1 out of 4 children can’t swim when going into year 7.

[Quiethelper]

As the title says really. I was shocked to read over 1 out 4 children can’t swim 25m when going into year 7.

Secondary schools in our area don’t do lessons. Surly this needs to be addressed for the ones who couldn’t save themselves if they fell into water.

I would fully support and be happy for budget to be allocated for children to have essential swimming skills.

I feel really sad about this statistic.

If you fall on a guitar and can't play it, you don't die

Money
Many parents dont see it as a priority

Wow that's heartbreaking. The swiping and tapping of books thinking it's a screen 😭

I’m not shocked. Swimming lessons were exceptionally difficult to come by here. And when I did get my ds into a little group that was supposed to have been standard assessed (he could swim a few metres), he was put in with a child who couldn’t swim at all and was terrified of water. My ds was happy and ready to get in, whereupon the other child had a massive screaming meltdown. Really massive, not just a few tears. By the time it had gone on for 10 mins, my ds was totally terrified of the whole situation and didn’t want to get in with the instructor.

the most annoying thing was the fact that all the kids were supposed to have been assessed so the class was appropriate.

when I took my very upset ds away, the teacher shouted at me that I was stopping him
from learning to swim!!!!!! I had already taught him to swim.

i tried another place and they said they wouldn’t take him because they don’t want kids who are in term 1 of reception.

then I just couldn’t get anywhere until a friend asked her instructor if we could go on their waiting list. Eventually got lessons there.

our local leisure centre doesn’t even have a pool.

It was an uphill battle and expensive. getting to a swimming pool and lessons. im
not surprised kids can’t swim.

disgraceful situation

My dads from Cornwall so we grew up swimming in the sea when we visited grandma. Any other holidays revolved around water, too. Dad took me swimming to the local pool each week as well as to swimming lessons too. This statistic doesn't surprise me at all though. 2/3 of my children are strong swimmers, the other starts lessons after half term as he's only 5. While we were a family of swimmers, my DH can't swim and neither can his parents. I don't think it's as much of a life skill as people think as strong swimmers can easily drown in emergency situations. I might be wrong in thinking that though. I'm as far from the coast as you can get nowadays and can't afford to go abroad at the moment so pretty unlikely I'll be able to put my years of swimming to use!

It was really difficult to find swimming lessons for my 10 year old. She was 4 when we went into Covid and we were trying to get her in to lessons around that time. My local authority was absolutely useless for getting in touch with the right people and getting accurate information. There's only the one pool for this entire area so it makes sense a lot of kids aren't learning. The availability is so, so poor and unaffordable for many. We ended up going to a different local authority and the lessons were pretty rubbish in all honesty but at least available and she did consolidate what she'd already learned with her dad. She's actually progressed to a swim team now so no harm for her personally but it was an absolute slog getting her lessons in the first place and it was only through pure tenacity.

Also got many it's just not a priority - they're not in the local swimming pool never mind near any other water regularly, so obviously things that are a bigger part of their life will take priority.

I went to swimming lessons in school where they were pretty harsh and shouty and I can't swim 🙃

The swim curriculum was the issue for us. DS is now Yr 7 & started private group swim lessons ok in Reception, missed 18 months or so due to Covid then struggled to progress much after this.

He went to lessons at the local leisure centre but was stuck in stage 2 for 2 years and we struggled to get any updates on what he needed to do to progress. Started swimming lessons with school, 5-6 lessons in each year of KS2 (same leisure centre, same instructors) but never made it out the baby pool as he couldn’t swim on his back. He could actually swim on his front but they always gave him floats as he was in the bottom group. He could have been challenged and helped to swim front crawl further and get used to water he couldn’t stand up in but because he couldn’t do back stroke he was never given this opportunity to prove he could swim further, learn other strokes or get used to deeper water. On holidays he’d get his confidence up when he could freely splash out and swim but he was unable to meet the Year 6 assessment as was pretty much written off by the swim instructors.

Well I'd put good money on no one having died because they can't play a guitar

DS can’t play the guitar either as it happens 🤣🤣🤣

I'm overseas and its about £60 for 30 mins or something insane and you have to commit to a block booking and its full anyway. My son has ASD and I can't get him anywhere near the pool and it makes me sad because I always feel so much judgement because I don't take him to swimming lessons like all of his friends. But it's not so easy for some kids wirh ASD.

I recently went swimming with our year 4 class. More than half of them had never even seen a swimming pool!

Yet another bit of lazy parenting. Fitness and life saving?? No buy them an ipad instead.

Our school does 6 swimming lessons in Year 4 and 6 in Year 5.

12 half hour lessons in a group size of 30 with a year between set 1 and set 2 is not going to get anyone from being a non swimmer to being a swimmer.

The lessons take half a day out of school because the kids have to go on a coach to the nearest pool, so even if the school could afford to offer more, it would eat into the learning time too much. In principle I’d support a system where they targeted resources at those kids who can’t swim and gave them more than 6 lessons, but then those kids would end up falling behind in Maths or Reading.

The local pool used to charge about £20 for a family swim, so not affordable on a weekly basis for lots of people. They now offer “free swimming for children” in certain sessions, which is great in theory but it is impossible to get a slot as demand is so high.

Of course those families who can afford it pay for private swim school lessons and their kids learn to swim long before Year 4.

Of course there are parents with understandable reasons but I know of families where the children can’t swim or ride a bike but have immaculate Nike clothing and trainers. They’d be the first to say they were poor but look at their priorities, which is so sad for the children.

I looked at this thread out of curiosity,I grew up in the 70s and there were loads of council pools and it was so cheap and good form of exercise.
Where did it all go wrong, there's probably more money on the go now but nothing is maintained and community assets are a thing of the past in a lot of towns and cities.

It is on the curriculum. While not free ,some schools might require a contribution of £1 a lesson , some ask for more (with it being free for some children). The issue is not all kids will be able to swim or even float due to a variety of reasons.

In our area , swimming starts in y3 and they do the 10 weeks sessions every year to y6. You still get y6 children that can’t do the “basic” stuff.

We pay £125 a month for swimming lessons in our area. It’s definitely a luxury that a lot of people can’t afford but I do wish it could be taught as it’s a vital life skill.

That's sad. We all went swimming in Y3 and if you couldn't swim you got longer in the pool. When I was growing up in the 90s the vast majority of birthday parties would be at the local swimming pool and the whole class would be invited. So assume everyone had learnt by then. No doubt swimming birthday parties are probably a thing of the past for health and safety reasons!

I pay £35 a month for my 5 year old to have a half hour lesson once a week in a council pool. It ain’t cheap. He’s been learning for a year and he’s still only in stage 1

I can’t swim. I had 6 weeks of lessons in primary school and never managed to put my head under the water so I was ignored. I was determined that my children would learn so I spent 9 years of sitting at the side of that damn pool so they could be competent swimmers.

Not one of the three of them has entered a pool since our last pre-Covid summer holiday!!

Do schools even have access to pools? Neither of our two local market towns have pools now (both closed as deemed too dangerous as people could drown!). No village school has one either, nearest pool is around 12 miles away and would have to be shared between approx 4x high school and 12x primaries.

I doubt any high schooler from our area has had a school swimming lesson in 40 yrs from either primary or secondary.

To get to my nearest pool it takes a bus and then a 10 min walk. Return fare for an adult is £5.20 and £2.60 per child.

Adult swimming is £4.60 for an adult and £2.30 for a child. Unless you take out a 'membership', the cheapest of which is about £14 per month

Swimming lessons have to be booked as a block of 10 for £46.

So for an adult to take a child swimming it is close to £15. OK the adult and child could walk but that takes about an hour and realistically at this time of year who wants to walk for a couple of hours?

Swimming lessons start at 4pm so you really need to have a car or take a cab to get to the pool.

It's interesting a few people have mentioned the how the pool being cold is off putting. Our local pool has a reputation for being really cold and whilst I find it lovely for lengths, it genuinely puts me off swimming at the weekend so the children have extra practice (they're in lessons as well). I love swimming at Center Parcs or on holiday and am a decent swimmer but really struggle to stay in our local pool with children for more than about 30 minutes. It's the coldest I've ever seen my toddler when I got him out once - big convulsing shivers. Have pools always been like that?

You are not wrong that strong swimmers can drown easily. The sea and rivers with waves and currents are very different from a pool. I am confident in a pool and those lakes with inflatable courses. No use in sea or rivers. I can only save myself if I fell into a garden pond. I really don’t see it as a life saving skill unless you get to life guard level.

I'm not surprised looking at the costs, it's surely only going to get worse. We pay just over £35/month a child, 3 children so nearly £1300 a year in swimming lessons. I'm not surprised many families feel they can't justify the cost.