Why can’t everyone swim???

[GorgeousFox]

Am interested in understanding what is stopping children from learning to swim? Is it the cost, lack of facilities, time constraints, something else?????

Cost. It’s £7.80 plus parking for 1 child and 1 adult to swim in my local council pool.
Ratios meaning one adult can’t take all their children swimming.
Swim lessons are £63 for 12 lessons paid in one go.
Our pool has a rule that boys age 8 must use men’s changing I can imagine that puts some off if boy can’t manage alone or safety concerns.
In area where I used to live there was a large Muslim population and women would only swim fully covered in women only session was only one session a week and children couldn’t go.
Assumption they do it at school - private pool my dc swam at picked a lot up at this age when parents realised no they didn’t learn.
General shift in attitude to risk. When I was a child the pool had inflatables in on a Saturday afternoon and mums would drop kids off. It would be unheard of to send a 9 yr old in alone now.

There are more non-swimmers in DS2's class than DS1's because they had to donate half of their swimming allowence to compensate the year above's year group who were heavily stung by Covid closures/ restrictions for the entirity of their usual allowence.

As a double whammy the starting standard was lower because they'd already lost 8-12m of lesson time of private lessons depending on how much the provider valued letting children swim.

It was August 2021 before our usual pool would permit children swim in a public session. Adults had been allowed since July 2020.

Thank you everybody who took the time to respond.

It seems that opportunity is lacking - be it venue or qualified teachers. This is too great a hurdle for me to contemplate tackling.

Also a large number of folk do not value the skill whilst medical conditions prevent some.

That said, finance is also a barrier. It therefore seems a good proposition to begin raising funds to help children from less well off families learn to love swimming. Perhaps limited to those living close to bodies of water.

thank you once again for providing food for thought.

I send in my 9 yo alone on a Sunday afternoon. They run a kids only session for 8+ swimmers with a big inflatable. Three lifeguards whereas they normally have one.

I think it would be great if there were "functional swimming" lessons for anxious/SEN children and YP who struggle with the one size fits all lessons and the insistence on putting face in the water. I appreciate it's technically correct form but it's such a blocker for some.

I'll be honest OP if I had the time and inclination to start a charity, I'd use it to make sure kids had enough to eat and wear, and heat at home. Have you seen how dire the situation is for so many kids right now, even in families where everyone is working?

Teaching a few kids to swim when so many people don't have their basic needs met seems a bit tone-deaf to me

I'm not really clear on why swimming is predominantly a white/Christian thing to do?

Yes same here!

I genuinely can't envisage any circumstances under which I would accidentally fall into a large body of water.
I can't even remember the last time I was even in the vicinity of a large body of water. I enjoy day trips to the coast in the summer, but I'm not near enough to the sea to accidentally fall in.
Even if I was walking along by the edge of the water and I tripped over, all that would happen is that I would get wet.

I can swim, by the way, as can 2 of my 3 DCs (eldest absolutely detested lessons and, at the age of 24, is never near any water).
I just don't quite understand how an ability to swim is considered such an important life skill.

The ability to swim is huge

only people who can’t swim would say otherwise

everytime I hear of a drowning it’s either cold related or non swimmer

I’d never forgive myself if a child of mine was hurt due to not learning how to swim

it’s not that hard

and those who can’t swim are seriously missing out on some amazing opportunities

Both my DC have had swimming lessons. Before covid the public could come in and swim whilst the lessons were happening but since covid they close the pools to the public and there’s definitely more kids being taught and we do have plenty of teachers and lifeguards.

Under 16s swim for free in our borough (we’ve got to register the kids beforehand) and I also swim four times a week so have a swim pass (£20 a month) so during school holidays it’s a ‘free’ activity for us to do and we usually go two mornings a week, and it’s always busy with families. If we didn’t have the swim cards it would be over £15 per session for me and 2 DC. Parking is free as well. I think they make their money from the swimming lessons and are subsidised by the council, our council tax is quite high.

I spent thousands on eldest 2 swimming lessons. And both ok swimmer not fantastic.

Never took as a baby as i cant deal with public pools myself

The youngest 2 never had a lesson. 4 years old can swim 18ft unaided.
Youngest dc is confident with a floatie age 2. As we have a relative with a built in heater garden pool and they go in regularly from March to Sept.
By age 4 the eldest 2 could only swim about 5m and not confidently

My now 4 years old is sometimes too confident in water with no lessons.

We cant afford £92 a month on 2 dcs swimming lessons anyway ( 20 min a week lessons by time had 5 min warm up and 5 min play.)

I'm in Scotland and we have lots of inland water compared to England etc I can easily recall multiple times I've read an article when someone has slipped and fallen into a loch off a pier. Water can get deep very quickly and cold water shock sets in.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-57972950

This story is a good, although terribly sad, example. A child falls in people try to save him, get in trouble themselves and then drown.

@GorgeousFox you don't need to raise funds. Just get Ofsted to assess this as part of their overall assessment of schools.

Yes, this. Why the insistence that the 1st thing they must do is put thier face under the water before learning anything else?

This is why my dd was stuck in beginners class for 3 years before giving up on lessons.

Surely teaching her some potentially life saving skills, such as treading water or even doggy paddle, would have been far more useful than saying they can't teach her anything unless she can put her face under the water.

She was never going to be a champion swimmer, she just wanted to learn a vital skill.

Maybe it is vital that they can deal with their face being in the water?

If they slip under for any reason, or get splashed etc they need to not panic for example.

And they can't swim properly without getting their face in the water.

I suppose it's a bit like.... If the child refuses to pedal a bike, they'll never get further forward in their learning to ride? So you'd give them a balance bike and leave them to it... Bit wouldn't expect a bike riding instructor to teach them advanced skills which include pedalling.

But now, 00100001, she has no skills at all. She is terrified of going in the water.
If she had some basic survival skills it would be better than nothing.
Perhaps there should be 2 types of lessons, 'swimming', and 'water survival skills'

And before anyone suggests I should teach her myself, yes, with hindsight that would have been ideal, but after a few lessons with a professional teacher, she was far to scared to go in the water with me.

When DDs learnt to swim while living abroad, they had a test they liked the kids to complete as soon as possible before they worried about stroke accuracy etc.

1. Jump in to deep end
2. Tread water for a minute
3. Get themselves to the shallow end (25m) without touching the side/other people/flotation aid. (Usually a sort of doggy paddle stroke rather than proper front crawl)

They usually achieved this aged 4or5, or even earlier. I saw a 2yo do it. My younger DD did it at 3. (Elder DD at just turned 5 after we moved there when she 4)

In their UK lessons after we moved back and post Covid my elder DD in Stage 6 wasn't expected to be able to swim more than a width at a time, but was expected to do perfect butterfly.

One system prepared for safety, the other for competitive swimming...

My first time in a swimming pool aged my my Dad put me under his arm and swam off to the deep end. I assume his intention was to show me it was perfectly safe but actually it left me terrified for the rest of my life. Any attempts to make me put my face in the water or jump in off the side were doomed to failure from then on. In my adult class I was able to do breast stroke with my head sticking up and completed a length. It took me 40 years to get to that point and I still avoide the water. I might be tempted into a hotel pool if the temperature is over 40 but I hate indoor pools.

I love the idea of getting kids to do basic water safety as you suggest.

Sorry- this was in reply to comment above from Puttingdownroots. New to mumsnet - not clear on how it works

Why are white British people called Christian by default when the vast majority of us don't attend church and don't identify with it?

Frankly I find it offensive and ignorant. I am not a middle easterner and never
will be.

And before you start, Christmas and Easter are ancient European festivals of great antiquity that pre-date the attempted erasure of our culture that began 1500 years ago.

I was sat by river in York. Plastic chair, cobbled road. People drinking (it’s outdoor pub seating) I can easily see how you could accidentally tip back and fall in.
A friend was pushing a pram along a canal tow path after a firework display. It was dark and busy. A man was rudely pushing past people so they stopped to let him pass and he stepped around them but to wrong side and fell in canal.

It must be area dependent. Bet he loves it I did.

Out of curiosity how easy is it to train as a swim teacher if there’s a shortage? I looked out of curiosity and the council are paying £10/11 a hour but lots of gyms and private pools are advertising at £17/20 an hour and I’m up north. I’d have thought it was a good job for a TA etc to retrain in.