Sinking, Swimming or just Treading Water. The Olympic Legacy from London 2012 ? 4 Years On. Has it made any difference? Pupil Voice and an Analysis of Swimming Provision

This paper examines whether the Olympic Legacy has made any difference to the children of Hackney in East London in terms of swimming and physical activity provision, from the children's point of view. In what has become an issue of great concern to teachers (and parents), over the last 25 years, many children have been identified as not being able to swim at all, yet the National Curriculum in England stipulates that all children must be able to swim at least 25 metres by the age of 10 and 11 years old at the latest. As part of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games spectacle, a magnificent Olympic Aquatic Centre was built on the Olympic Park, now known as The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The legacy of the games, stated that the sporting resources left after the games would be made available to the general public including local children and schools, as a means of encouraging people both young and old, to become more physically active, including swimming as a sport and leisure activity. The data collected contributes to an existing body of knowledge where the vast majority of the work on pupil and learner voice has been concerned with the core school subjects and with secondary schooling. The re-emergence of the pupil voice as a pedagogical approach to inform curriculum design is encouraged throughout this paper.