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!

It’s your job to teach your child to swim. It’s appalling that they have got as far as year 6 without learning such a basic life skill.

I'm a school swimming teacher.

This is an unusual way round - every school I've taught has done the opposite, prioritise the non swimmers.

It might be to do with ratios (you can take only 12 non swimmers to one teacher whereas you can take 20/30, depending, swimmers).

It might be to do with pool depth and no teacher able to get in the water with non swimmers.

But, yes, it's unusual, but I would imagine there is a reason.

Well if OP can’t afford lessons then she maybe can’t afford pool charges either.

Stop being so bloody patronising. Given the way the OP phrased her post I think we can safely say she is happy with robust communication styles. If you can’t read a thread without policing the tone of others then you probably shouldn’t be on MN

YABU. Your kids should already know how to swim - that’s your responsibility as a parent, to keep your child safe.

Getting non-swimmers safe in the water should be a priority - write to the governors and course organiser. Is there an open air pool locally where you could take your child to learn to swim? There may be free courses, or at least should be. In many other countries there are as it is such a basic safety skill.

At lot of these answers are so weird!!

Actually, if you leave it this late, it goes one way or the other.

Either it's perfect and you save yourself a fortune as they are strong and capable enough to pick it up in literally one or two lessons. (With an awesome teacher, me 😜)

Or, it's too late. They're petrified and think far too much, too many anxieties, and they are too frightened to literally ever learn. It can take years if this is the mental state of the child.

I haven't been patronising at all.

Year 6? 11 years old? Oh give over

Agree with others, how have you let your child get to year 6 without being able to swim? I know that private lessons can be expensive, but usually council run pools have much cheaper lessons. It is an extremely important life skill, and not really the school's sole responsibility. I can see why they are not taking non-swimmers as I would think the majority have at least the basics of swimming under their belt and as a complete beginner your child would need one-to-one lessons which I guess would not be logistically possible.

Funds at schools are so so tight hence why the teachers are striking. Schools cannot afford to pay for extras at all. It is hard enough taking 30 swimmers to a pool but non swimmers need so much more help etc that the rescources do not cover it.
I would look at trying to do these yourself. Like lots of things times are hard and we all need to pull our weight instead of relying on others to do our job for us

Spent every Friday on the poolside when mine were young and they have thanked me that they can all swim. Wouldn't have left it to the school as they ha e so few lessons
It is sad though as when we were kids qe went weekly all through school as kids and our parents took us as well. No wonder kids are so unfit these days

You should have taught your child how to swim by now. Yr 6 & they’ve never had swimming lessons? That’s your responsibility.

It really shouldn't. It's just not something that can be reasonably fitted in to a ridiculously tight curriculum to the extent that it would benefit non-swimmers' ability to swim. I took both my children to the local municipal pool and it took literally years for them to learn and that's in a group of 8-10 children of similar abilities.

Some things just have to be parents' responsibility. They cannot hive off all responsibility into instructing their children in all areas. There just aren't the resources especially since probably many of the people complaining also voted for our shower of shit Government.

I want my hard earned tax pounds going to schools for educating children not so schools can become effectively parents for those who can't parent their own children.

Look through your council pools website, ours has a couple of sessions a week where kids/families swim free. Not sure if they all do this, but if yours does you could go along and teach her the basics yourself, or at least get her water confident.

Also if convinced your actually in the paying bracket of tax then you're not exactly short on cash. Don't you have to be on 200k plus to actually be putting in more than taking out? So this suggests OP either imagining things about tax or earns plenty enough to pay to swim.

unfortunately school lessons are so minimal they rarely teach non- swimmers to swim. Schools have neither the time nor money to do this. My DS has been in the water since a few weeks old, he’s had weekly swim lessons for years. He swims like a fish, to be as safe as possible in water this is what is needed, even swimming 20m and treading water for a bit is only going to be of minimal benefit.

But I realise we were lucky to be able to facilitate this. Schools cannot, many parents can’t.

but every parent should take every opportunity to try, eg if poss book any holiday with a pool, teach your child constantly through the holiday, make it your purpose.

look for deals/free swim sessions in places.

prioritise swim lesson expenditure (or pool admission) over all other discretionary expenditure (if you have any).

if you can’t afford the above, look on line for water safety information and drill it into your child to never ever go near water, no walking by rivers:/canals. No going in pools, stay on the beach:no more than ankle deep in the sea etc. no going on boats.

Wow. Some real (privileged) arseholes on this thread.

Where I live, in a relatively cheap area, it's £35/month for one child to have swimming lessons at the council leisure centre. 10% discount for siblings. Or alternatively you can pay £9 odd per session for one adult and one child to take them swimming on your own, that's assuming that you have another adult to look after any other children you may have.

Those costs are quite simply beyond a lot of families at the moment. Nothing to do with being too lazy to sort lessons.

Those saying OP should have taught her DC - how do you know she knows how to swim?

And even though most parents do teach their DC or take them to lessons, some families are so hard up that they can't afford the £20 a month or so it costs. There are more and more families in this situation nowadays thanks to Brexit and the Russia-Ukraine war.

This. Kids should be swimming way before school lessons and this is solely the parents responsibility.

But schools are also financially stuffed too. They can't fund these extra services either. And as people have repeatedly explained, six lessons of mixed ability group sessions will not teach a non swimmer to swim.

My DD's in year 6, they had a full term and a half of swimming lessons and they took the ones who still can't swim for longer. A lot of them did learn to swim the 25 metres in that time. It was amazing to me how bad most of the kids were and it isn't just because of poverty either. There were only 5 in the whole class of 30 who were stage 6 or above so the other 25 couldn't swim properly in other words. At least one who couldn't swim at all the parents are well off.

Ours took swimmers and non swimmers.
The non swimmers learnt very little as I think there were just too many in the class that could swim. I think only one out of 20. And non in my other sons class.

Think you should already have organised lessons yourself. To wait till year 6 is generally considered too late.

They’ll learn so much more in private lessons tbh.

And even though most parents do teach their DC or take them to lessons, some families are so hard up that they can't afford the £20 a month or so it costs. There are more and more families in this situation nowadays thanks to Brexit and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Covid has caused backlogs. We also have a pool closed for refurb locally meaning that there's a significant waiting list for the council lessons across 2 towns.

I couldn't swim when it came time to do school swimming lessons. It was me and one other girl who were non swimmers and it was absolutely mortifying. Hated it, attended 2 lessons then feigned illness every other time! I still can't swim. I think it's awful to exclude non swimmers when surely they are the most important people to teach, but also wouldn't expect any of them to learn how to swim with school lessons.

My own children can't swim either despite me forking out for multiple lessons, different pools, different teachers, different times of the day, one to one lessons... They are both autistic and just hate the water and nothing I or anyone else does seems to change that. I probably won't send them to school lessons as I don't want them to feel the embarrassment that I felt and know it'll be a waste of time anyway.