What swimming does my child have to be taught at primary school in England?

Under the national curriculum for physical education in England, all schools must provide swimming instruction in either key stage 1 or key stage 2.

Pupils should be taught to:

• swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
• use a range of strokes effectively (for example front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke)
• perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

This is a separate requirement from the Swim England Learn to Swim stages, although the stages build the same skills (25 metre swims appear in Stages 6 and 7).