How PE Leads are achieving swimming progress within a half term

If you lead swimming provision, there’s a quiet frustration you don’t often say out loud.

You plan carefully. You organise transport. You manage staffing ratios. You protect budget lines.

And yet, when you look at outcomes, progress often feels slow, fragmented, and hard to defend.

That’s not because you’re doing anything wrong.

It’s because the structure you’re working within limits what progress is possible.

Effort isn’t the issue. Evidence is.

Swimming provision isn’t judged by intent. It’s judged by outcomes.

As a PE Lead, you’re expected to be able to show:

●        How many pupils can now swim 25 metres

●        Which pupils have developed water safety and self-rescue skills

●        That progress has been made across a whole cohort, not just confident swimmers

●        That PE & Sport Premium spend has delivered measurable impact

Weekly off-site lessons make this difficult.

Time in the water is limited. Gaps between sessions are long. Progress varies widely between pupils. By the time you’re asked to evidence impact, the data often feels thin.

This is where some PE Leads are drawing a hard conclusion:

Our current model cannot deliver the level of progress we’re being asked to prove.

What changes when progress becomes the priority

Schools achieving accelerated progress haven’t raised expectations or increased pressure on staff.

They’ve changed one structural variable: how swimming time is organised.

Instead of spreading lessons thinly across weeks or terms, they deliver swimming on site as a short, intensive programme within the school day.

That single change alters the learning conditions.

Case study: Chilwell Croft Academy - progress you can evidence

At Chilwell Croft Academy in Birmingham, local pool closures and transport costs had made regular swimming provision increasingly unworkable.

After one half term of on-site delivery:

●        Pupils swimming 25 metres increased from 0% to 49%

●        73% of pupils met the national curriculum requirement for water safety

For the PE Lead, the significance wasn’t just the numbers.

Progress was:

●        Achieved across the cohort

●        Measured clearly

●        Delivered within a defined timeframe

This is the kind of evidence that stands up in conversations with SLT and governors.

Case study: Charville Academy - cohort-wide improvement, reduced burden

Charville Academy in Hayes had previously relied on off-site provision, which involved high transport costs and extensive planning, with limited impact on attainment.

After seven weeks of on-site swimming:

●        25-metre attainment rose from 6% to 51%

●        Water safety knowledge increased from 11% to 67%

●        SEND pupils accessed swimming with appropriate adult support

Crucially, staff reported less planning and administrative workload than with previous providers.

For PE Leads, this combination matters: stronger outcomes with less operational drag.

When progress reframes the question

Mill Lodge Primary School in Solihull provides one of the clearest comparisons.

Staff reported that Year 5 pupils made more progress in two weeks of on-site swimming than they had in two terms of weekly off-site lessons.

Measured outcomes included:

●        25-metre swimming increased from 36% to 83%

●        Water safety knowledge has risen from 38% to 90%

At this point, the question changes.

It’s no longer:

“Are we delivering swimming?”

It becomes:

“Why are we accepting a model that delivers so much less?”

Why accelerated progress happens

When swimming is delivered on site as a concentrated programme, PE Leads see consistent advantages:

●        Momentum is maintained between sessions

●        Re-teaching is reduced, freeing time for progression

●        Assessment is clearer, making the before-and-after change visible.

●        Disruption is contained within a defined window

Progress accelerates not because pupils are pushed harder, but because the conditions for learning improve.

Progress you can defend

Accelerated progress only matters if it can be demonstrated.

Schools delivering on-site swimming use structured assessments aligned with national curriculum expectations, tracking:

●        Distance swimming

●        Stroke competency

●        Water safety understanding

●        Self-rescue skills

For PE Leads, this provides:

●        Clear cohort-level data

●        Confidence in inspection conversations

●        Strong justification for PE & Sport Premium spend

Evidence replaces explanation.

A decision PE Leads are now facing

If you are responsible for swimming provision, the decision is becoming harder to avoid:

Does our current model allow pupils to make rapid, measurable progress and does it allow me to prove it?

Schools achieving half-term progress have answered that question by changing structure, not expectations.

Test this approach in practice

If you want to check whether on-site swimming could deliver this level of progress in your school, you can:

• Join a Discovery Webinar (5 March or 22 April 2026) to examine safeguarding, staffing, timetabling, and assessment in detail.

• Download the Swim:ED Impact Report for full cohort-level data and case studies

• Book a meeting with Ben, our School relationship manager

All options are designed to support informed, defensible decision-making, without obligation.

Download the case studies