Summer Learning Journey 2019-20 | Week 1, Day 5 | Activity 2: Swimming to Safety

Welcome to another post on my blog. This is the fifth day for the Summer Learning Journey 2019-20. If you don't know, the Summer Learning Journey is a holiday programme where we do blog posts over the summer holidays. This is because we don't drop down in our reading and writing. Because over the holidays, we have so much fun and not do any reading or writing, so we drop down in our scores.

The first week of this Summer Learning Journey is about Physical Limits - Sport and Exploration.

Activity 2: Swimming to Safety [4 points]

Yusra Mardini is a teenage girl who was born in Syria, a war-torn country in the Middle East. She left Syria in 2015 to get away from the constant fighting and became a refugee. During her journey to reach safety in a new country, the engine on the boat she was travelling in broke down and Yusra, her sister and two others jumped out of the boat and swam to get help. Her heroic actions saved twenty people’s lives.

Yusra now lives in Germany. In 2016 she was named as part of the Refugee Olympic Team and she swam for this team in the last summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is now training for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

For this activity, listen to the podcast of Yusra Mardini, or read her story on her personal website.

On your blog, retell the story of this amazing young woman from Syria.


Yusra Mardini, a refugee, an Olympic athlete and a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador born in Syria. She was a member of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team. Yura Mardini was appointed as the youngest ever UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in April 2017. Yura fled from Syria to the Turkish coast in 2015 and boarded a small dinghy (boat) full of refugees.

Yusra Mardini
Credit: https://twitter.com/yusramardini