IT IS not often a primary school receives the gift of a swimming pool but that is exactly what has happened at Witney Community Primary School.

The Water Babies Oxford swimming school has provided £130,000 to upgrade an out-of-use pool to modern standards and now pupils can learn to swim without needing to leave the school grounds.

It is a luxury not many children are afforded. Many readers may remember having to get on a bus to travel to a leisure centre each week, with the whole exercise consuming twice the time it would have if the pool was on site.

Having been closed for several years, the new pool is a great addition to Witney and could soon be opened to the general public as well as baby swimmers and the school’s pupils.

It is now a community asset which should be looked after to ensure it does not fall into disrepair again. There are already plans to refurbish the dome exterior.

Water Babies may have pumped in the money for its own commercial benefits but it should be congratulated for making it available to more than just its own young clients.

Learning to swim is an essential safety skill and it is imperative that it is nurtured from a young age. The Government demands that schoolchildren should be able to swim at least 25m.

Thanks to the generosity of a local business, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem for at least one school’s pupils.