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 can't swim why would you be in a current?"

Are you serious @AnnaMagnani ?

Our canoe capsized on the river Wye in Wales. All 4 of us can swim but that current was nothing we could have ever prepared ourselves for.

Accidents happen.

Don't be obtuse for the sake of it.

I agree that all children should learn to swim. It is part of the national curriculum at KS2 and our Y5 children all have swimming lessons. As it is curriculum we can’t charge for it. We can ASK for donations toward the coach transport. The coach costs us £80 each way and that’s before we’ve paid for the pool, the changing areas and the swimming teachers. With changing, safety chat for EVERY session the children end up with 30 minutes actually in the water.

As a parent, I deem life skills as being MY responsibility. The same as how to use a knife and fork, how to cross a road, personal hygiene etc.

Agreed. Water safety is a life skill, not swimming. They are not the same.

However, I do think everyone should be able to swim (and ride a bike) - if only to allow for a wider choice of leisure activities.

I am not at all surprised by this.

Im in my early 40s. When I was a kid, we had a village swimming pool that cost £1 for kids to swim, went up to £2 at some point, but still cheap as anything. Me and my sister would go everyday in the summer holidays and regularly at weekends. My dad taught us in that pool and then we had school lessons for more than just a few weeks. We both ended up as strong swimmers as we had been taught my qualified teachers over a couple of years through school and also were able to swim regularly which built our strength and confidence.

Fast forward to my own kids - it costs £30 for me to take my 2 children swimming. My eldest had weekly group lessons at the local leisure centre but they were totally pointless - there were 15 in the class and spent most of the lesson sat on the side only getting in to try and swim 25m once or twice the whole lesson, and it was just a conveyor belt of kids in and out - 15 kids in before his group, 15 more waiting to go in after his group. No break in between. No parents allowed poolside, no contact with teachers. It would have taken years for him to learn to swim this way. I don’t know how any children learn to swim this way unless their parents are able to also take them swimming weekly in between lessons.

Which is more expense (£30 a swim) on top of the cost of the lessons which were £12 a lesson for only 5 mins actually in the water!

So I pulled him out and paid for private lessons where he was in the water with the teacher for the whole 30mins with 2-3 kids per teacher and you actually got feedback about progress and could sit and actually watch. It was more a bit more expensive (£25 per lesson) but he actually learnt to swim and swim well, so was worth it for the two years I did that.

We are not wealthy by any means and I had to make sacrifices for those 2 years to send him to the more expensive classes. Not everyone will
be able to do that.

So no, I’m not surprised by these stats at all and it’s sad and wrong.

There’s no pools. In my area there is 6 council owned gyms. 1 pool had been closed to be refurbished for nearly 4 years. The others the only time is there is free swimming (no lesson or water aerobics on) is Wednesday after school until 5.30 if you finish work at 5 no chance and Sunday mornings from 8.3-11. All the the times after school hours is either lessons which are full or expensive or adult only or water aerobics. They also all shut a 2pm on a Saturday and Sunday.

my kids went to waterbabies and are competent swimmers but we can’t keep up their water confidence and skill because we can’t take them swimming because there is no pools with flexibility to take them when we are free

I think pp was pointing out that accidents are probably more likely to happen with swimmers such as your canoe story.

I can't swim and you wouldn't catch me in a canoe so the chance of me getting caught in a current would be incredibly low because I wouldn't do water sports like that in the first place.

As above, private lessons are expensive. Schools and the education budgets in the UK are being eroded away. And so fewer children learn to swim.

I find it so frustrating that we can spend £1b on a road to save some drivers 10 minutes - yet cannot afford to provide swimming lessons, or nice parks, or tidy up our communities, or police communities etc....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c0kpjdk622eo

I dont think that poster is being obtuse. As a non swimmer I wouldnt go canoeing. I'm sure the company you went with has rules about non swimmers too. Most people who cannot swim are wary of the water and avoid it.

I'm not surpirsed.

Both primary schools our kids went to there aren't enough lessons to learn how to swim - very different to DH and I who did learn via schools.

Lessons vary in how good they are and how accessible - and the cost across multiple kids serioulsy mounts up. Current location council used to put on free swiming stuff in hoidlays and paid for intenstive lessons all pretty much gone. They are also down a pool and location for lessons as close main one in town and 6 years later they haven't started to build replacement yet.

Once kids get to secondary - here they do have pool that does lessons outside school time - kids are painfully aware they are behind and don't have skills - it tend to be an option rather than proper lessons so poor/no swmmers just avoid.

Our school do it as part of the primary curriculum. I just assumed all do it? Why don’t they?

That stat is probably reflective of our area and we live in a reasonably wealthy area, I am sure there are less kids able to swim in some of the more deprived areas. When my youngest did school lessons, about 50% were competent swimmers and were doing life saving skills, there were another maybe 30% who could swim a bit and the other 20% who couldn't swim got nothing out of the handful of the lessons provided by school. Council lessons have gone up in price here recently, they are about £7.50 a lesson but still less than private lessons which are much more.

I'm not that surprised when most community changing rooms stink of urine at the end of the day. Cold pools, cold showers, verucas, hair everywhere. I'm very far from OCD but the pools make me shudder.

No sorry - I meant to quote @AnnaMagnani who implied that learning to swim wasn’t important.

They've turned down the temperature in most public pools for cost savings and it's horrible now. My kids and I no longer swim as it's just unpleasant to get into such cold water.

Back in the dark ages when I was a child, every child learned to swim at school. Once you could swim a length (25m) you received a free pass for the local swimming baths. Every year you were retested with the distance gradually increasing. My siblings and I had free passes until we were 16. This is the kind of initiative that needs funding but like everything else now it depends on the child's parental income and motivation.

First primary once a week Y4 for a term.

Younger one had their in different primary I think Y3 possible Y4 again - 3 weeks every day around 30 minutes in pool. Youngets missed first few of those weeks as school forgot to book a coach. Most parents then realised they'd have to pay for lessons but even then soem couldn't do it for long enough to get to a know how to swim level.

DH and I different schools as in different locations - we did swimming for a few years on and off at primary and both had compulsory secondary swimming lessons. We learnt enough in school to say we can swim.

My DC all had about 2 years of weekly private lessons - once we moved here with good coucil lessons - did free and paid for swimming most days in hoildays and they often elected to do swimming in PE at secondary - few actual lessons more letting them swim by themsleves.

They are better swimmers but no-way was school lessons enough for any child to learn to swim.

Free? Nothing in the world is free. Someone has to pay.

The pool needs to be paid for - and it's not just a pool. It's a building with enourmous costs. It's the maintenance for the pool. The maintencace for the changing facilites. It's the staff who run the centre. It's the staff who manage the bookings. It's the staff who complete the risk assessments and organise the free swimming. It's the staff who are avaialble to be in the pool with all the non swimming children. It's the lifeguards. It's the coach and the driver that have to take them to the local pool. It's the swimwear the children will need. And that may include the cost of swimming nappies, depending on how young we're going. It's the cost of the insurance.
That probably doesn't scratch the surface. They're just the basic costs to cover the free activity I could think of while I ate my crips.

Children are entitled to free dental health care. A shockingly high number do not receive that. Swimming really isn't high up on the agenda in comparison to all the other shortfalls for kids face.

I agree with your sentiment, it was so important to me that my kids have been having lessons since they were a few weeks old because I am fortunate enough to be able to pay for that, but it seems obvious why this isn't happening.

It takes most children years of lessons to learn to swim. 6 weeks of school lessons doesn't cut it.

A standard 25m pool should be run at that temperature, and it will be. The pool I’m talking about is just a local, council pool. Nothing posh, though it does have a timing suite etc so it can be used for comps and galas.
That’s the temp they need to be run at. The kiddy pools are usually 2 degrees higher but not loads. If you want a bath pool to just float about in you’ll need to go to a hotel. Swimming pools are for swimming in, and they need to be cool enough for that.

Used to be 3 pools within easy reach where i live, two of them are now closed down and boarded up due to cuts. I live in a poor area and the pools were well used but our council is in dire financial straits so the pools have gone and sadly the library near here has had its hours drasctically reduced. People can use the pool attached to the local secondary school but it is not open late or as often as the old public pools. Maybe access to facillities plays a significant part.

I agree. I am paying £100 a month for swimming lessons (for 2 children). That is simply unaffordable for a lot of people. It would be much better if they would learn to swim through school. My eldest is in year 6 and never had a single swimming lesson through school. I’d much rather they learn how to swim than do PE quite frankly. When are they ever going to need to run a relay race?

This is not a school issue. Parents should take their children to the local swimming pool regularly from a young age.
What the hell do you do with children on holiday if they can't swim.

I am surprised by that statistic, thought it'd a higher proportion that can't swim. It may depend on where you are. I live in a deprived area and my year 7 dcs told me that there were only 5 people out of a class of 30 that could swim when they had a few lessons at school. They only had half a terms worth and nothing since and they are now in year 10

What makes you think that everyone goes on holiday? I can't swim, my parents didnt take us swimming or on holiday.

For a start I couldn’t afford a holiday.

second of all, how did you expect me to take three kids under 8 swimming on my own.

thirdly. One of mine was seriously disabled. And couldn’t go in the pool.

it’s so infuriating the narrow world view some people have.