Primary schoolchildren in Scotland will continue to have access to free swimming lessons following a £500,000 funding boost from the Scottish Government over the next two years. The Top Up swimming scheme, which is managed by sportscotland and supported by Scottish Swimming, aims to help youngsters learn how to swim before they leave primary school.
The swimming programme has been running since 2010 and has already received £1.2million in investment which has resulted in a 6-8% rise in the number of children able to swimaccording to Scottish Swimming. Around 14,400 schoolchildren have benefited from the TOP Up programme so far and the new funding will go to local authorities who will determine how best to use the money to improve swimming services in their area.
Scottish sports minister Shona Robinson said: “To give children the healthiest start in life and help guard against the risk of problems later in life, it’s recommended that youngsters participate in 60 minutes of exercise a day. Swimming is one of the best forms of physical activity and it also gives young people confidence in the water as well as being a fun way of keeping active, and most importantly, swimming can be great fun. That’s why we are continuing to invest in the Top Up swimming programme, we want to give children the opportunity to learn to swim, a skill that they can take with them to adult life.”
Chief Executive Officer at Scottish Swimming, Forbes Dunlop, welcomed the new investment, adding: “Scottish Swimming not only want to ensure that every child is given the opportunity to learn to swim but we also want to support the local authorities and leisure trusts in the delivery of this by providing a quality training and resource based programme and increase the number of children who meet the new National School Swimming Standard, Triple S, and become a Scotland Safe Swimmer.”
