Why is there no where to swim after school in North London?

[mypethip]

To think that there should be provision at council owned facilities for families to swim together after school?

My DS (4.5) is learning to swim and is suddenly very interested in it and wants to go all the time. I am overjoyed as I'm a very keen swimmer myself and I love taking him.

Feeling incredibly frustrated though as I've just realised that there is nowhere within driving distance of where we live that I can take him for a 'family swim' (chilled out splashing around and playing underwater etc, not lane swimming which he is obviously unable to do at his age - after school)

New Barnet leisure centre (who have benefitted from £44milion of council funding) is our closest pool and have a fantastic learner pool - but it's only open at 10am on a week day for a short 50 minuite session. I take him to this but when he starts school after the holidays we won't be able to go.

Park road haven't gotten back to me and won't pick up the phone but it doesn't seem they offer a family swim indoors at all at the moment (as per their booking app anyway) at any time.

Same with Copthall.

Same with Finchley Lido. They have the wave machine but he is too little for that at the moment.

I feel like better leisure just prioritise things like swim school which brings in a lot of revenue for them.

My mum taught my siblings and I to swim in our local pool after school and we had such a good time together and are all very competent swimmers as a result. I feel really sad that I can't do this with my own child.

Could you go for line swimming session and stick to the slowest line?

@SpanThatWorld

Thanks for the tip - I had assumed the waves would be much more frequent we will definitely give this a try. And thanks to all those who commented with helpful suggestions - I'll make some calls and see what we can organise. I'm going to duck out now for my own sanity 😂

i've just checked and its outrageously £28.30 for me to take my two kids to a SINGLE 1.5 hour session at our local council pool, its also filthy there and mouldy and people get ill. Compared to a £10 per kid per month! swim membership at a local gym which has two family sessions a day 7 days a week.

The restrictions on the learner pool at New Barnet drive me totally nuts. And if your child’s school doesn’t have exactly the same holidays as other schools in the borough, forget about taking them swimming on a weekday.

(And the Finchley Lido changing facilities are grim, but that’s a whole other whinge.)