Should DC go on the school residential when he can't swim?

100% agree.

Apologies if you’ve already done this, but could you ask for recommendations for tuition on Facebook or similar? Are there YouTube videos you could watch ?

No judgement from me, btw, I’m not a strong swimmer and I remember feeling very left out during school days bc I couldn’t join in

I think if there was a reason that neither op or the dad could do it she’d have mentioned it by now.

I understand the guilt you will be feeling OP. I'll hold my hands up and say I'm guilty of not getting my children into swimming lessons when I should have. They were 4yo and 2yo when Covid hit and swimming isn't part of the school curriculum here. One DC is also disabled so finding someone to take her on was not easy. The local council lessons would never work for her. I eventually found a private swimming school on Facebook last September (I wish I'd found him earlier!) Disabled DC is almost 10 and still in the 'intro to swimming' stage so we're in this for the long haul, but I imagine your DS could pick it up very quickly.

Take him swimming every day and teach him yourself, I expect he will pick it up quickly. My son absolutely hated lessons and was very resistant to learning. He learnt in a few days in the pool on holiday.

Just go to local pool, try to pick a time when not as busy. I used to teach swimming, it's really not hard, watch some you tube videos and just do it. Buy a woggle and float and crack on !!

Possibly. But you actually have no idea whether or not his dad knows how to swim or feels confident teaching a kid to swim or is able to swim health wise at the moment.

I'm guessing op can't swim as she is ignoring any questions about teaching him herself. I don't think you need to be a swimming teacher, just take him along and point out some basics.

Ok practical stuff. First of all when is the residential and what is the actual itinerary? How much would he have to miss out on a daily basis?

Talk to the school and explain his complete inability to swim. What do they suggest? How will they manage that? Ask how many children are actually going. If it’s the whole of y8, there will be A LOT of children now going, as it tends to be 30/40 out of hundreds.

All this information will give you a better idea of what is going on and whether it can be managed or not.

It will also help the emotional side (not the only kid not going) or at least rationalise it(safety reasons, having to miss out too much etc.) or it could be that he’d only have to miss an activity or two or a day or two which can happen anyway for various reasons. What you need is more information.

Then , take him swimming yourself or your husband (whichever of you can swim). Gain some water confidence, breathing under water etc. Teach him how to float and if you can, how to swim . Even if there’s not enough time for the residential, it’s good to get him being used to being in the water and have fun for the future.

OP can you tell us your country? Perhaps some of us can find some solutions for you. For example, I know that in my area there are waiting list for some classes, but I also know some places that have availability.

If OP doesn’t think she can teach him, his Dad could. They could start today!

Teach him yourself.

For learning to swim, I'd get him a book like Learn to Swim by Benjamin Roberts and spend lots of time at the pool. That will get him finding his natural buoyancy and will get him at least 90% of the way to swimming. After this, at his age, he'll only need a very small number of lessons (so do the adult private ones if they're easier to find). Then it's a case of building up stamina by regular practice.

Why are all these posters assuming OP could teach her child to swim? Even if OP can swim herself, if she’s not a terribly confident swimmer she may not have any idea how to to teach a young child to swim, much less preteen/early teen who may well be as big as she is by now. She also didn’t have a crystal ball 8-10 years ago to warn her about Covid and her husband’s job assignments and so didn’t know her child would have been better off learning to swim at age 3-5 rather than waiting a bit.
Are there any summer camps with learn to swim programs OP? I’m sure mumsnet posters will help with the searching if you give them a geographical area/areas that could possibly work.

I agree -
i can’t believe there is NO swimming lessons of any kind in your area !
where on earth do you live ? Teletubby land ?

the Covid / moving stuff is not sufficient to justify this situation

OP you mentioned earlier that when you were overseas, there were no facilities for you to teach him to swim. This implies that you can swim yourself so can’t you just take him to a public pool here and teach him? It’s a genuine question. I’m wonder if either you/he don’t want this (perhaps he’s embarrassed?) but it’s an obvious answer. At his age , he would pick swimming up quickly with a bit of Will, even if his technique might not be great to begin with.

Your reply makes no sense and activity ignores my point that people want to help? To be honest the more you post the more it sounds like you dont want any useful advice so I'm not sure what else there is anyone can do. I just feel for your son who is likely going to continue to miss out.

Ignore the people who are giving unhelpful advice.

How long has he been on all these waiting lists ?
he is actually on these waiting lists you go on about.

I cannot think where in the UK that you live that is so remote you haven't found somewhere by now that he could have lessons.

Clearly he can't go on this school trip. full stop.

If swimming lessons in your area are as booked up as you say they are, your DC cannot be the only one in the year who can't swim.
You need to prioritise your child learning to swim.

Why are you giving up? You’ve been given lots of advice! Could his Dad not take him to the pool and teach him if you don’t want to - he might enjoy it with his dad!

You should ask the school for the activity provider's name. It will be a company that is managing the activities, so they will be the ones who decide on the safety aspects such as whether they will take non-swimmers. I suspect they won't, but it would be worth asking them directly.

You can start today - take him to the pool yourself today and book another session midweek after school! Forget repeating the past reasons why you didn't do it before, it doesn't matter now, just start right away, the 2 of you and schedule it in several times a week between now and the trip and you will achieve it.

It would be a real shame for him to miss the trip.

I'm getting the impression your version of "active looking" isn't as thorough as other peoples.

What area are you? People on here might have ideas.