The literacy and numeracy strategies are the top priority in primary schools, but swimming must be taught

Department for Education

Half had no specific policy or provision for pupils who could not swim or who were reluctant swimmers.

And in a minority of schools, the part of the national curriculum programme which handles water safety and survival was not adequately covered.

Headteachers said the government's literacy and numeracy drive had put increased pressure on the time devoted to the rest of the curriculum.

Transport costs

Increasing costs - especially that of transport - and the trend to turn local pools into leisure pools unsuitable for lessons were other major factors in schools' reduction in swimming.

The annual cost of the teaching of swimming was found to vary considerably - from �1,000 for pool hire, entrance and instructor fees, to �9,000.

Schools save on transport costs by having their own pool

Any school which has its own pool scores in this respect.

Loudwater Combined School in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, has a heated outdoor pool built and maintained with money from the parents' association.

Its most recent inspection report said good use was made of the facility and lessons "are well-planned and managed and clear progress is made by the children".

But several schools have cut their swimming budgets to find money for what they see as more urgent priorities.

Osted said too many schools were failing to ensure that sufficient funds were targeted on pupils who could not swim.

They identified a clear link between the amount of time spent in the pool and the standards achieved by pupils.

Rural schools and those in the lowest free school meals bracket put aside the most time for swimming and their pupils recorded the highest standards of achievement.

Success rate

But it was not all bad news - inspectors also found that more than four out of five primary school pupils could swim 25 metres by the time they went on to secondary school.

Pupils' progress towards competence and confidence in the water and a grasp of water safety and survival was good in 75% of lessons and satisfactory in almost all of them.

Four out of five lessons were rated as good or better, whether conducted by swimming instructors, teachers from the school or other adults.

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Employment said the government had made sure swimming remained compulsory in primary schools.

"The literacy and numeracy strategies are the top priority in primary schools, but swimming must be taught," he said.

The government had ordered �750m of lottery funds to be spent on improving school sport throughout the UK, he added.