To complain about my child's swimming lesson

[MissesBloom]

My ds (4) has just started swimming lessons with a new swimming school and we are 2 lessons in.

The first lesson I noticed it seemed to be quite a big class he was in, with most of the other children able to swim to a higher level than my ds. There are 4 classes going on at the same time in the same pool with numerous teachers at different ends of the pool.

Anyway this week on his second lesson they were using pool noodles which ds has used a couple of times but this time he was put onto his back. He is unsteady on his back. He can't swim unaided at all. He ended up struggling and losing his grip, went under the water and couldn't get back up. I've no idea how long he was under as it always seems an eternity, but was horrified that the swim teacher hadn't noticed and was in the middle of the pool with some of that other kids. There was her and a young teenage girl helping at that lesson. Neither of them could see him. He was in the shallow end but this still comes above his head so he couldn't just put his feet down.

I ended up running across the poolside with my baby in my arms screaming to the nearest teacher I could get to that he was under. By this time the teacher had seen me yelling and got to him just after me. She pulled him out. He was OK it happened quite fast but I'm really really concerned now because if I hadn't been watching him they wouldn't have known. They gave no apology or explanation.

My son is fine and it hasn't knocked his confidence. My question is should I complain and if so how? I'm useless at making a complaint and I always end up making myself somehow sound like I'm being unreasonable or being almost apologetic. I want to let them know they need to keep a closer eye on him as a non swimmer and I'm unhappy about what happened.

Or on the other side of it am I overreacting? Does this stuff just happen and should I just forget it and worry if it happens again? No idea what's OK and not OK really.

Just to add it's very common for parents to take part in baby swim classes where I live, most children are swimming independently at 4 or 5.

This is appalling! DS has been going to lessons since he was 4 and couldn't swim at all - the pool is divided into 8 by ability, and at the lower end is 2 children to 1 adult in with them, with additional supervisors watching them from poolside. It's too deep for the kids to touch the floor but I have no concerns about safety because there's always someone with their eye on him (usually holding on to him).

What you're describing is dangerous and a tragedy waiting to happen - you need to complain vociferously to the company, and to the pool where it's being held (who won't want an accident happening and may be unaware).

Definitely pull him out of classes as well and find somewhere else. I can't imagine how you must have felt seeing him go under and wondering what would have happened if you weren't there.

How big is the group? I can't understand how the teacher (and 1 helper) can watch a group of kids swim if they themselves are both in the pool.
I also thought the kids would all be doing the same thing at the same time or taking it in turns. Sounds like both staff were engaged elsewhere and your son was doing something himself? Was he supposed to be swimming or holding onto the side? Not that I'd expect a 4 year old to be 100% reliable waiting in water anyway... he could get bored or lose his grip (since he's out of his depth in the shallow end).

I would speak to the teacher, see if there is a smaller group with a lower level he can join.

I've seen swimming lessons with schools at our local swimming pool. The children are older (around 10) and have 2 adults per group but take turns to swim and seem very well monitored from the pool side and there is a lifeguard present as well. I wouldn't like the set up you are talking about at all.

I'm not normally one for knee jerk reactions but in this case I would not carry on with the lessons and would make an official complaint.

If he can't swim at all he needs to be in a baby pool surely? Dts have a group lesson, 6 in a class. They are in the baby pool and go to the big pool for a bit but are in the water one at a time at that point with the teacher on the side with a pole for them to hang on to as they can't touch the bottom.

Sounds like he is in the wrong class / location.

DS (5) has just started and it looks as though he is going to be moved up from Stage 1 to Stage 2. The reason being that he is confident about being in the water so now they want to start teaching him technique.

The whole point to Stage 1 is to build up water confidence and make sure they are comfortable being 'out of their depth', jumping into the pool and putting their face under the water (in simple terms!). It sounds like the instructors have moved straight onto the technique side of things with noodles etc rather than helping him enjoy just being in the water.

I would seriously consider either paying a little more until he can hit that milestone, or move him to a slightly more structured class (ie lifeguards, less children to the class). FWIW, when my DS is not 'swimming', he is put on the side of the pool rather than left to his own devices in the pool. DD (who learnt in a different pool) had a raised section put in the pool so there was always an area where they could touch the floor.

The main thing is it hasn't phased your DS but for your own peace of mind, I'd consider some other options. Things can go so wrong so quickly in the water and the lack of lifeguards alone would make me extremely nervous.

Both of mine learnt to swim in a pool where the beginners class was purposely placed in the deep end so none of them could put feet down. But they had arm rings (3 at first then 2 then 1 as they improved) and the teacher stood on the side so she could see the whole group (10) properly and they had 2 or 3 teenage assistants in the water with the kids to assist as well.

I don't like the sound of your set up at all OP

My ds is 3 and just moved to lessons where it is him, up to 5 others and the teacher in the pool. Up to 3 a parent must be in the pool with them. (We're in Australia, he's been doing lessons since 6 months). The rule is that parents need to be in the area monitoring, mainly in case they need the toilet. There are also lifeguards in the pool.

I would not be happy if a teacher didn't have a line of sight on the kids in her class. Regardless of swimming ability, he's only 4!

I would just find another provider. This happened to dd, I don't think it's that uncommon. But the new provider we found was streets ahead. Classes of less than 6, with plenty of supervisory staff. We paid more but it was worth it. Ask around people with older dc.

My dd had an experience like this when she was younger. It left her terrified of water for ages, and really hampered her attempts at learning to swim. Eventually, I paid for 1:1 lessons. Cost a fortune but it was well worth the investment.

I would talk to the swim school about what happened, and if you're not completely reassured by their response and by the measures that they're putting in place to ensure that this doesn't happen again, then I wouldn't send him back.

And btw, I don't think 4 is too young to learn. We left it later with dd and I wished we had started earlier.

Non swimmers at the council pool swimming lessons have a maximum of 10 in a class, though average numbers are 5 or 6 a class. They swim across the pool 1 at a time under the supervision of the teacher who is in the pool with them. Teachers are strict, but children seem to love lessons generally, though always a few beginners who don't like it. It doesn't sound as though the set up in your DC's school pool is quite right or well thought through.

I wod complain, your son nearly drowned, because they were not paying attention, there was no lifeguard. Sounds a recipe for disaster, your poor son 😥

When my dd started swimming lessons, she was 4, a total non swimmer and absolutely terrified in water. She started her lessons out of her depth, and to our amazement, got in the pool and was not at all frightened. She is now 7 and swims lengths. Being out of his depth isn't the issue here, it sounds like either the group is too large and they need more teachers in the pool or he needs to be in a group with other kids of the same ability.

In any case, YANBU, and I would be looking to speak to the owner/manager of the swim school regarding the incident and asking what they plan to do about not letting that sort of thing happen again.

There are a combination of risk minimising techniques that people teaching in-water activities should be using to make conditions as safe as possible and I know because I've taught this type of stuff and these are the techniques that I employed:

I would NEVER position students (and this includes full grown adults) who are novices outside of my direct line of sight - that's just asking for trouble - people drown in mere minutes so you need to see exactly what they are doing the instant they do it. You do this by being quite picky about how and where you position them and yourself to facilitate this

Ratios - your ratios of number of students to instructor are significantly smaller the less experienced the students so someone who cannot swim at all I wouldn't expect to be in a class of multiple children

Depth/flotation - adjusted according to the ability of the student. If they can't swim you start with full flotation device suitable to the activity being undertaken (could be armbands in a swimming lesson) and the flotation device would be something that can't become separated from the student (so not a noodle!). Over time the use of those aids can be reduced but you'd do it within the proper ratios.

I would definitely complain and ask for a review of their in-water supervision which seems risky and inadequate to me. It's alright being all blase about it but what if you'd gone off to change baby's nappy or something, what could you have come back to? It doesn't bear thinking about for you or anyone else's child and they need to get their head out their you know whats and review the poor ratios, maybe just too many children altogether, poor instructor/student positioning and choice of flotation devices that caused a near miss serious untoward event which could have been fatal.

A similar thing happened to me. Our swimming group only had 4 children, it was my son's first length and his teacher wasn't watching as she messed about sorting the lane-rope out. He got halfway along and started choking and couldn't stop. I had to lean over the side and drag him in.

Needless to say we didn't go back but in hindsight I wish I had complained. All the other parents saw though and commented to me about it (there were 4 classes happening at the same time). We have actually tried 4 different swimming places and the one we are at now is awesome

Thanks so much everyone. I wasn't sure what action to take here.

As a previous poster said, they aim to have a teacher at each end and they sort of send the kids in a line to swim to the other. Problem was that the teacher had moved away from her end and was focusing on another child.

I'm ringing her today to see if she can move him into a smaller group and certainly one where he can touch the floor, for my peace of mind and his.

I was shocked it wasn't taken very seriously and it wasn't addressed at the end of the session.

I know 4 is young but he starts school lessons this year and I don't want him (as an august born child being the youngest) to be the only one not comfortable in the water. I know he probably won't be swimming unaided by then, but if he's confident it's a great start. Plus I won't be there to intervene so I'd feel happier if I knew he had some practice.

My mum taught me and my brother from babies and we loved water and are both very strong swimmers.

If the teacher won't move him down a group I'll be looking for another swimming school or I'll teach him myself.

I'm surprised they don't have lifeguards. Not all swimming teachers can actually swim, and I'm sure they're not all trained lifeguards.

That said, until recently, our pool did not have lifeguards on poolside during adult swimming lessons.

My 4 year old does swimming lessons (at our local swimming pool) and he is in a group of 6, all can stand up and there is a lifeguard. They start going out of their depth at Stage 3 (around 5/6) and completely at stage 4 (6)

The no life guard bit is really concerning, when I did a pool party I had to have 20 children, 10 adults and 1 lifeguard to meet health and safety.

shocked that so many of you have had this happen. It takes seconds and that's the fear. I almost went to change dd while he was in the pool but didn't feel right leaving him. Very very glad I didn't.

There are about 8 kids in the class. His swim teacher is the lady runs the school and she is helped by a young teenage girl. So 4 kids per teacher, but the owner seems to have to intervene with young girl quite a lot as she often can't manage 4 of them to herself and I think this is where the problem lies.

Terrifying is not the word.

I'm not normally one for knee jerk reactions but in this case I would not carry on with the lessons and would make an official complaint.
^^ Me too.

I'm so sorry this happened to you. Our local pool sounds pretty much the same. There is no lifeguard. There tends to be up to four classes in the pool at any one time, and up to 8 children per class (just one teacher per class)
Both my DCs started lessons very early. I don't even want to think about how much we spent. Its all done with now.
Anyway, DS2 is a water baby and was so confident he started lessons without me in the pool at 20 months. The class varied between 4 and 8 children at any time and obviously he couldn't touch the floor in the shallow end.
I watched each and every class, and at no point did the instructor 'not' notice any of the children. Even when talking and concentrating on one child, all the instructors were aware of the other children. At the end of the class, it was standard practice for an instructor to speak to any parent if they had concerns about the ability/placement of their child.

You are perfectly right to get your child into a class suited to your DS. My DS1 was a more nervous swimmer (he was with me in the pool until 4) and they stayed on the side for the majority of the lessons, practicing kicking and wotnot but mainly practising how to hold the bar at the side and get out of the pool unaided (actually they do this from babies)

I wouldn't carry on, I've taken my son out of a swim school for similar problems, he was 5 and in a group of 3 but he actually regressed in his swimming abilities, they showed very little individual attention to kids and the last time that he slipped under the water was the last straw, I'm saving up for 1 on 1 lessons now.

If you're child can't swim unaided then you should be in the pool with him. The class is obviously too advanced. Rather than complaining find a more suitable class and ensure you're in too!

It does happen and remember my dcs swimming lessons but the difference is the fact he was left and not noticed whilst being a very vulnerable swimmer. I would not go to that one. Our dcs lessons were supervised and although sometimes a teacher became distracted there was always a lifeguard watching too. My ds did have the lifeguard jump in for him once, ran out of steam doing a length, but was quickly sorted and delt with. Swimming is so important and you don't want them put off and need to know they are safe.

I would complain. Dd did lessons in a pool a little bit deep and it had two adults and a lifeguard. Not one child could move of holding the side until the other child was back. There was an adult in the pool and an adult at the side.

Basically if you hadn't been there and noticed your child could have drowned?

Complain.