Lack of emphasis on teaching water safety - head

Gary Gentle, headteacher of Bilston Church of England Primary School, said there should be more emphasis on teaching water safety

The national curriculum does not teach children enough about getting out of difficulty in open water, a headteacher has said.

Bilston Church of England Primary School is one of dozens of schools in the Black Country that has implemented new water safety training, aimed at reducing drowning deaths.

The programme, aimed at pupils in Year 5 and 6, offers lessons in and out of the water in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

Gary Gentle, the school's head, said the current curriculum "does not place enough emphasis on self-safe rescue."

"If a child falls into a canal, for example, it's no use them swimming 25 metres, they’ve got to be able to get out safely and know what to do," he said.

"They're not taught enough, how to actually perform self-safe rescue."

The BBC has contacted the Department for Education for comment.

The lessons teach children about how to manage when they or someone else gets into difficulty in water

The national curriculum mandates that all schools must provide swimming instruction either in Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2.

Children must be able to swim proficiently over a distance of 25 metres, perform a range of strokes effectively, and perform safe self-rescue in the water.

However, last year statistics gathered by Active Black Country showed 48% of primary school leavers – 7,884 children across the Black Country – were unable to demonstrate safe self-rescue in water.

In Wolverhampton alone, 44% of Year 6 pupils could not perform safe self-rescue.

The initiative hopes to teach thousands of children from dozens of schools about water safety

The new lessons are being run by Active Black Country, Swim England, the Royal Life Saving Society, the Canal & River Trust alongside Black Country local authorities.

The initiative aims to teach 4,000 children at up to 80 schools, and follows a number of water deaths in the West Midlands region over the summer.

"They’ll learn how to self-rescue, rescue each other, spot dangers and who to call in the events of an emergency," said swimming teacher Chris Peak.

Mr Gentle said the new lessons for the school were "imperative", given its proximity to open water like canals and rivers.