To stop swimming lessons?

[BoyMum170]

My 5 yo has a weekly swimming session at school. I've also been paying for a session on a Saturday outside school.

The price of these sessions has just gone up by 20% (run by a private school so now affected by VAT) and it wasn't cheap to start with. My child can swim a few metres unaided but is still using floats the rest of the time.

AIBU to stop doing these extra Saturday sessions, and essentially just rely on the school lessons to teach my child to swim? We don't get much feedback though so I wouldn't really know how they were getting on (whereas I watch on Saturdays so know a lot more about what happens!). Worth mentioning that my 5 yo also gets really tired at school so would be nice to gain a bit more chilled time back at the weekend.

5 yo enjoys swimming but doesn't 'love' it, so don't think would be too upset about missing it.

Opinions welcomed!

Swimming is a very important skill to learn.
You could stop the week end ones as the child is still having lessons at school.

I'd find a cheaper lesson to take them to. School lessons are for a finite period of time and don't have capacity for 1:1 work. It's really important not to stop too soon!

I have never seen a child learn to swim on school lessons alone (apart from private school). You could wait and see how he gets on with them but in all honestly I would wait until he is around 7 and if he still hasnt got it through the school lessons pay for a course of 1 to 1 lessons. More expensive but much more progress made so only need them for a short time. Recent study says unless a child can swim 200m the likelihood of them being able to self rescue is very very low.

My children learnt to swim with lessons on a Friday, one term a year, plus taking them to the pool myself from time to time. Nobody is a competitive swimmer but they are confident and safe, and enjoy swimming as adults.

Can you swim OP? If so, then why don't you take them swimming, and encourage them to continue with what they've been shown at the private lessons?

Learning to swim is non negotiable to me, school lessons are chaotic and they are quite young to be doing them with school.
Id contact your local council run pool and look to book classes there.

one weekly swimming lesson at 5 is more than enough, paying for a second is a waste of money and imo too much for them anyway.

None of my kids have ever had swimming lessons, the school doesn’t give them lessons until my Y4.

we've taught them ourselves, lucky to have family member with indoor and outdoor swimming pool but also practiced on holiday and public pools and they’re all confident swimmers.

Why not cancel the weekend lessons whilst school ones are taking place and commit to taking them weekly yourself?

being able to swim a few meters isn’t good enough and won’t keep them safe

You don't need to rely on the school lessons, assuming you can swim you can take them yourself. Neither of mine have had lessons and both love swimming I've just taught them as they've grown up

I would scrap the extra lessons and take them yourself to a local pool for an hour a week. Lessons are great, but all of mine learned faster when it was mixed with ‘play swims’ at home or on holiday as well.

Don't rely on the school ones, they're cursory at best. But don't waste loads of money on endless group classes without significant progress. Ours cost a bomb and we gradually had to move from group to small group to one-to-one and it was only the latter that really cracked it. You could wait till they're a bit older too, depending on whether they're really capable of cracking it yet or not. Every kid is different of course, but my advice would be fewer classes but with more attention and at the right time is a much better investment than the cost and the aggro of taking them weekly for ages and them only getting to do a bit of back and forth with a float and an instructor with other kids to sort under time pressure.

How long will the school lessons carry on?

can you take them swimming yourself on a weekend to practice?

I used to take my son swimming at the local leisure centre every Saturday & he was swimming within a few months. I don't think lessons are essential if you're able to take him.

Mine did a school holiday intensive course at a private school every morning for 5 days. They could go from 4 years old. They both had 2 sessions so 1 week in in a half term then another week in another school holiday.

However, we went "swimming" as a family every weekend where they just splashed around in the water, got water confident and then once they had learned to swim then we enforced a bit of swimming widths then as they got older, lengths and then messing around, swimming through our legs sort of thing.

School swimming isn't the best but swimming is a life skill. He doesn't need to be a competent swimmer now but I would try again when he is a bit older if he is tired.

By the time we had our youngest, we honed it to no swimming lessons before 7, then private 121 lessons. We did every other Sunday for a year. Went from non swimmer to swimming 800 metres.

We did swimming till 50m . Also they need to know how to keep yourself afloat, what do do if a friend falls in / you fall in, as well as be able to swim 50m. I think it's very important.

This.

Swimming is a life skill. You would never forgive yourself if they fell in somewhere and couldn't safely get out.

Find an alternative or go yourself and restart lessons in another year or two. They will not learn to swim with school.

That's all helpful, thank you. He will keep swimming at school every week, all year round, so that's something.

I can swim so could take him separately I guess - it's just not something I've considered before as years of competitive swimming has made me dislike swimming for pleasure to be honest! Agreed it's a non-negotiable skill to learn but certainly won't be pushing him to go beyond being able to be safe (as in club swimming or competitions)

There's no need to push him to do competition or anything like that unless he wants to at a later stage, but taking him swimming just for the fun of being together, and for him to be able to practice, should be something you can both enjoy.

Is there not a local leisure centre that does have a pool for cheaper? If you can't afford the extra lesson just take them to the pool and get in with them to help them learn.

Then once they're a bit more confident they'll start having swimming based play dates with their pals? If you think they'd be ready for that now then arrange that for a Saturday.

It's great to make sure they're a competent swimmer purely for safety reasons, so I'd make sure they've plenty of access to water that doesn't need to necessarily be a structured official lesson.

I never understand the obsession with swimming lessons. My kids had standard school swimming in primary and year 7, but that’s it. I made sure I took them swimming for fun every few weeks, and we went on summer holidays to places with a pool. They’re both proficient swimmers, without me having spent a ton of money and time on special swimming lessons.

I never bothered with lessons (well, I did with my eldest for a while, but there was such a huge emphasis on "water confidence" and splashing about using floats, that he never actually learned to swim at all!)

I just took them myself most weekends. They can all swim 50m comfortably.

That said, paying for myself and the kids (and often my husband as well) even at the local council pool probably worked out more expensive than the lessons would have.

This was a very 70s approach (and not recommended but...). I could swim from a young age, just was slightly stifled by a neurotic parent.
So a "friend of the family" just pushed me in.
Yes, swimming is non negotiable, and I am glad there is grading about competency. But you can't just get there and stop.
Swimming is an absolute joy. No, not the beating up and down the chlorine pools (did that, got the medals, certificates etc). Having the confidence just to get in any stretch of water and enjoy life (apart from that time in the rip tide, do make sure you know about rip tides, and how to react to them).

Hey! Can everyone who has said ‘teach them yourself’ please list the progressive practices for treading water efficiently, aiming for a goal of one minute at a depth of 2m?

‘You do it like this’ (with demo) would be wrong.

Floats, if the OP means the flat rectangular things are used in many progressive practices involved in teaching swimming, which would entail the child ‘swimming with floats’. If they are swimming unaided then that is good.

I agree with many previous posters, learning to swim is essential.

If the weekend lessons are where the most progress is being made, I would ask for feedback and stick with them. Are they 1 to 1 or smaller groups?
Larger group lessons do tend to mean that there is less individual encouragement, motivation and feedback.

Also if you are comfortable doing it take your child to the pool. This makes swimming fun and stops it being a ‘lesson’. Play games and stuff. My Dad took me along every weekend and every other opportunity that I could persuade him to take me swimming as a child. I was in my 40s when I found out he couldn’t swim and never went out his depth.

Yes, I have taught children who have been taught to swim by parents but can’t tread water.