HATHERLEIGH Primary School has been granted £5,000 to carry out work on its swimming pool but is holding off accepting the money until the new national curriculum is revealed.
The school is unsure how big a part swimming will play in the 2000 curriculum.
Vice chairman of the school governors Sue Tidball said: 'We are very much waiting on Government guidelines which should be out soon — numeracy and literacy have taken a big turn and this has resulted in the downgrading of a lot of other areas.
'We feel the pool is very important for the children but we also have to make sure we fit in with whatever the curriculum dictates.'
Mrs Tidball said a working party had been set up several months ago to look into how much the pool was costing and what the bill would be to bring it up to a better standard.
'We have to compare this with how much curriculum value we can get for it — everything in education is considered in value for money terms these days,' she added.
The grant from the Foundation for Sport and the Arts is towards installing a heating system and general repairs.
Estimated costs to complete the work, which include installing changing facilities, was £11,000.
The governor said the pool, which had been at the school in excess of 25 years and was in a deteriorating state, was only a metre deep.
'We have to transport the older children to Okehampton anyway because they have to be able to swim out of their depth and learn life saving skills.
'We may have to change the pool. We may have to use one that is deeper, but we really cannot accept the money until we know what is in the curriculum and how much use we can make of the pool we have.'
She added that how the school should spend its money also depended on forthcoming recommendations in the OFSTED report.