{"id":296850,"date":"2025-07-27T21:28:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T21:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/296850\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T21:28:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T21:28:13","slug":"free-school-swimming-lessons-election-pledge-by-plaid-cymru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/296850\/","title":{"rendered":"Free school swimming lessons election pledge by Plaid Cymru"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">According to the National Water Safety Forum, there were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalwatersafety.org.uk\/news\/posts\/2025\/may\/193-accidental-water-related-fatalities-in-2024-with-more-warm-weather-ahead-public-urged-to-respect-the-water\" class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">18 water-related deaths, external<\/a> in Wales in 2024 and the rate of accidental drowning in Wales is almost double that of the UK as a whole.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Teaching our young people how to swim and be safe in and around water is a necessity, not a nice-to-have,&#8221; Fychan said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fergus Feeney said he &#8220;welcomed&#8221; the policy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Without urgent action, tens of thousands of Welsh children every year could leave primary school unable to stay safe in, on, or around water,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;By having a universal school swimming offer, we can ensure that Welsh children from all backgrounds have the same opportunity to acquire a life skill, to develop their confidence and begin their journey of lifelong physical activity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This would mean that Wales would be the first home nation to have a national programme of this significance in place.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Earlier this year, the Senedd&#8217;s culture committee called on the government to &#8220;develop a school swimming strategy to ensure that children leaving primary school have the ability to swim&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Responding at the time, the minister for culture Jack Sargeant said he agreed with &#8220;the intention of the recommendation&#8221;, but added &#8220;we need to be mindful of the financial pressure the recommendation would imply for schools in the current difficult financial circumstances&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The statutory guidance within the Curriculum for Wales, which all schools must consider, includes learners engaging in a range of physical activity, including within water,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to the National Water Safety Forum, there were 18 water-related deaths, external in Wales in 2024 and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-296850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114927324767811845","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}