household name when she won two gold medals in Bejing in 2008 and then a further two gold medals in London 2012! From her initial career as a competitive swimmer, Ellie is now a TV presenter and even on tour with Strictly Come Dancing!
School Swimming Dates
Please visit the page below to see the swimming dates for your child’s class:
Ryders Green Primary School | Calendars / Swimming
Sandwell is the home of the Sandwell Aquatics Centre which was built for the Commonwealth games 2022
