Published Date: May 20th, 2025
A range of options to provide swimming lessons for primary school children in Fife were discussed today (Tuesday) by Fife councillors.
Fife Council's Education Scrutiny Committee discussed five options that would give young non-swimmers the ability to develop their water skills. Fife Sports and Leisure Trust would work with the council to deliver the programmes.
Committee Convener Cllr Kathleen Leslie explained: "At the moment there is no legislative requirement to provide swimming lessons for our young people and there is no budget allocated to swimming provision.
"However swimming is a life skill and almost 30% of our P7 children cannot swim according to the results of a survey carried out in June last year. We are therefore keen to explore different options to help more of our young people learn to swim."
A working group led by Cllr Leslie has been considering the feasibility of providing swimming lessons for groups of primary school children, taking into consideration time, cost and availability of facilities.
Now the different options have been outlined and will be presented to the council's Cabinet committee for further discussion and decisions.
Added Cllr Leslie: "Swimming is a complete sport which is known to be good for both for physical and mental health. I'm delighted that we are taking these options to the Cabinet Committee and look forward to discussing them further."
