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!

Don't parents organise their own kid's swimming lessons any more?
Ideally this training should be in place before they start school really.

Our local council swimming lessons are £50/month/child for group lessons and no buses to the pool. That's unaffordable for many families.

just saying your children ARE lucky. im unsure why pointing that out is me getting my knickers in a twist. we don’t have a local pool, we don’t live near a coast. No one in my children’s class are having pool parties regardless of ability.
that makes your children very lucky.

Just asked DH who is a head of school. It is part of the National Curriculum that children should be able to swim 25m by the end of Primary. His school actually do 2yrs for each child .
These are the official guidelines.

' all schools must provide swimming instruction either in Ks1 or Ks2.
Participants should Be able ro
Swim confidently, compently and proficiently over 25m,
Use a range if strokes effectively ie back stroke, front crawl.
Perform safe self rescue in different water based situations.'

If its an academy they don't have to follow the curriculum but if they are allowing some children in the Yr group to go, not allowing those who can't swim/aren't water confident is shocking, surely they need those skills more than those more able!
If a child was failing maths/English would they not put the support in to get that child to achieve? Or would they just give up on the belief that 'you won't achieve so why would we bother?!'
DH words...I'd be up to the school!

Seems an odd choice to give the lessons to those who are water confident - over those that are not. So I can see why you are frustrated.

Kids don't learn to swim for many reasons. No need to berate the OP.

Like it's hard to learn to teach someone to read if you can't read yourself- it's also hard to teach someone to swim.

You wouldn't not teach someone to read because they can't read before the lesson.

Any young great swimmers will generally have water confident parents. Why? Because, unless the child is in a lesson, the parent needs to be in the water with them. Parents who don't or can't swim or even who are looking after more than 2 under 8s, will find it harder to take their child to the swimming pool.

It genuinely wasn’t.

i also pointed out the person with the pool walking distance was lucky too.

ours is 9 miles away.

This particular class are WILD. Covid, SEN issues and parental issues which have built up in combination. Add in very hot summer days for etc excitement and its FUN.

Lovely kids, great teacher. Just a combo of other shit.

It’s not a race to the bottom. The people with these services close by are lucky, the people with affordable services are also lucky. They should be available to all. But those who have it should protect it.
these things SHOULD be better funded so it’s available and feasible for all.
luck hands some children enough of a rough ride without council funding adding to that

There's no equivalence. OP is understandably annoyed that other people are benefitting from something her kids can't, despite her contributing towards that. You are trying to make a comparison with something that you both contribute towards and benefit from.

It is your job to teach your child to swim. Why didn't you start teachig them when they were babies ?

Not the point I was making at all. I was simply commenting on all the rude people who accused OP of being a lazy or poor parent.

I looked at our council website and it says that lessons will be provided at school! They don't provide any of their own lessons as the council doesn't actually run any of our local leisure centres. The leisure centres do run swimming lessons but they don't publish their prices. The only reference I can find is from 11 years ago where it was (with a package) £6 for a 30 minute lesson.

A local, highly recommended swimming school is £44 per month, including August, though the lessons only operate during term time, so presumably you're expected to sign up for a whole year. They do a summer holiday crash course though for £65 and the child goes every day for 5 days (30 min lessons).

For those on a very tight budget, it's not exactly achievable.

This is me stretching it. But it’s also why things like school swimming and the extra bits are important for all. Whilst swimming is important, it’s also fun. And school should be fun. It’s teaching the children how to behave outside school, how to interact with the community, how to be part of that community. The isolation of covid for a good percentage of the younger children’s lives means they haven’t had the “extras” that tie them into the rest of the world. You’ve made me think of some of the beavers I’ve helped on trips, you’re right about covid. It seems to have meant they’ve missed out on some of the basics of how to be

No need, but thank you.
i am generally a sarcastic passive aggressive twat. So it’s not without precedence

Any young great swimmers will generally have water confident parents. Why? Because, unless the child is in a lesson, the parent needs to be in the water with them. Parents who don't or can't swim or even who are looking after more than 2 under 8s, will find it harder to take their child to the swimming pool.

DS is very very water confident. Shit at swimming (because he lost nearly 3 years due to covid / unavailability of lessons) but very water confident. DH is water confident - hes a kayak instructor - but has never taken DS to lessons or been in the water with him really.

That was me. The mum who couldn't swim. Who took him baby swimming precisely to get water confidence because I don't have it. It was absoluetely worth it.

Even if he's shit at swimming forever, he is at least confident in water in a way I never was. And thats bloody brilliant in itself from my point of view. I'd like him to be able to swim properly, but I'll ultimately take where he is at now if I had to.

On top of that he knows to wear buoyancy aids in the relevant situations because he's been taught from an early age how important they are. So hes less likely to do stupid shit in certain situations, he knows equipment is essential and he's less likely to panic. I'd like him to learn life saving skills at some point - these aren't based in the water at entry level.

The biggest life saving skills around water safety tend to involve equipment, knowledge, not panicking and you and your mates not being dickheads around water. Tbh, arguably these skills - not swimming itself - would be better life skills to teach in schools in the time frame / budget they have. And I wouldn't be surprised if it saved more lives - a sizeable number of drownings in the UK are associated with people thinking they are too cool to wear buoyancy aids / poor assessment of the environment and conditions rather than an inability to swim.

Don't parents organise their own kid's swimming lessons any more?

DH and I grew up different bits of UK but both learnt to swim with school which at the time had many more lessons than now in schools.

We didn't realise that had changed till we got to school gates with our own children - then we did try the council lessons not cheap and not easy to get to for us - and they were crap.

We did try on and off but wasn't till we moved and found near by pools and decent lessons - though not cheap and not for three children.

We were late 80/90 teens and got enough swimming lessons - and I was in a county notorious for cutting educational spending where they could - Tory strong hold - so I do think responsibility has shift back more to parents than when I grew up.

There's no equivalence. OP is understandably annoyed that other people are benefitting from something her kids can't, despite her contributing towards that. You are trying to make a comparison with something that you both contribute towards and benefit from.

But her kids can. She can take them swimming or pay for lessons. The tiny amount of OPs tax contribution that goes to schools is not funding anyone's swimming lesson. the average person pays about £4K in tax a year, somewhere between 4-9% of all public spend is on education, and there are about 25,000 schools which means OP has contributed about 0.014p to her DCs specific school.

Obviously I'm being pedantic here but OPs 'my tax money pays for this' isnt as powerful as she appears to think.

Not everyone can benefit from everything and that's just life. Some schools have dance lessons, Latin, Forrest school, music lessons and some of those will also be seductive of which pupils take part.

Some of these comments are predictably snide. The OP is not a negligent parent because she hasn't taught her kid/s to swim.

A parent I know, who I imagined to be an intelligent person, complained to me because his daughter couldn't tie her shoelaces or tell the time when she was about ten. Now that, I could understand eliciting such a response.

For some people swimming might have been a luxury that wasn't top of their priority list.

Y6 is quite late for the school.to do this...is this becof covid?
Most schools near us cover the swimming curriculum between Y2 and Y4.
But it makes no sense to take those that can swim and leave those that can't

There's no equivalence. OP is understandably annoyed that other people are benefitting from something her kids can't, despite her contributing towards that. You are trying to make a comparison with something that you both contribute towards and benefit from.

If it's any consolation, it's a very ineffective way of teaching anyone to swim and is unlikely to result in that outcome. To learn properly, you need to be attending on a weekly or fortnightly basis for some duration. You can't cram a crash-course into six sessions and come out a competent swimmer.

If the government were really concerned about teaching kids to swim they'd start that curriculum earlier, and continue it for longer. Of course, this would cost a great deal more, so they've come up with a cheap compromise.

This is a box-ticking exercise, nothing more.

I've been that volunteer 😅😅

The worst was Chester zoo primary school children some with bladders the size of gnats while I tried to keep the others together. You're a hero @RedToothBrush

But, if they are taking those that "can almost" swim independently I would say they are still non-swimmers and have more chance of progressing. a complete non-swimmer is going to be a real challenge.

Been there not being able to afford or get to swimming lessons and worried a lot about the situation which only improved when we moved.

Thing is neither primary school nor secondary school my DC have attended - nor DN schools nor schools near where DH or I grew up now offer enough lessons at school to learn how to swim - they just don't.

Should they - well I'd argue there's a case they should - but in actuality - it's find a way to take them and teach yourself- and with three I couldn't or find money for some lessons which really aren't cheap. Or they don't learn.