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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Cost of school swimming lessons

128 replies

Coffeeandtats · 17/03/2022 18:01

My son is in year 4 and attends a mainstream school which is part of a multi academy trust

They’re due to start swimming lessons after Easter and the letter which came home said the cost of this, including the instructor and transport to and from the venue, for the 9 weeks of lessons will be £62

As I understood it, because swimming is part of the national curriculum, they can’t make you pay for the lessons, but they can ask for a voluntary contribution from parents

AIBU to think £62 is absolutely taking the piss?

OP posts:
Maddiemoosmum0203 · 17/03/2022 18:43

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

OutlookStalking · 17/03/2022 18:44

Those saying its "a lot more" elsewhere have you looked? Ive just checked out leisure centre and its 30£ a month all year round . I reckon they might stop 2 x for xmas/easter maybe. Works out 5.20 a week!!

olympicsrock · 17/03/2022 18:45

That’s reasonable . Coaches are massively expensive.

CJay81 · 17/03/2022 18:45

Ours is just a contribution for the bus, £8 or something for the block of lessons. They've never even asked for money for the lessons. I wouldn't be paying 62 for them, as mine does lessons outside of school we pay for.

Dontlickthetrolley · 17/03/2022 18:46

Ours swim in Year 5 but they have spent the first half of the year catching the Year 6 up. We've only had to pay £12 for a contribution to the coach, but they only have 6 lessons. Those that can't swim have a 90 minute lesson, those that can are split in to 2 groups and get 45 minutes each and watch the others. As others have said it doesn't seem they do much whilst there.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 17/03/2022 18:50

My DDs school only take those who can't swim 25m, which I believe is the curriculum standard. Think it was a Covid thing, but it made sense.

Schools are in a hard place with swimming... they have to provide it, but it costs money they don't always have.

Christmas1988 · 17/03/2022 18:56

Wow that’s a lot of money, my sons school swimming lessons are free, no transportation cost either as its only a short walk. How can some parents afford £62 imagine if you had twins.

JaninaDuszejko · 17/03/2022 18:57

That's more than we paid for the DCs lessons at the leisure centre where they were in groups of 6-8 kids. Our school.lessons were free but my DC (and half their class) could already swim by the time they got to y4 anyway.

liveforsummer · 17/03/2022 18:58

Not that unusual as I've seen other threads complaining about it lately

nearlyspringyay · 17/03/2022 19:00

Nothing, it's free for six weeks in y6. Seems pointless to me though as most of them can already swim and those that can't aren't going to learn in six 30 minute lessons.

x2boys · 17/03/2022 19:02

My son is in year 10 now ,and they were free when he went ,I think he went in year three and six?
He also had private lessons but I cant remember them being very expensive either maybe £5,6 / lesson

elliejjtiny · 17/03/2022 19:02

Pre covid it cost £2 a week for school swimming lessons. However they haven't done any swimming for 2 years now. My year 4 child has swimming written into his ehcp and he has never done swimming with the school.

Oblomov22 · 17/03/2022 19:03

Cheap. Sounds like a bargain. £6?

banjaxxed · 17/03/2022 19:07

I think it's a lot for something that is part of the curriculum

Also, not sure why everyone is saying that it's much more privately

My DS swimming lessons are £24 per month at the local leisure centre

Lancrelady80 · 17/03/2022 19:10

Presumably that's to cover transport as can't charge for National Curriculum. Still, none of our local schools have ever charged a penny, and they go a good 20mins each way to the high school where the pool is.

If money is an issue, perhaps query how they intend to fulfil National curriculum requirements if you can't afford the transport costs. They might have funds available to cover the odd child. But if you can afford it, you're going to have to put up with it I'm afraid.

A pp said children won't learn to swim with school, they will need private lessons too. Sorry, I totally disagree with that. It's how I learnt, we never had spare money to go to the pool for fun, let alone the cost of lessons. So it is completely possible to learn to swim through school lessons alone, and the National Curriculum expects all Y6s to leave school being able to swim at least 10m (could be 5m or 20m, without checking I can't remember. But there is a definite expectation of a certain distance.) However, I would say it depends on lessons with school being regular, whether that's every week for a year or 6 weeks every single school year. 9 stand alone lessons is unlikely to do it - although not impossible I suppose.

LondonQueen · 17/03/2022 19:11

@Thewindwhispers

My village state school gets given use of the pool and the transport coach free but they still make parents pay for the cost of the swimming teacher. You don’t pay you don’t swim.

And yet there is money for all sorts of other silly stuff. I don’t get why this doesn’t come out of the school budget.

Yanbu, it should be paid for by the school.

As it's part of the National Curriculum they're not allowed to refuse swimming if you don't pay. It's a voluntary contribution. My school haven't charged the Y4's for their swimming lessons, pretty sure my DC's school don't either.
x2boys · 17/03/2022 19:16

@elliejjtiny

Pre covid it cost £2 a week for school swimming lessons. However they haven't done any swimming for 2 years now. My year 4 child has swimming written into his ehcp and he has never done swimming with the school.
My child goes to a special school they have their own hydro pool, he went in it for the first time ( he started in September) last week 🙄 COVID ! Surely if it's in the EHCP they are breaking the law not accomadating it?
princesssparklepants · 17/03/2022 19:19

I don't think it's that cheap. We pay £28 per month for dd to have swimming lessons. She's in a group of 5 or 6...

BlueCrispsSaltAndVinegar · 17/03/2022 19:41

@OutlookStalking I pay £26 a month for my DD to swim all year round, 2 weeks off at Christmas, and closed for 4 days at Easter (call it a week for arguments sake)

24x12=288
288/49=£5.87

I don't pay transport costs as it's half a mile from my home, I actually walk passed DDs school to get to it. It's not the cheapest pool either I just go to that one because it's easiest to get to.

So yes OP is getting a bad deal for only 9 lessons.

BlueCrispsSaltAndVinegar · 17/03/2022 19:43

Sorry my maths is off, but still cheaper than OP

JoshLymanIsHotterThanSam · 17/03/2022 19:44

I would just pay for private lessons. The lessons my kids have were £9.50 a lesson in a private healthcare gym with max class size of 6.

Hankunamatata · 17/03/2022 19:48

I pay £2.50 parent contribution per week per child for about 10 weeks of classes. £6.20 per week for class lessons seems a bit much.

littlemisslozza · 17/03/2022 19:49

As many others have said, it will be largely the cost of the transport. Coaches are extortionate at the moment and the biggest cost for most trips.

HangOnToYourself · 17/03/2022 19:52

@OutlookStalking

Those saying its "a lot more" elsewhere have you looked? Ive just checked out leisure centre and its 30£ a month all year round . I reckon they might stop 2 x for xmas/easter maybe. Works out 5.20 a week!!
I was thinking that my ds goes to local leisure centre and we pay £25 per month for weekly lessons. I'm up in south Yorkshire tho so that might be why its cheaper
Seashor · 17/03/2022 19:52

It always amuses me that parents want everything for free. Nothing is ‘free’ someone always has to pay for it, in this case the tax payer.
It’s moan, moan, moan from some parents, I honestly don’t know why schools bother, it’s a complete hassle taking children swimming.
Pay for your own swimming lessons they are your children after all.