Bullying out of school

[greyinganddecaying]

My year 6 DC enjoys swimming lessons once a week in the evenings. The class is mostly year 8 kids (it's beyond learning to swim & is more life guard type stuff).

Last few weeks some of the other kids have been aggressive towards my DC (he didn't mention until this week) - think deliberate kicking him in the pool etc, then this week the same again, with name calling & pushing him up against a wall in the changing rooms.

We've changed his lesson times to get away from these older kids & told the swimming centre (bullying in the water always worries me in case it escalates).

Have we done the right thing? Have we done enough? Also a bit concerned that the kids bullying attend the school my DC will probably go to.

Anyone had experience of similar? I feel out of my depth here.

I would be furious. Definitely notify the swimming school, probably in writing/email, and questioning their methods/supervision if this is actually going on in the water.
You've done the right thing in moving his lesson time.

The behaviour reflects very poorly on the y8's bullying a child that is much younger - I might think about notifying their school about pupils behaviour in that environment, and reconsider sending your ds there if you don't get a satisfactory response from them.

As a caveat my ds2 was badly bullied for a while and I do tend to jump in to these things with all guns blazing - zero tolerance & am happy to make a nuisance of myself.

Does the swimming school not have a cide of conduct or behaviour contract in the small print? I know the lessons my kids went to did.

Thank you - I was bullied as a child and I'm really keen that my kids don't go through what I did.

I'm not sure if there's a code of conduct for the swimming classes - it's at a local sports centre and many kids have been going since learning to swim. I've reported it to the centre and asked them to make the teacher aware.

I wondered about contacting the y8's school but didn't want to go over the top - it's our local school, so the default, and it was a baby boom year so we might not have much choice. It's not our first choice though, especially after this!