to not want to pay for other kids to learn to swim?

[tomdayleymum]

DS about to go into Year 3. Got a letter from school saying that from now til next July Year 3 will be going swimming and please can we have a voluntary contribution of £3.25 per week?

He can swim very well thanks to me paying for him to have private lessons. If other parents haven't bothered (or can't afford) to teach their kids to swim outside of school hours then fine, let the school teach 'em. But I don't want to pay for him to go in school hours when he could do with catching up on his reading instead.

AIBU?

Novack

Parents not paying the voluntary contribution is why the trips that I organise have "this trip may aid your childs' knowledge of the curriculum" and "places will be allocated on a first pay first served basis"

tell you what though, what really pissed me off was being asked for a voluntary contribution for history lessons that were not even off site, then the teacher humiliating the children who had not brought money.
School trips are different.

they are not on the curriculum

Exotic, I think it's one of those things that varies with demographics! We take between 35 and 40 children swimming once a week for half a year, and the 'non swimmers' group is ALWAYS the largest of the three groups.

A couple of points reinforcing what others have said:

-It's voluntary. Don't pay it if you don't want to, but then don't complain if the school doesn't invest in new reading books or whatever. As it's a NC subject, the school has to cover the cost regardless. Essentially, the per capita money in the school budget for 'swimming' may stretch to pool hire and (for bigger schools where larger numbers of children go swimming) teachers ... but the biggest cost is coach transport, which is non-optional in many areas such as rural ones. If that cost comes out of the school budget, there is less for other things....

• Those who don't pay will still have swimming lessons. The clue is in the 'voluntary contribution' - no child will be prevented from taking part in an activity just because their parents haven't paid it.

• It's a national curriculum subject. You don't get to opt your child out of music in school because they have music lessons out of school, nor maths because your child does Kumon, or football because your child plays for the local professional club's youth team. Swimming is just the same.

• All teachers and TAs taking swimming lessons have had training, it's not just something we 'turn up and do'.

• We never leave children behind in other classes - the class staff either go swimming or have non-contact time, and it is disruptive to the other classes (different age group from those who go swimming) and of no benefit whatever to the child left behind. All children from the year groups who go swimming come with us, any who e.g have no swimming kit have to sit on the side and watch, under the supervision of the very scary lovely ex-policewoman who volunteers to help supervise the children on the bus.

So, at least where I teach, if you chose not to pay, your child would still have to come to the pool, and would still be given lessons as long as they brought their swimming kit...BUT the pleas for help with fundraising might get a little more plaintive and the investment in resources and visitors and books will get less... it's a choice that you make.

(Also, on a more emotive note, we have a LOT of non swimmers from very disadvantaged backgrounds. If those who could contribute don't, then ultimately it may be that schools have to decide, NC subject or not, that they can no longer offer swimming or do so at such a low level that no non-swimmers ever learn to swim. And whose fault would it be when one of those children drowns?)

My point is that those that do not pay have forced the school to change what could/should be a curriculum trip and what is not.

wow the op certainly got a bashing :( and she did say she was BU and even offered

voluntary contributions always annoy me, as tbh you have to pay or the school/other parents make you feel bad - whether its swimming/school disco/school trip out

swimming is very important and to me one of the most important and essential life saving skills a child can learn

for some familys a £3 charge per child per week can mean the difference between eating healthily or not, esp if have 2/3children at same school so an extra £10 to find - though not in this case as op can afford the fee as pays out prob double per session of private lessons

private schools always add a voluntary contribution for things onto end of school bill and the amount they pay per term, (£3/5k) should be able to subsidize a trip out/disco

The only reason my son was pulled out of the swimming lessons provided by the school was the allergic reaction to the chlorine. As the sports hub wouldn't sort the chlorine level (it was too high) it resulted in us as parents and the school agreeing he wouldn't go as his lips swelled up every week and then he struggled to walk back to school having been given piriton. Instead he went to a private swimmingars school to learn to swim instead at our own cost.

He himself hated the pool concerned as he knew it made him feel funny. He is ok with other pools with normal chlorine levels.

However he had been looking forward to it.

£3.25 every week is a reasonable sum, and nothing seems particularly voluntary when there seems to be an element of blackmail (i.e. you can't opt out but if you don't pay it the school will lose out and you're a very bad person).

Swimming lessons outside of school here are £4.40 so I don't really follow that because the OP can afford that per week she can't possibly afford another £3.25

Correction

Swimming lessons outside of school here are £4.40 so I don't really follow that because the OP can afford that per week she must be able to afford another £3.25

Blondes,

We only take a couple of year groups swimming - which I believe is common practice - so we would be unlikely to have 3 children from the same family (we also ask for less, btw).

We speak separately to families who are on FSM or who we know may have difficulties (small school, small community). Several families pay on a 'tiny amount per week spread over the year', or as monthly pay packets come in, or simply as and when they can manage it. Tbh, we have a very high rate of contributions from those we would expect least from, and the most trouble from those families we know could well afford it....

Spoons, quite a few of the children who are having out of school lessons either stop completely for the school years when they do swimming, or cancel them for the half year of school swimming, so they do pay either the cost of private lessons or the cost of schol swimming (our contribution is slightly below £2 per week).

really teacher? so not every year gets a chance to swim with the school?

saying that i have 'helped' with reception class getting dressed/undressed for swimming and amazed how many 4yrs cant dress their selves without help, and im talking simple clothes such as a t shirt polo neck and trousers and socks - not buttons and doing up ties etc

does seem a lot of effort to get a mini bus, get changed,swim/splash in pool for 20ish mins, to get changed and back via mini bus to school - and can take almost a whole morning, but also is as i said an essential part of life skills and even if child cant swim to least get into the water without being scared

I'm surprised that people stop private lessons to replace them with school ones. In my experience school lessons aren't really a direct replacement and taking children out of clubs (often run by volunteers) they've been in for 3 years for one term of school swimming seems a bit off.

yes, a bit.
it's only 3 quid a week and surely he'll benefit from the extra swimming / activity.

Do you know, as a teacher, I was congratulating myself on having had a year or two relatively free from parents coming in to complain about x, y and z, with swimming being right up there as a major source of angst.

Now I know why. It's not because of my calm, confidence-inspiring manner. It's that everyone is yelling and flouncing and asking AIBU all over MN, being told they need to get a grip and, as a result, LEAVING ME ALONE.

Yay, Mumsnet!!!!

Blondes,

We (First School so only up to Year 4) take Years 3 and 4 for half of each year. That gives us a perfect number for filling the swimming pool we use. We consider it better to give a full half year of lessons to slightly older children than to have shorter series of lessons for R and KS1.

My DC's school takes all of KS2, but only for 8 week blocks, and 2 classes of 30 at a time [bigger pool].

"I bet nearly all the DCs will be able to swim"

Exactly! Which is why I think they should take the non-swimmers and concentrate on them.

DS doesn't need to go swimming during class time to have fun with his mates - he does that at playtime and lunchtime. They'll spend more time on the coach than in the pool.

What makes some of you think I'm minted just because I've scraped the money together to give my lad private swimming lessons? They were group lessons in the local pool, not one-to-one tutoring with Michael Phelps!

So if a child can run, jump, kick a ball etc. should not have PE lessons?

It's not just about learning how to swim, it's exercise.

Imagine how your Ds would feel he got to stay in class doing extra Math work, while his class mates were going swimming.

Your £3.25 is most assuredly not covering the cost of teaching the rest of the class to swim. What an absurd viewpoint
Swimming is part of the national curriculum, it's also good exercise - and there will probably be a very high percentage of the class who can swim already; their parents having done exactly as you did. Do they also have a gripe with it, do you think, or are you the class misery?

£3.25 a week sounds like a lot of money, actually.

i didnt pay the voluntary contributions either. There was a very high percentage in my DS class who are non-swimmers and I would much rather by SN child (dyspraxia, sensory processing disorder, ADHD) who could swim over 400m stayed at school and practiced his hand writing, then have to face the agony of being the last to get changed AGAIN due to his issues. At least then they could concentrate on the non-swimmers

MyBoys,

No child should have been left behind because they didn't pay the voluntary contribution. That is against the law. Equally, keeping an SEN child at school while the rest of the school goes swimming is against the law....

You agreeing with the school that he should not be taken swimming is...possibly marginally lawful, though AFAIK technically collective worship and SRE are the only things that a parent can choose to withdraw a child from...

Floggingmolly read the whole thread or at least highlight OP posts and then you'll be able to keep up