To get a swimming certificate when ds10 can't swim?!

[Lovemyboys01]

So my ds10 brought home 2 dolphin certificates plus badges from school just before christmas. Obviously dh and I presumed this meant he could swim 5 meters as stated on said certificate.

I took him swimming at the weekend. Turns out he can't swim. At all.

I've spoken to his teacher who has informed me that these certificates get handed out even if the child can only stick his head under water for a second. So he can't swim, but he has a certificate to say he can!?!? Wtf?!??
Apparently this happen over the whole of Leeds but other areas are different.

I was wondering if anybody would know where I can take this...who to complain to/email etc.

Thanks for reading.

ours only get them when they can swim the distance stated on the certificate. They have other certificates for water skills that are separate from the distance ones e.g. doing floats, gliding, blowing bubbles in the water, etc

It's not one of these awards where they have to do 8 of the 10 things stated is it? Does it say the 5m is unaided? Some swim awards allow for swimming a distance while using aids.

Is this the scheme: www.leeds.gov.uk/files/Internet2007/2010/44/dolphin%20award%20scheme%20leaflet.pdf

OK, this is VERY cynical, but, as it is an Olympic year, do the council have special targets to meet? Is it important that they can boast that XYZ% of children can swim? And that it's an improvement on last year?

Dolphin stage 1:

• swim 5m using a bouyancy aid

Dolphin stage 2

• swim 5m on front or back
• blow bubbles
• enter the water unaided, without the use of steps
• regain standing from front or back

5 metres is not a very long way (half a width of a pool?) so this certificate is more about confidence building than a sign of real ability.

If this was me I'd be much more concerned about the fact that my child couldn't swim at age 10 than the fact that he'd got a certificate which really doesn't say much more than he's having a go.

Thanks for the replies.

Neither certificate says anything regarding buoyancy aids.

My DS has always lacked confidence when it comes to water whether it be in a swimming pool or just a bath, so I am very proud of him for trying his best. It is also a concern for me that he can't swim at 10 which is why I am dealing with the issue now

My DS2 (10) is a rubbish swimmer. We have spent hundreds of pounds trying to change this since he was 6: group lessons, 2:1 with his DB, 1:1 at a private pool (at £28 a half hour...) but the reality is he can still only barely swim- maybe 10m on his back?!

BUT I have a school mum friend who often boasted about how incredibly well her DD (now 9, then 7- precocious little madam, actually!) could swim, being asked to join the club etc etc, apparently- even showing me her 250m badge, so I said 'Gosh, it must be SO much easier taking her and her DB, (2 yrs older) to , not having to practically hold onto her the whole way!' to which she said 'We-e-ll, I'd need to be by her side the whole time, I wouldn't let her down the slide alone, or around the lazy-river/rapids..' - so there's 'being able to swim' and 'being able to swim', isn't there?!

Afraid I am with other poster above. With a 10 year old complete non-swimmer you have much bigger problems than deranged school certificate policies.

Good luck with tackling that. I presume there have been complications as to why it hasn't been possible to get him swimming earlier.

Having said which, getting children to learn to swim is without a doubt my least favourite part of mothering.

I must say, though, that DS1 was a reluctant learner but suddenly it all came together when he was about 9- the usual story: on holiday with another family whose 8 and 10 year old DSs were reasonable swimmers so DS1 suddenly became motivated! This past year, at Easter, we spent 3 weeks in Oz and I could see DS2's water confidence increase no end as he spent so much time in swimming pools. He'll happily jump in out of his depth and swim to the side of a domestic sized pool, so a max of say 5m, so I guess the confidence is there but he wouldn't be able to coordinate a >10m length!