So why DON’T schools have to teach our children to swim?
During a summer of almost unimaginable tragedy, as the sun shone on Scotland, drownings left family after family devastated
THE sun will rise over Loch Lomond today, casting the familiar broad-shouldered reflection of its towering ben far across its wide expanse. For visitors who will swarm to its celebrated banks, this postcard-perfect facade of rugged outdoorsy adventure offers its usual potent draw.
Yet, barely seven days on from one of the deadliest episodes in its history, a quiet horror still hangs above this place like a slowrising mist.
Last Saturday, under a broiling summer sun, a mother and child drowned just yards from the water’s edge, a family friend was lost trying to save them, and his young son is still fighting for his life in hospital a week on. And just 24 hours earlier, a teenager was pulled under by the treacherous, cold grasp of the loch.
Shocking though this grim toll is, it was not the end of the story. Even as the terrible events in Loch Lomond were playing out, the bodies of two other boys were being recovered from separate rivers many miles to the south.
Six people – including four young boys – gone within hours of each other, their families hollowed out by raw grief at the suddenness of it all. And then on Tuesday, more tragedy, when a 34-year-old man died in hospital after being rescued from Loch Lubnaig on Sunday, the seventh death on Scotland’s waters in a week.
In the vacuum which follows tragedy, politicians and those charged with making wild places safer offered heartfelt condolences to the bereaved while promising to redouble efforts to ensure there is no repeat.
But how can you guard Scotland’s largest loch from danger without surrounding it in high fences and barbed wire?
How can you keep people safe around open water when Scotland’s national swimming body revealed damning statistics showing that four in ten pupils leave primary school without being able to swim? Given the growing popularity of wild swimming and the fact that Scotland is home to 90 per cent of the UK’s standing fresh water – not to mention 6,160 miles of coastline – what can be done to stop these accidental drownings?
It is difficult to overstate the seriousness of the situation.
According to the National Water Safety Forum’s (NWSF) water incident database, there were 39 such fatalities in Scotland last year, with 12 of those fatality reports noting the presence of drugs or alcohol.
There was an average of 43 deaths a year between 2018 and 2020. That three-year average is the UK’s highest, an annual blight on our summer holiday season.
But last weekend’s Mediterranean temperatures on a summer weekend caused mayhem on an unprecedented scale.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams, of Police Scotland, sounded shaken when he admitted the number of deaths that had taken place was ‘hard to comprehend’.
Rescue services called it the ‘worst weekend in living memory’.
It prompted Justice Minister Keith Brown to announce the Scottish Government plans to invite ‘relevant stakeholders’ to a meeting ‘in the next three or four weeks’ to explore what can be done to improve matters.
One likely participant in those talks is Scottish Swimming, the sport’s governing body, which has counselled against ignoring this life skill.
Unlike in England, there is no mandatory requirement to provide swimming lessons as part of the Scottish primary school curriculum.
Scottish Swimming research shows, on average, 40 per cent leave P7 unable to swim, with that figure rising to 60 per cent in the most deprived areas. For an island race like ours, it smacks of a fatal complacency.
‘That 40 per cent figure is very concerning for a number of reasons,’ said director of development Sharon Macdonald.
‘We have been campaigning for 15 to 20 years for an entitlement for children to learn to swim in Scotland. Swimming is a life skill, that gives children the basic ability to swim and
‘A lot of older pupils will find excuse not to go’
by that I mean being able to float on their back, submerge, enter and exit the water safely, along with having safety knowledge about the dangers of being in and around water.
‘And while I’m not going to say it would stop the kinds of accidents that happened at the weekend – swimming outdoors is quite different to swimming in a pool – it might reduce them.
‘It might mean that if somebody does get into difficulty, they may have a better chance of survival.’
She added: ‘We also know that most children who haven’t learnt to swim by the time they leave primary school are unlikely to swim.
‘That’s not to say it is not being offered at secondary school, but a host of other factors come into play, like puberty and the peer pressure of embarrassment if they can’t swim.
‘So a lot of older pupils will find an excuse not to go.’
Under the Curriculum for Excellence, primary schools are only required to offer two hours of physical education a week – and as Mr Brown was quick to point out on BBC Radio Scotland’s Drivetime programme: ‘It is for local authorities to decide how they provide that.’
Miss Macdonald said whether swimming lessons were provided or not came down to a ‘postcode lottery’, where some schools find they cannot afford the associated costs of transporting children to the swimming pool, while others feel it can take too much time out of the classroom.
She said: ‘Some children might have to travel quite a distance to reach a pool, for example, before adding in the time taken to change and get in and out of the pool as well as the lesson.’
She also lamented the loss of government funding in recent years, as swimming fell foul of budget cuts. In 2010, local authorities shared a £1.8million ‘top-up’ grant over five years to allow swimming lessons to focus better on non-swimmers.
But the grant ended in 2015 and, said Miss Macdonald, swingeing budget cuts have followed. Lockdown due to Covid-19 has only exacerbated the problem, with pools closed for much of the past year.
‘Swimming is such an important allround activity, which brings lots of other benefits in terms of physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, social wellbeing, and an activity you can do from when you are born to your old age,’ she said. ‘You can do it with family and friends.
‘We also run clubs and if someone has the talent then they could be the next Duncan Scott, who’s just won
Olympic gold and silver.’ She welcomed Mr Brown’s announcement of talks, saying she would call for the reinstatement of top-up funding for lessons.
She said: ‘The £1.8million funding... really brought down child/ teacher ratios and was beginning to have an impact just before it was cut.
‘We need a high-level strategic group, chaired by a Scottish minister, to look at water safety issues.
‘It’s not high enough up the list of priorities and, unfortunately, it’s taken these tragic incidents at the weekend to raise awareness.’
She is not alone in this view, although there are those who feel that simply being able to swim cannot prevent tragedy.
Ava Gray drowned in an area of Balloch Country Park, Dunbartonshire, not far from where 16-yearold Connor Markward lost his life just over a week ago. The 12-yearold died after getting into difficulty in the River Leven last August.
While two other youngsters made it back to safety, Ava’s body was recovered after a three-hour search by the emergency services.
The schoolgirl was a competent swimmer (her council area, West Dunbartonshire, routinely provides primary pupils with swimming lessons), according to her devastated family, who have campaigned since her death for more signage and life-saving equipment around waterways.
It later emerged that close to where Ava’s body was recovered, lifebelts were sited behind locked gates on private land.
Jamie Gillies, Ava’s aunt, said: ‘People who go out without life jackets are taking a massive risk. Swimming lessons are great but in open water you could be the strongest swimmer ever and it wouldn’t make a difference.
‘If there are strong currents, swimming lessons won’t stop these things from happening. I feel there needs to be more.’
She added: ‘Ava went into the water right beside a life-ring that was tied behind a locked gate. It would have saved her life, I have no doubt about that. She went into a shallow area to paddle and took a step too far.’
All four recent deaths in the loch happened close to the banks.
Edina Olahova, 29, and family friend Muhammad Asim Riaz, 41, died on Saturday trying to save her son Rana Haris Ali, nine, after he fell in by accident. Mr Riaz’s seven-year-old son remains in intensive care in hospital. They had been travelling home to Paisley from a trip to Skye when they stopped for a break at Pulpit Rock, near Ardlui. It is thought none were strong swimmers.
Elsewhere, the body of 13-yearold Jamie Gilchrist, of Crossford, Lanarkshire, was pulled from the River Clyde near Hazelbank, Lanarkshire, after he got into difficulty on Saturday evening.
And Dean Irvine, 11, died after getting into difficulty in a river at Alexander Hamilton Memorial Park in Stonehouse, Lanarkshire.
So quickly did tragedy strike, that the combined efforts of police, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Loch Lomond Rescue Boat and other emergency services were unable to save them. Last Sunday – the day when details of five of the six deaths emerged – had been designated as World Drowning Prevention Day.
The same day, the thrillseekers had returned to the same spots, some wobbling on paddleboards without life jackets, undaunted by the previous day’s horrors.
Water Safety Scotland, a voluntary association aiming to reduce accidental drowning deaths in Scotland by 50 per cent by 2026, said 79 per cent of accidental drownings last year occurred in inland waters.
Michael Avril, chairman of the association, described this as a ‘significant change’ on previous years, when most accidental fatalities occurred off coastlines, and said many are the result of a lack of knowledge and understanding of open water safety.
Loch Lomond, which is Scotland’s largest loch by surface water, is notorious for hidden drops close to the water’s edge which can quickly carry the unsuspecting bather out of their depth.
The water temperature is rarely above 15C, even in high summer.
David Walker, head of leisure at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, warned that cold water shock – which causes the blood vessels in the skin to close, leading to a spike in blood pressure – was a major risk facing those who swim in open waters.
He said: ‘Since the beginning of this month’s heatwave, we have seen an alarming number of accidental drowning incidents – almost double the daily average we would
‘Water can be a lot colder than you expect’
expect to see in a normal year. We know on a hot day, it can be tempting to cool off by going for a swim in reservoirs, lochs and quarries.
‘However, the water can be a lot colder than you expect and lead to cold water shock, which is when sudden immersion makes you gasp and lose control of your breathing and can lead to drowning.’
The summer heatwave has also fuelled the recent wild swimming boom, but aficionados are quick to urge caution.
Kate Rew, founder of the Outdoor Swimming Society, said the first question someone should ask themselves before swimming outdoors is ‘Is it safe?’, adding: ‘No one is responsible for you when you swim outdoors but yourself.’
The loch sits within Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, and the park authority insists it is doing everything it can to mitigate the risk of accidents.
Simon Jones, director of environment and visitor services, said it had installed new safety equipment and signs at various points.
West Dunbartonshire Council said it was installing 15 new pieces of safety equipment in and around the mouth of the River Leven at Balloch Country Park and had park rangers on patrol.
Mr Jones said ‘urgent meetings’ were taking place with water safety partners to consider further action. But he pointed out that ‘the size and nature of the national park’ means it is not possible or appropriate to have signage and safety equipment at all locations where dangers from water are present. And there’s the rub. As the loch fills up with a fresh wave of swimmers today, rescuers will be bracing themselves, hoping that this time luck – or even common sense – will spare them from another family’s grief.