Through the project, the biggest of its kind in the UK, 780 Liverpool kids who either couldn't swim or weren't very proficient can now swim 25 metres. And the rest have made progress.

The council has been inundated with letters from delighted children, with comments including: "I have more confidence and feel a lot safer in the water now"; "Thank you for organising swimming lessons. I really liked swimming in the deep end" and "I can now swim there and back without stopping"!

Liverpool City Council Leader Warren Bradley said: "The success of this project is a massive boost to our aim to get thousands more young people in Liverpool swimming and improve their health and fitness.

"Teaching so many children to swim in just a couple of weeks was always going to be a tall order. We were always hopeful we could do it and to have achieved so much in such a short space of time is just fantastic." 

Councillor Bradley acknowledged that a lot of work remains to be done, as around half of Liverpool schoolchildren still can't swim, against a national average of 17%. But work is being done to put that right.

He added: "We've just introduced free leisure passes so Liverpool children can get access to any of our Lifestyles centres, not just to go swimming but to do a huge range of sports. So any child who wants to continue developing their swimming skills through the summer can go to the pool every day if they want."

The 'Top Up' swimming lessons programme, initiated by Liverpool's School Sports Partnership, is funded by Liverpool's Lifestyles leisure centres and the government. It is a partnership between the city council and Stephen Parry's company Total Swimming, which provided the tuition.

It took place at five pools across the city, with the ultimate aim of improving the number of Liverpool youngsters who can swim before they start secondary school.

Schools across the city were invited to sign up to the scheme, putting forward pupils in Year 6 (final year of primary school) who could not swim 25 metres. Over the course of the fortnight, youngsters received a 30-minute session each day with one coach for every eight pupils.

"The work of our four School Sports Partnership groups on this city wide project has been top-class, and we hope to repeat the programme in 2007."

Stephen Parry, who took bronze at the 2004 Athens Olympics, said: "We've been delighted with the massive progress made by every child. It's been fantastic to see the kids having fun, getting fit and learning a vitally important life skill. And remember these are children that didn't even like the water and haven't had the opportunity to swim before. 

"Liverpool has really been put on the national swimming map through this ambitious project. So many people have worked together through our pro-active Partnership Development Managers to deliver the most successful and largest Learn to Swim program in the country. Liverpool council really is showing a strong commitment to sport through this program and many others, ensuring that the Lifestyles program will be a resounding success.

"And the huge impact the swimming project has already made means we can hopefully look to replicate it all over the country. That means Liverpool could soon be leading the way where once we were lagging behind."