Children are at risk of drowning because schools and parents are not teaching them to swim.

That’s the view of Gravesend swimming instructor Angela Wilson, 37, after a new report said that half of UK children could not swim.

Mrs Wilson said parents could not rely on being in earshot if their children got into trouble in the water.

She said: “When children drown, it’s silent, they just slip away.

"There’s no screaming or shouting because water fills their lungs in seconds and they’re under before they can shout anything.”

Mrs Wilson runs her own swimming schools in the south east and for 20 years has taught children to swim.

She teaches alongside her mother, Jean Pendrich, who made headlines earlier this year when she saved the life of a 13-year-old boy while on holiday.

The pair teach pupils at the Milestone Academy in New Ash Green, Cobham Hall School, Shears Green Junior School in Northfleet, North West Kent College, Istead Rise, St Joseph’s Convent Preparatory School in Gravesend and Dartford Grammar School for Girls.

The Amateur Swimming Association surveyed more than 3,000 primary schools for the report and discovered that more than half of children aged seven to 11 could not swim the length of a pool.

Mrs Wilson said: “It’s scary the number of seven, eight and nine-year-olds I meet who have never even been in a pool.”

She added: “The problem is that parents don’t think it’s important any more. Children go to all sorts of activities – toddler football, toddler ballet – and swimming is just forgotten.

“Parents say, ‘Oh, well, they get swimming lessons at school’ but at school the kids are in and they’re out and if they can doggy paddle across the pool then they can swim, and that just isn’t the case.”

Drowning is the third highest cause of fatality in children in the UK.

And their warnings come as it emerged that one of Gravesend’s swimming pools is at risk of closure this summer.

Body Matters, in Lower Higham Road, is under review to consider if the pool is making enough money.

If it is not, the pool, run by North West Kent College, could close before the end of the season.

Adam Perry, director of Sencio, which runs the White Oak Leisure Centre in Swanley among others, said: “If the issues with school swimming programmes are not addressed and parents are not encouraged to ensure their children have at least a basic level of confidence and safety in and around water, then more will drown.”

Around 400 people die by accidental drowning in the UK every year, many of them children and young people under the age of 19.

Drowning Prevention Week runs from June 22 to 30.

A spokesman for the Department of Education said: “Swimming is an important skill to learn for life, which is why, under our new PE curriculum, primary school pupils will still have to learn to swim at least 25 metres, using a range of strokes.

“We are giving £150 million directly to primary schools to spend on improving PE.

"We have also invested £750,000 to develop an initial teacher-training pilot to improve the standard of primary PE specialists, with the first 120 ready to join schools from September.”

Kent County Council spokesman Mike Sherburn said: “Swimming is part of the national curriculum. The way in which the schools deliver the curriculum is up to them.”

For more information about lessons from Angela Wilson click here.