School won’t teach non-swimmers!

[Platypuslover]

I don’t think I’m unreasonable just considering how far I may need to take this. Year 6 now lost out on swimming lessons because school is useless head was suspended last year and never returned and this has been a pattern for her from previous school. Not sure why other than incompetence but the grapevine said possibly to do with money. So kids didn’t get swimming lesson as no one thought to arrange them once lock down was relaxed the pools reopened.

They waited until end of year to do 2 session to asses swimming. Told we’d get an email if she can’t swim and will have further session.

No email arrived and I called today. So then was told they don’t take non-swimmers only the children that are confident and can almost swim independently and we have to pay for our own swimming lesson.

So I am expected to pay for someone else’s kids to learn to swim with my very hard earned taxes amidst a cost of living crisis and us barely being able to afford basics and we can not afford the extortionate private lessons.

Bet the letter they said they’d send us to give details to book those lessons are with the same company they use to take them swimming now. This reeks of an extortion ring to me why else would you not take the children that need it most!

Is this an independent school?

Does the school have governors? To be honest I would write to them and raise the issue, it does seem particularly crass to exclude non swimmers.

Are there any issues why you can't take your child to the pool to get some measure on how comfortable they are?

Have you investigated the council lessons? They are far cheaper than the various franchises. School swimming lessons are pretty minimal in state schools out of logistical necessity and probably are not going to actually teach a non swimmer from scratch effectively.

My kids could swim by the time they got their school lessons. No one in the non swimming group could swim by the end of the six lessons. It's a waste of time.

Can you sign yours up at the local pool, doesn't need to be private lessons.

Why can't your child swim, have you not bothered to organise it?

Isn't one of the goals to get all kids swimming 20 metres by the time they leave school, so excluding non swimmers would be completely counterproductive, would make more sense to exclude those that can swim.

I'm struggling a bit to understand why you've waited so long to organise your DC learning to swim. School lessons are minimal and I agree with PP that you should look at the council lessons, which in our area are very affordable and excellent quality teaching.

Can you not take the kid to a swimming pool and teach her yourself? I find it quite bad that a child can't swim by year six? I taught both of my children.

I mean this in the nicest way but, it isn’t the schools responsibility to teach your children how to swim.
Swimming is a life skill I deem necessary enough to budget into the family bill money, and for an example my local council pool lessons cost £3.90 a week.

The school curriculum picks up swipe to mop up the kids whose parents have never taught them.

How come you've not sorted swimming lessonsnfor your kids?

DD1 never got school swimming as in Yr5 they couldn't go due to Covid restrictions... so in Yr6 they only took the non swimmers(who then got a full term instead of everyone getting half a term) Taking only the swimmers seems pointless!

Sorry but swimming is a life skill and something a child should learn before year 6. I can understand why they don't take completely beginners tbh, the school lessons aren't 1-2-1 and they are short. You should have deemed it important enough to get your child to learn the basics before now.

You sound excessively angry about this. 'Extortion ring?'. What are you on about?

YABU it's not up to school to teach your kids to swim. They have a few lessons but they're never going to have the resources to teach non swimmers from scratch.

Council run leisure centres have lessons that are fairly cheap in comparison to private. Or even just take them swimming yourself.

You sound a bit entitled op and your "I'm paying for other kids lessons" sounds just like someone telling a police man that they pay their wages 🙄

Why are you having to pay for someone else's kid to swim? You've just been told to pay for your own lessons, something you should have done years ago.

Why haven't you taught your child to swim before they started school?

Those saying its the parents responsibility... you do realise that even a fiver a week isn't possible for some people, plus getting them to the pool for lessons, and that in some areas its very hard to get lessons due to Covid backlogs still?

I would add the school lessons aren't great, they spend most of the time travelling and getting changed.

Council lessons were excellent for us - though usually there is a bit of a waiting list to start each term, and you don't move up a stage until a slot becomes available. This was after me playing in the water with them and teaching them to float and hold their breath under water for fun. Teachers were excellent with those little ones who were petrified of the water and gently introduced it.

I don't understand what you mean about paying for other kids

It's in the National Curriculum:

All schools must provide swimming instruction either in key stage 1 or key stage 2.

In particular, pupils should be taught to:

swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke]
perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-physical-education-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-physical-education-programmes-of-study

It's a 'must' not a 'should', so they have to do it.

If this is a state school, then it’s not a choice they have - it’s in the curriculum and they should not be excluding non swimmers. However, it’s also true to say that if the very short term period of lessons in the school curriculum is the only swimming lessons a child ever has, they’re unlikely to learn to swim based solely on that.

@PuttingDownRoots absolutely do appreciate that many are struggling and can't prioritise swimming lessons against other things going on, but the OP hasnt said thats their situation.

Lots of people are under the impression that the school provide the means for their child to learn to swim and hold to that, even if they DO have the means to organise it themselves. I was one of them!

Why are people being such arseholes to the op. Do people not realise the reliance on food banks in this country has increased massively? People can't afford to feed their children but posters here expect everyone to be able to pay for their children to learn to swim?

The school should be providing swimming lessons to everyone, but ESPECIALLY to non-swimmers.

As pp has said, complain to the governors/whoever the appropriate body is to complain to

Yes, but the solution to they'll shouldn't be to berate the school for not teaching the child to swim.

There are certain things parents should be teaching their kids. We live on an island so basic swimming is one of them. Yes, the world isn't perfect, not everyone can do this for their kids, but thay doesn't mean you get to complain that someone else isn't doing it.

Oh our school only takes the non swimmers now so mine isn't allowed to go anymore. I thought the goal was to get them to be able to swim 20 metres? Why bother if only taking the swimmers?

In all honesty those lessons are a bit useless anyway, mine could already swim before she went so it was fine but the other kids don't seem to have improved at all. I'd get the local pool if I was you.