Fewer special primary schools offer school swimming

School swimming mainly focused on swimming certificates

At 47 percent of SO schools, school swimming is focused on obtaining swimming certificates. In SBO, 65 percent of schools offer this form of school swimming. The remainder use it as a ‘water-based PE lesson’, or a combination of both.

Obtaining one or more certificates during school swimming can provide a solution for children who face many barriers to swimming lessons outside school.

School swimming is not a replacement for physical education

At most SO and SBO schools, school swimming does not count toward the hours allocated to physical education. School swimming therefore does not lead to less physical education at these schools.

Questionnaire among school leaders in special and special primary education

The results of this study are based on a questionnaire survey among 316 school leaders in special and special primary education.

This publication is part of the larger study into ‘Physical education and sport in specialised and vocational education’. The results on school swimming are highlighted in this factsheet.