School splashes out on a life-saver

Olympic swimmer and Commonwealth gold medal winner James Goddard helped to launch the temporary pool

AN Oldham school has installed a temporary swimming pool after discovering almost three-quarters of its pupils hadn’t learned to swim.

More than 2,000 pupils at Oasis Academy Oldham, Hollins and five primary schools will get free lessons in the 12m x 6m pool during a 12 weeks it will be on site. The pool is open for community sessions in the evenings.

Three-time Commonwealth swimming champion James Goddard made a splash at the temporary pool yesterday as he gave it an official seal of approval.

James, from Stockport, is a keen supporter of getting children to swim from an early age. He swims with his five-year-old daughter at his local pool.

“It’s the only sport that is a life-saver,” he said. “It’s important to get children to learn to swim. That’s the beauty of this scheme — the pool comes to the school. I met a little lad earlier who couldn’t swim four weeks ago. Now he can swim - maybe not very far, but he’s come far in four weeks thanks to this scheme.”

Jon Glenn, head of youth and community at the ASA, said: “Learning to swim can mean more than just improving the physical health of an individual.

“It can also mean the difference between life and death. It is an extremely worrying statistic than over two-thirds of children leave school being unable to swim and we hope to play a huge role in changing that.”

The pool is part of the British Gas Pools4Schools programme, which has already helped more that 30,000 children learn to swim.

Oasis Academy Oldham principal David Hayes said: “The pool has already been a great success, generating real excitement among pupils.”