To consider taking my children out of school an hour early once a week so that they can go to a swimming lesson?

[PineNutsAreOverpriced]

Just that really. Year 4 twins and a year 6. Weren’t strong swimmers before lockdown and still aren’t now - although they can mostly stay afloat there is still a lot of doggy paddling going on especially from the younger ones.

Previous swimming teacher has moved away. All local teachers and swimming schools are full up after school for lessons and have waiting lists for “sometime in 2022”

But I could get them into a lesson at 2.30pm during the week, on a day I am not working. I can get them there if I pick up at 2.15pm (school finishes at 3pm)

I think I probably would be unreasonable but am considering this.

School does not provide swimming lessons for the year 4s - there was a week course (one session a day) for my year 6 at the beginning of the year but that will be it for the year.

I’m not sure how the head will react if I ask.

Also, we do take them swimming as a family but can’t seem to get them to take it seriously the way they did with lessons. One has dyspraxia and tends to hang off me in the pool, which doesn’t help the situation.

Ffs you have a year six who's about to make a pretty serious transition to senior school and you're trying justify missing time to go swimming.

If they fall behind on education, are you willing to accept that too, or are you going to blame the staff and school for not doing their job, despite actively working against them to do so. There will be lessons outside of school hours, or teach them yourself or with family.

People seem very empowered to do flexi schooling or, it's your child, your right. Then first to complain when the child doesn't get the results they wanted academically. I do wish some parents would work with schools and the challenges they already have, not actively against them.

And no, I'm not a teacher, or have family in that game. I was a single parent to a 20 month old for a number of years in a deprived area.

Does anywhere offer daily lessons in the holidays? This worked well with one of mine.

My sons school are allowing me to pick him up 40 minutes early, once a week for a 6 week slot of lessons.

Schools exact response was, yes, it's an important life skill.

I'm surprised by the responses here Op as this wouldn't really be an issue at my sons junior school. A number of children leave early for various clubs etc. Some are playing sports to a very high standard but some are for gymnastics classes that take a while to get to. They will have been marked as present for the afternoon so no attendance issues at all.

It is an essential life skill & if they're academically capable, then I'd definitely ask the question. The worst the school can say is no.

If you want a different perspective to what others are saying OP, If it’s something you really think would be helpful I would ask the head for an opinion, I know in my daughters secondary there is a few kids that leave half an hour early for swimming, it does happen!

No, of course you can’t do this
School isn’t optional - it’s the law.

I'm a teacher and I have seen far more dubious things allowed, including parents of a Year 7 boy who wanted to take him out of every subject they didn't think sounded worthwhile to do extra tennis sessions. They got away with Art in the end! I don't see how it could hurt to ask.

I can't even get on the waiting list for swimming lessons at the moment. You have to magically check the website on the right day to see if the WL is open.
No school swimming as she's too good, being able to just about swim one length...

I used to do this with my 2 middle children for a different sporting activity and the head agreed to it.

I think you might be ok with this. The "attendance register" that schools are monitored on is a specific 5-10 minute slot around 9am and after lunch - if your child is in school for that slot then they are counted as present and the attendance stat doesn't suffer. The only issue would be if there was a specific element of the curriculum that your children would always miss eg if that last 45 minutes of that specific afternoon is always music or art.

I know kids who leave school early for sports. I would ask the school. It’s an important skill.

The school will never agree to it. You will probably be fined for non attendance if you do it anyway.

Can you do crash courses at half-terms ?

I get that a lot of people think swimming is important but I wouldn’t say it’s ‘essential’ in the same way school is.

Sea safety/beach safety is definitely important, but while mine can all swim I wouldn’t count on lessons at the local pool being much help if they get in trouble at sea.

As in, I think it’s a good life skill to have, but not so essential it couldn’t possibly wait for the holidays or when an appropriate class becomes available.

If you can get a doctors note for the dyspraxic child then they might consider it for them.

Do you really want to be “that” parent?
Seriously Why can’t you teach them yourself in evenings or weekends?

DD leaves school early some days for gymnastics training, but that's because she's doing 20 hours training a week. We have an agreement with the school, as do some of the other competitive gymnasts in the squad. This is quite normal in the gymnastics world. I wouldn't dare ask for beginners swimming lessons though 😳 We squeeze swimming, dance and stage school in on evenings and weekends.

Missing school for this would be completely unreasonable in my opinion. Use blocks of lessons in the holidays, teach them yourself, pay a local sixth former to help if you can’t manage all of them together, etc

I'm really shocked as a swimming teacher myself they put a course on so early for primary aged children, it seems highly inappropriate tbh no decent swim school would do this. I teach ducklings the earliest at 3.15 where they are nursery age alot have moved up now and the class is closing due to many unable to attend if they have siblings to pick up. I would maybe stress your concerns over to the school about school swimming many don't bring Y3s and start for Y4s. I also teach schools we have one Y5 where majority cannot swim. Do you take them with you to the pool? I'd keep looking around tbh.

Instead of going as a family have you tried one child and one adult on a rota basis? Realistically 3 kids together are going to mess around! Or advertise for a freelance teacher? There’s lots of kids doing leisure time courses and qualified lifeguards, competitive swimmers who could potentially do this for extra cash. They can swim a bit so a lot of it is about practising
Otherwise I think you just need to get them on the waiting list and wait a few months.

I’m sure there are benefits of swimming.

How do you plan catch up without any extra work or disruption for the teachers or other pupils? If part of it is preparing for something fun that your child wants to do (assembly/play/sport/special reading day) but needs to be in school what will you do?

Why shouldn’t other children also have different times out of school?

what message are you sending your DC - parts of school are optional if there is something more interesting?

From the things here you might be allowed- think carefully if you want to ask.

So the teachers then needs to spend time focusing just on your kids covering what they missed resulting in the rest of the class having less resource applied to them. Really….???

No, you can't do that.

Now that Covid restrictions are lifting, you can arrange for your children to go swimming during the school holidays. You say they are not strong swimmers which indicates that at least they can swim! All they need is practice to get stronger.

My dyspraxia child has really benefited from swimming lessons but we take him in a Sunday morning. He started on an October half term half hour a day intensive job and we waited for a recurring slot then.

The lower levels move up really quickly and so the slots become available quickly, get on the waiting list. You can't take them out of school for swimming lessons.