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AIBU?

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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:
OutlookStalking · 17/03/2022 21:34

Robo - have you looked at leisure centres/swim clubs? Its likely to be about half the price!!

CatDogMonkeyPOW · 17/03/2022 21:38

Amazed at some of the responses here. I pay £20 a month for DD's swimming lessons at our local pool so £62 for 9 weeks when it's part of the national curriculum seems extortionate to me.

LittleOwl153 · 17/03/2022 21:49

I think the problem with this level of swimming charges in school is the swimming lessons are crap for the majority as they are targeted towards those who have never been in a pool.

I am paying £7 a class for my ds at the leisure centre - where he gets a rigorous lesson of 8 kids and is progressing well.

I pay £3.50 a class - same pool, same set of seim teachers for school swimming. He is bored and mucking about as he can out swim all of his group OF 15 easily and there is no attempt to challenge him. At £3.50 ill consider it an alternative exercise... much more though and I'd be stopping paying as he's not getting any value from it. I would not be paying £62 for 9 lessons unless they met the grade level he was at consistently.

Degreeincodology · 17/03/2022 21:52

Coach prices everywhere are extortionate now. The 62 is probably only covering the child's transport and not even the lessons.

Mollyforgot · 17/03/2022 22:11

We paid £2 per week voluntary contribution

MiniDaffodils · 17/03/2022 22:14

The main cost will be the transport. Coaches cost a fortune.

Rosebel · 17/03/2022 22:24

I'm always surprised by this. My girls got their lessons for free at school. I never really thought about it but I now wonder how the hell the school could afford the coach and pool. That's probably why they only did it for half a term.
So to me that sounds a lot and what if parents can't afford it? With everything, except wages rising it would be too much for several families.

chuffincold · 17/03/2022 22:54

@AndSoFinally

Ours was free.

Don't be under any illusions that these lessons will actually teach your child to swim, though, for the pp that said that. You'll still need private lessons or to teach them yourself.

How to tar a whole profession with a sweeping brush. Sorry if your experience of school lessons hasn't been good but I have managed to get children that have never been to a pool before to swimming 25m in a term. As for all the people saying all the class could already swim to a good standard before school lessons in year 4, that's fantastic. In my experience it's unusually about 1/3 of the class that can't swim without aids with at least a couple in every class that have never been in a pool. In answer to the OP, £62 for 9 lessons in too much! Yes it cost money for the school to transport, hire the pool and pay the teachers but it is a curriculum subject. Would they try and teach a child maths to SAT standard in 9 weeks - no, I'm not saying they should be taking them swimming every week of every year but that is a tick boxing exercise of "we took them swimming" if ever I saw one
shadesofwinter · 17/03/2022 23:11

This is nothing to do with being a state school or an academy. It clearly depends from one school to the next, as shown by the wide variety of experiences of PPs.

Often PTAs will contribute towards/pay for swimming lessons. My school is using Sports Premium funding to pay for the coach costs. We absolutely cannot afford to pay for the swimming lessons as well so depend on contributions from parents/carers. All of our KS2 children are having 10 weeks of swimming lessons this term due to missing out during the last 2 years. The total cost of that would be more than paying a TA for a year 🤷‍♀️

balalake · 18/03/2022 06:58

It does not seem excessive, but as you note is a voluntary contribution, so presumably you could choose to contribute less.

elliejjtiny · 18/03/2022 09:34

@x2boys and @Imitatingdory. It's not in section F so I thought it wasn't legally enforceable. It's in his short term targets for sensory/physical though which is supposed to be done by May this year.

Short Term
• E will participate in swimming lessons to develop his gross motor skills.
• E will ride his bike confidently.
• E will have handwriting that everyone can read.

It also doesn't say specifically that the school have to organise it either.

Imitatingdory · 18/03/2022 09:39

@elliejjtiny that’s the problem, it should be in F so it is legally enforceable. As it is it isn’t worth the paper it is written on.

Soubriquet · 18/03/2022 09:42

That is shockingly high.

My dc’s school actually have their own pool on site. It isn’t the biggest but it does the job. It can only be used in summer as it’s an outdoor pool but all the year groups use it. From reception to year 6.

We pay nothing

Iamkmackered1979 · 18/03/2022 10:15

Our p6 class (10/11) are doing swimming just now, my older 2 sons have done it previously with same school/council area and I’ve never paid for them via school.

IggyAce · 18/03/2022 10:22

My dcs school lessons were free, but our school is within walking distance to the pool. Both my dcs did private swimming lessons from reception so they could swim by the time they went with the school in year 3.
I think I paid around £50 per block of 10 30 minute lessons.

shabbalabba · 18/03/2022 10:24

My DD's school doesn't do swimming lessons because pretty much all of the kids do it outside of school...

Cookiecrumble22 · 18/03/2022 10:27

That's alot of money to some families. I could not afford it. and what if you have more than 1 child in the school? Luckily my child's school has a pool and we don't pay anything

Dammitthisisshit · 18/03/2022 10:30

Our local leisure centre ones work out at £11.50 a half hour lesson… no refunds for missed lessons (which is fair enough but pushes the price per lesson even higher). We’re not doing them. Had a good privately run alternative pre Covid but unfortunately it closed due to Covid.

I’d jump at £6-7 including transport.

Pigsears · 18/03/2022 10:31

Very mixed swimming ability in my child's Y5 class.

Teacher still manages to get those with the lowest swiming skills to swim width ways across the pool in 10 weeks. If a child can't swim at all and has no water confidence at the outset- then I think this a commendable outcome.

But- I think £62 is expensive for school lessons.

caringcarer · 18/03/2022 10:34

FS school asked for voluntary contributions. Parents who could afford to paid and those who could not probably did not. All children got to swim. I live in West Midlands and local pool has a Swimming Club which teaches kids to swim and go on to swim competitively. Only charges £36 per annum to National Swim and £3.50 each time they go to swim. Kids who can't swim are in a group of 4 or 5 at most. They seem to move up to next group after 12-15 lessons they get 5 or 10 metre badges. They have excellent coaching for style and technique.

Bananarama21 · 18/03/2022 10:35

I'm a school swimming teacher they are not allowed to charge you the cost of the instructor or pool hire. They can ask for a contribution to the travel. It is part of the curriculum and is part of their budgets, they have to do school swimming.

Whoopsies · 18/03/2022 10:41

We don't pay anything, although they walk to the pool. The rest is paid for by the council.

Bananarama21 · 18/03/2022 10:45

LittleOwl153

I think the problem with this level of swimming charges in school is the swimming lessons are crap for the majority as they are targeted towards those who have never been in a pool.

I am paying £7 a class for my ds at the leisure centre - where he gets a rigorous lesson of 8 kids and is progressing well.

I pay £3.50 a class - same pool, same set of seim teachers for school swimming. He is bored and mucking about as he can out swim all of his group OF 15 easily and there is no attempt to challenge him.

I'm a school swimming teacher I can ensure the quality isn't less so due to the group size. How would you know if he's messing about and bored are you there when this has taken place? Parents aren't spectators during this lessons. I suspect he's not behaving himself. I'd never let a child mess about during school swimming they would be out on the side. We do 2 weeks blocks and the progression is amazing I have atleast 6 non swimmers in 3 days swimming 5 metres front and back one swam 10 metres. My swimmers group work very hard and easily swimming 10 lengths if not more during the lesson alone they dont have time to mess about before setting off again.

caringcarer · 18/03/2022 10:47

I think it makes more sense to just take kids that can't swim 10 metres. The rest could stay in school and get on with other work. My FS was already an excellent swimmer and swam competitively so he and several others just got told to swim up and down different strokes for their lesson whilst teacher focused in non swimmers but for safety they still had to have a TA sat watching them. More sense to have swimmers left in school and TA get in water with non swimmers too.

Bananarama21 · 18/03/2022 10:53

caringcarer

I think it makes more sense to just take kids that can't swim 10 metres

As a school swimming teacher swimming should be all, they all get the benefit and should be penalised for being good at something. The kids look forward to their swimming lessons, especially those who aren't necessarily academic but good at swimming their confidence soars its lovely to see! The TAs don't sit with them one swimming teacher had top group the other swimming teacher has bottom group.