Paying school for swimming lessons

[ISpeakBecauseICan]

We have received a letter from school advising us that swimming is on the curriculum (year 3) and the children will be having swimming lessons in the school pool in the summer. Each family must contribute £25 per child.

My 8 year old Dd has been having swimming lessons at the leisure centre since she was 4 and is a competent swimmer so I don’t really see the point of paying for the school lessons.

Also the non-swimmers in the class will receive extra swimming lessons- so effectively we will be subsidising the kids who can’t yet swim

Is it a bit cheeky to expect parents to pay for something that is on the curriculum or is that standard?

FTR the school seem to be constantly asking for money and contributions for cake sales, Christmas fair, mufti days, various charity collections, school disco, raffle tickets, special visitors... and the list goes on. Though I will probably end up sending the money in so she doesn’t feel left out.

My dd did her 2 mile swim badge with school, things like that. They do tailor it to the childrens ability (or they should)

Doesn’t bother me . I’ve had to pay for dd’s school swimming lessons this year and we pay for swimming lessons at the gym.
I don’t begrudge having to pay as the mo eh goes to the school and the transport

"schools should be telling the government this is not deliverable".

WTF do you think schools have been doing? There is a lot of teacher and school bashing on this thread as usual. They just can't do anything right, can they? Maybe SnapesGreasyHair as the resident swimming expert, could take over?

This thread is pretty nasty and grabby IMO. OP, frankly you are coming over as selfish and grasping. Very few state schools have their own swimming pool and to begrudge £25 and complicate matters further for staff is very bloody minded of you. So your dc can swim already - and? lots of other dc can't.

"effectively we will be subsiding the kids who can't yet swim". That's the heart of your concern isn't it? it says a lot about you. . Perish the thought that those among us who are a little better off financially should assist those who aren't. The true spirit of austerity.

Ime generally children enjoy school swimming lessons, moreso if they can already swim... so why the obsession with not wasting their time, surely at primary school especially,this kind of activity is what should be happening. Education is more than just academics, or should be.

@pepperpot99 - please don't be rude and make personal insults. I'm not a "resident swimming expert", I'm a parent who spent out a lot of money to get DS1 to swim and who begrudges paying out for an activity that he doesn't need to partake in - especially when there are areas within the curriculum that he is behind upon but he isn't getting the opportunity to get extra help there because as a PP mentioned - the SEN budget has been cut.

FTR the school seem to be constantly asking for money and contributions for cake sales, Christmas fair, mufti days, various charity collections, school disco, raffle tickets, special visitors... and the list goes on

Do you really think they would be doing this and asking you to pay for swimming lessons if it was necessary? Or do you think the school is keeping the money for their Friday afternoon piss up in the staff room

FFS get your head out of the sand and realise our schools are struggling financially

Meh, consider it as paying for them to have fun in the pool with their school friends and it’s always good to get a bit more practice and feedback from a different teacher.

And maybe have a word with your head/ PTA to see what you can do to help with fund raising, or write to your MP about the massive cuts in education budgets if you’re not happy with the funding structure.

Well said *Pepperpot99”.

Snapes, do they offer anything else for your child if he/she has SEN.

On,y asking as DS is autistic and though he loves swimming he HATED it with the school. I used to pay the contribution knowing he would rage and at times refuse utterly to change,

In the end the school excused him and he did an activity he enjoyed with the year group below. So while he didn’t necessarily get extra tuition (they did that at other times) he did get to learn new stuff which has helped him as he’s got older. He discovered he enjoyed badminton for example which his class never did but which the class teacher in the year below loved....he did that instead of swimming.

Quite,FlippinNora1.

I mean paying towards the Christmas fair? and school disco? how awful. All these extra activities (for which no staff get paid btw) us parents are asked to contribute towards. Schools would be far better if staff started their day at 8.30 and then fucked off at 3.25 on the dot. All this extra curricular bollocks? it can go to hell. .

Do you know that they can't force you to pay and equally they can't exclude your child if you don't pay? I had this with my children when they were at school and they are simply trying to get you to contribute to save funds but if you don't give the money they are not allowed to stop your child going - that applies to any trip, activity etc that school goes to. Simply fill in the form, send it back with a note on it saying 'I am unable to pay the requested amount by Fred will still be attending, many thanks' and sending it back in an envelope.

@DeloresJaneUmbridge - my son is now y11 so swimming with primary was all a long time ago.

The primary school just couldn't cope as they also had a very high number of EAL and also FSM families, so they did the best they could with what resources they had.

Unfortunately the school were constantly asking for money, which l did give at first but it soon added up. I then started paying for a private tutor to help DS1 catch up. The school were not happy about that and my son was questioned by the deputy.

It's all long ago now.

I don't like threads like this, it's £25, not £250, you can obviously afford to pay it, so just pay it. If you couldn't afford to pay it then you'd ring the school and if it is on the curriculum then the school will have to dip into hardship funds.

Doesn't need to be discussed ad nauseum.

I pay a similar amount but with 2 kids it costs me £50. I wouldn't mind if they transported them to the local leisure centre but the school has it's own pool which is 10 metres and only comes up to waist level. Both my kids are excellent swimmers and swim every week. And our school actively chases for the money if parents don't pay.

This irritates me too as a single mother of three I pay for my kids to have weekly lessons and they can all swim I get annoyed at the school for charging as it is a struggle for me to pay again when they already have lessons so much so me and the kids have agreed if it comes up again with school there happy to sit it out. I pay £60 a mo the then school charge £20 for six weeks lessons or what ever it was and they can swim. We are subsidising kids that can't swim and I understand people can't afford the weekly lessons but I think it should be optional the school one mine certainly won't be doing it again.
That's on top of the school trip bake sales t shirts for fund raisers dress down days fancy dress days performances etc it does get too much for us single mums!

dds primary cancelled swimming lessons because of all the parents who complained that they paid for swimming lessons already. They do it for every alternate year group.

I felt sorry for the kids who weren't dragged to swim club three times a week and who didn't get a chance to go.

I think there should be an option to opt out if you can prove your child is at a certain standard. However I then fear that children who really need and benefit from school swimming would suffer as if lots of more able swimmer children opt out then school swimming would not be financially viable.

I am in Scotland where schools don't do swimming so this whole thing is alien to me
My dc have attended two Scottish primaries and there was swimming in both of them - not in all years though. And their secondary has its own pool.
A lot of the money requests mentioned in the OP aren’t directly by the school - trips are, but charity ones are well, for charity, and discos etc will be towards PTA funds surely which raise money that is then given back to the pupils in various ways.

I feel your pain. Two of mine were swimming competitively when the school lessons happened (I'm in Ireland so they were around 10/11). I paid as I didn't want them to be left out. However, I was not impressed when I discovered that my dd was being asked to help out with the teaching!

However, I was not impressed when I discovered that my dd was being asked to help out with the teaching! why? ds loved helping the less confident swimmers and it was really good for him.

He didn't need to be showing off swimming 100m with regional times, which is what he could do when he did primary swimming!

that's a horrible thing to say about TAs. All the ones I've known have been fantastic

Glad to hear that. The ones at DS's school didn't know how to teach phonics and were a liability in KS2 maths.

It's a job for mums to fit around their kids' school hours. I want well qualified properly trained teachers in the classroom (I used to be one) not TAs and - God forbid - cover supervisors.

I’m a swimming teacher payment isn’t enforceable it’s part of the national curriculum for all children from year 3/4 onwards. It could be for transport, definitely enquire though.

how refreshing kathy

I agree totally. We had one TA for 2 years, she was the most awful gossip and had no idea how to teach anything. Good at putting posters up though.

None of the TAs I know (about 10) are mums with kids in school. For some, it is a route to gain experience before going into teaching. It is badly paid, and too much is asked of them.