Re DS dunking child at swimming

[sezamcgregor]

DS is Y2. They are going swimming with school. It's on Thursday afternoons. There are 24 in his class.

The class is known to be "lively" with "lots of big characters". School have also identified Thursday and Friday afternoons to be hard work as children are becoming tired and harder to keep concentration.

So, children split into two groups of 12:

Group A - Non swimmers, armbands on in shallow end, swimming teacher plus two school staff members

Group B - Swimmers (can swim without armbands) at the deep end, swimming teacher

Two incidents occur towards the end of the lesson, one of which is DS pulling a child under the water as he over took her.

Pulled over by Head Teacher today and put forward my mitigation that a) there was one person to 12 children who school know can be challenging b) it was Thursday afternoon which school know is a difficult time slot.

HT totally dismissed my comments.

She said that she will also be speaking to the swimming instructor as she should have alerted school staff earlier that she could not cope with the group. (Surely school staff would have noticed if she were not coping and offered to help??)

DS is missing next week's swim as a consequence - which is fine. I have no problem with that and agree that there should be a consequence.

But AIBU to think that she needs to look at the whole picture? I have a kind of "well, what did they expect to happen" view of it

Well you definitely don't like Banal do you Maryz?

I am pretty sure the new member of staff hasn't been hazed yet is very much on probation

We are talking about a six year old here. I think op is right in her decision in how to deal with this. Agree with those who have said to post in sen section.

Yes, Honey.

@hercules1

We are talking about a six year old here. I think op is right in her decision in how to deal with this. Agree with those who have said to post in sen section.

Indeed.

Dayshiftdoris

I didn't miss your point, I agree with it.

My point is that others have to deal with more than the one child, this may seem nasty to those in the situation that the op is in but in the same way that your child is your priority, their children are their priority and in some cases all of the children have equal priority.

Coolas The OP has explained that her son is being assessed for possible SNs, so along with "no need to be shocked and horrified"... there is also no need to be so judgemental of the parent.

How did you get that automatic label Maryz

I certainly did not.

Boney - sorry I missed what you were saying. Of course I appreciate that there is more to think of than my son - part of the reason I took him out of swimming in yr4. He could swim, it wasn't benefiting him and his support could go elsewhere.

And Olivia

I disagree... Why the hell should OP post in SEN?

Is that where we all belong? Sorry but if the only place you can hope to get understanding is in your 'right box' then the site has significant issues.

Oh Maryz the sheer relief when you get that diagnosis. I sat on the pavement outside the assessment centre and sobbed. I thought no one could say anything bad about us anymore, of course that wasn't true but it has still helped immensely. It's only later that the relief wears off and you have to start accepting the totally different life from the one you had planned.

The Op's child is 6. How many times does that have to be said? A child of that age can't be trusted to remember to cross a road safely - and yet must behave 100% perfectly at all times?

Doris, I must admit I took Olivia's post to mean we were talking about a six year old.

And there's no harm promoting that Mnet has a SN board for support AIBU is a big draw for Mne, so people don't always see the other topics.

I think the OP is getting rather a hard time here.

She has agreed that her son should receive a consequence which is missing swimming next week. There is no need for a further consequence from her, although a conversation about his behaviour and a reminder when he doesn't need his kit next week of why he is missing out would be a good idea.

It does sound rather like this situation wasn't thought through properly and the OP's son was set up to fail. 12 Y2 children who are already a handful on dry land are going to be very hard to handle in a noisy swimming pool, especially for someone who doesn't know the children well. Add to that a child for whom behaviour is already an issue and who is clearly going through an assessment process and probably needs some support and you have a recipe for disaster.

I would be cross if I were the OP and, if mine had been the child who was pulled under, I would be upset and asking the school to account for why the group was not better supervised or split into two smaller groups especially because my DD would probably have never got into a swimming pool again if it happened to her.