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.

So if it’s a non negotiable life skill and something kids need to learn - where does that leave kids with disabilities who will never learn?

Our council pool is freezing and my youngest hates it. Here there's only 1 family swim at the weekend and it's rammed full of tweens playing water polo so even if you can find enough free space to get DC to try and swim, they get a ball on the head every 2 minutes.
Waiting list for lessons is huge. Friends with DC who are doing them say they are often cancelled and instead of doing useful things like treading water they are tryin g to teach 5 year olds to swim butterfly ffs!

Same with the ''what do you do on holiday?'' comment. Growing up, I didn't get holidays because there wasn't any money for it, just as there wasn't any money for swimming lessons.

We have lessons at the local council pool its £27 a month per child so it adds up - but it is definately cheaper than other clubs

once mine are able to actually swim I will knock it on the head mainly because I hate taking them.

Nothing less enjoyable than spending the evening in boiling damp room filled with squealing and flailing 5 year olds.

The pools around us insist on one-to-one for children under eight, or non swimmers.
Like a pp my youngest GD couldn't go swimming because of ear issues. She can do the basics/use slides, we taught her on holiday. She doesn't have issues in fresh water, just pools.
When I was in school, ND children would be in SEN schools/institutions, so we have no comparisons to draw on.

Swimming lessons are expensive, in some areas there's simply not enough capacity & this is another one of those areas where its intergenerational. Dh and i can swim well, we could have taught the DC to swim if we hadnt been able to access lessons. If you grow up with parents who can't swim well themselves, its not going to be a good chance you will learn at a young age either.

I suggest to DS he take the grandchild swimming (which he does in the baby pool) and get lessons himself as an adult - which I’m now in the position of being able to pay for for him - but of course he can’t hear with his hearing aids out and he can’t find anyone in his town who would sign. So that’s a non-starter. It need to be one to one even to try if they didn’t sign and he can’t even find anywhere locally that does that outside of school hours.

deafness as a disability I find is often downplayed because it’s invisible and you don’t always notice and it does really upset me the way it is treated.

Tbh I’m, actually surprised - impressed - that 3/4 children can swim given the lack of public leisure centres, places on swim classes, covid impact and the cost of living.

According to Professor Google, 55% of adults over 15 can’t swim globally. I think we’re doing okay, comparatively.

Did your mum have a job? Time is as much a factor as money for a lot of parents.

I don't disagree re the amount of social services stuff that gets foisted onto schools. We had the local dentist in last week giving out free toothbrushes because apparently some people don't know that you need to brush your child's teeth.

The pools around us insist on one-to-one for children under eight, or non swimmers

This is terrible. It is one to two or three where i live. both mine could swim 25 metres front or back at age 5

Where I live (London borough) swimming js free for all under 8s, under 18s on free school meals and adults in receipt of any benefits and the leisure centres have plenty of family swim sessions. And if that still doesn’t work for you (time constraints or being a non swimmer yourself) then during the school holidays any child in years 5-7 at school that isn’t yet swimming at the national curriculum level can have lessons for free. Which I think is really good. The rest of the country should be doing this too and it’s a shame they’re not because it’s such an important life skill.

It is a shame to hear this.

I live in a country where swimming lessons were not the norm. They are becoming more popular, but when I used to work with larger classes of Children, and even 18-22 year olds, it was always the case that the majority couldn't swim.

Here, swimming classes are only really for rich kids, or kids whose parents are really 'into it' as an interest.

I hope the UK doesn't go that way - we are an Island of course, water is never that far away. Swimming is a great form of exercise and a good survival/life skill to have.

If it'll cost around the same - or even a bit more - I would ditch the lessons and take her yourself weekly instead. You know you can do it because you have on holiday. I did this with mine and they went from literally years of little progress with lessons (for my older one) to both now swimming very confidently - my 7 year old can swim a couple of hundred metres, my 4 year old can do around 25m. I do think that their technique is not as good as if they were being taught by a professional, but I think a few one-on-one lessons could help with that, whereas they just weren't actually learning to swim in group lessons.

I can't swim. My parents could have afforded lessons at some points of my childhood, but they couldn't be bothered to take us. We were never taken to any clubs or groups, just turfed out on the street on evenings, weekends, and holidays.

I find it embarrassing but it hasn't had an impact on my life. I do however take my toddler every week. I think its a great sport and way of keeping fit. And some careers require you to be able to swim.

Yes. Swimming lessons need to be part of the school curriculum. They were when I was at junior school - 1970s - and it's an essential life skill. I feel sorry for people who can't swim because they're missing out on so much. And it could save their life, or help them save someone else's. Imagine if your child falls into a body of water, and you can't rescue them.

Not gonna happen though, (swimming lessons at school,) with all the shitty cuts here there and everywhere.

I agree, swimming lessons are expensive, oversubscribed and often simply not available at all.
I also think the way swimming is taught isn't always suitable for every child.

Both my DC had to start with front crawl and didn't get on with it. I was fortunate enough to be able to teach them doggy paddle anbd then brest stroke. From there they learned other techniques.

Yes. Swimming lessons need to be part of the school curriculum. They were when I was at junior school - 1970s - and it's an essential life skill. I feel sorry for people who can't swim because they're missing out on so much. And it could save their life, or help them save someone else's. Imagine if your child falls into a body of water, and you can't rescue them.

Not gonna happen though, (swimming lessons at school,) with all the shitty cuts here there and everywhere.

Yes. Swimming lessons need to be part of the school curriculum. They were when I was at junior school - 1970s - and it's an essential life skill. I feel sorry for people who can't swim because they're missing out on so much. And it could save their life, or help them save someone else's. Imagine if your child falls into a body of water, and you can't rescue them.

Not gonna happen though, (swimming lessons at school,) with all the shitty cuts here there and everywhere.

It's down to time and money. My sister was able to take her children to swimming lessons from babies because she was a SAHM.
My primary school did a term of swimming lessons as part of PE at a local facility but this was in the 90s. School actually taught me to swim.
I can see how kids are making it to secondary school without being able to swim if lessons aren't offered at primary.

My DCs had swimming lessons through school and I paid privately after school too to help as they were nervous swimmers.

The swimming centre the primary school used has since been closed and sold off.

We live in a rural area with no council swimming pool. The local independent school used to give free use of their pool to the local state schools however since Education Tax they now have to charge + VAT. The local state schools don't have the budget to pay so the DC there now don't have free swimming lessons. Nearest pool is now a 30 min bus ride away so not doable in the school timetable.

Same with sports pitches + holiday clubs.

Government policy in 1 area has consequences for other areas. Nothing happens in a silo.

In my experience swimming lessons work best f you get to swim a lot, which in my childhood meant that most kids did a few years of lessons but mostly became swimmers by actually swimming in the summer, at lakes, rivers, or in the sea.

One thing I have noticed with my kids is that they get a lot less swimming time because the rules at supervised beaches are differernt now. When I was a kid, mums sat on the beach or shore and watched the kids. Now they expect the mums to be in the water with kids under 9. And will come and tell them that. So you see a lot fewer kids in the water.

I noticed this really clearly when looking at kids summer camps when I was travelling last summer. Where I live in Canada, the Boys and Girl's Club took their kids, and they all went in the water in a line. The camp leaders had to be farther out, they couln't go past them. So the kids were basically up to their knees and couldn't really swim. So they stayed in for 5 minutes and then went and played on the beach because it was no fun.

In contrast, when my daughter was visiting family in Bermuda, her summer camp took them to the beach, the leaders sat down on the sand to watch them, and the kids were in the water playing for hours, swimming, jumping off rocks. Those kids swam like fishes, and my daughter's swimming improved massively over the month.

Around here now, most people take their kids to splash pads in the heat, not to swim.

Not in the UK (indeed, in a landlocked country, albeit with a lot of lakes.)

An issue here is pool availability. Quite a few are closing down as they’ve become too expensive to maintain.

This prices out a lot of families as swimming lessons become exclusive and you need to drive to a pool. DS has had a couple of private lessons with the village swimming teacher who got a pool installed in her garden to plug the gap in swimming provision. She gave him the technique ä, I‘ve practised with him at a thermal baths 45 mins away, where the water is warm and the pensioners don’t swim fast enough to run over small children and enjoy seeing them learn.

We have the time, money and transport to do this. At 8/9, his class have started school swimming lessons at a pool which is essentially only open to the schools in this and the next district. He is in the swimmers‘ group.

But if we lived in the nearby town, no car, less money, more kids, this wouldn’t be possible.

Educating people about cold water shock is a separate concern from teaching swimming skills. But I don't think most people who drown drown because they toppled into a canal and couldn't swim to safety, do they? Isn't it more people who can swim getting into difficulties with cold water or unfamiliar tides/currents/rips? I agree this needs remedying but I don't think it's because people can't swim a length.

I think most people who know they can't swim are quite careful not to put themselves in a situation where they would have to 🤷

The UK isn't landlocked?