School offering zero swimming lessons, son is now in year 6 and cant swim

[Jobseeker19]

Is it compulsory for a school to do swimming lessons?

My son has never had them and is now in year 6.

When I was a child we did it every year.

I asked them today and was told that they are not doing it because of covid, when I told them my child is in year 6 and never had them they told me they only do it in year 5 for one term thats it and thats how all primary schools do it.

They are chatting shit as I have had an older child through there who also never had lessons.

What can I do about it?

When did your oldest child leave Primary School, was it pre COVID?

Who did you ask about the swimming lessons in school? Can you go up to the next level eg HT?

The reality, is that a non-swimmer wouldn’t have learned to swim in the one term provided by the school anyway. By the time they got to the pool and changed twice, you’re looking at 30 mins in the water. With 12 weeks of that, in a biggish group, you’d be lucky to manage more than a doggy paddle for 5-10 metres. Even in the days when schools provided. Ore than a term, few chikdren became competent swimmers just based on school lessons alone, Children go to no -school swimming lessons for YEARS to become competent swimmers.

Yes, swimming lessons cost and over the several years of lessons needed, you’re looking at sizeable sums of money. The state had never funded years and years worth of lessons and with schoo budgets being so hugely squeezed, they e chosen books and paper over swimming and left the swimming to parents.

So, OP you can either decide to pay and fund your children to learn to swim, or accept they probably won’t learn. It’s like the other stuff….ballet, cricket, football, gym….you pay for lessons and for them to do it, or they don’t learn. Yes, swimming is a more basic and fundamental and essential skill but the bottom line applies….pay for them to learn, or take them and teach them yourself….or they will remain not knowing how.

So, you’ve got a 10/11 year old who needs to learn from scratch. There will be classes for learning. If you’ve got younger kids, getting going sooner than 10/11 would be good. That’s the age most children have become competent after perhaps 4-5 years of lessons and are stopping. But local pools are keen to encourage swimming and run courses for older kids and adults who can’t swim and some of them are subsidised because it’s recognised swimmingnus important.

Sadly, this family isn’t alone. Loads of kids leave primary not being able to swim. It’s an indicator of poverty these days. Not being able to swim means less water confidence and as well as the risks if drowning being higher, other key impacts are being able to participate less ….not being able to properly join in swimming parties with their children, or go on an outing to the pool, oro swim in the sea with friends and family on holiday . Water based activities like canoeing or sailing will probably be ruled out as have 25m swimming requirements and outings to a water leisure park or flume pool won’t be viable. Not being able to swim makes you socially excluded…it probably impacts children most, but adults who can’t swim when most others can will also occasionally experience this exclusion too.

In an ideal world, schools would have the cash to fund this. But in an ideal world, the brief swimming lessons provided by schools are rarely going to produce competent capable swimmers anyway. Parent paid for swimming lessons have long been required and have been by many families, including those who don’t choose to/can’t afford any other extra curricular activities…it’s been the activity of choice as the skill is viewed as essential.
Lack of learning to swim is just another sign of poverty and the widening gap in society.
Op will have to decide if she can afford lessons or is able to take DC and teach him herself. She can seek out funding help. Relying on the school isn’t going to result in this child learning to swim, so being proactive is the only way she is going to be able to make it happen.

I hope you can make it happen Op.

if the children couldn’t do the above you didn’t meet the statutory requirements required.

Research has shown that year in year only about 50% of children meet the expected requirement by the end of key stage 2, so this poster/school will not be alone.

I'd hazard a guess that almost all of that 50% were taught to swim to the required standard outside of school, rather than through school lessons alone.

We did cycling proficiency at school, another thing that's probably extinct now.

It still exists but it isn't provided for free iirr ( to the schools; I think it usually is to the children) and not all schools do it by any means.

@Thesearmsofmine

If a school decided not to do another part of the curriculum, let’s say history, would everyone be saying that parents should be paying for tutors?

Not quite the same comparison.

Swimming is only one part of the PE curriculum.
So a truer comparison would be not teaching about the Roman Empire (a statutory part of the History curriculum) rather than not teaching history at all.

Op, I think it’s surprising that you didn’t know how little swimming schools have provided for years. I think it’s surprising that you thought the schools would turn your DC into a swimmer. Most people realise how little is provided (even in non Covid times) and understand that it takes several years to become a competent swimmer.

One thing parents are responsible for is finding things out. It’s their job to gather the info about things that are important for children’s upbringing. Some people do this effectively and others don’t. Some don’t seem to think they have any responsibility and the school will take responsibility for all aspects of their child’s upbringing and as a parent, they just have to wait for the school to do everything. And for anything that isn’t provided by the schools some parents will feel annoyed and blame the system or the school or government….but never themselves.

But this is the reality. We are in a society where a sizeable proportion if parents either choose not to take responsibility for some if the basics in bringing up their child, or quite simply have no ability to do so. The latter group who lack the ability to get these things sorted out are the group that really need state help…..there should be more of a safety net for families who are simply genuinely unable to provide for their kids or provide basics like swimming. But with funding cuts, swimming is no longer seen as an essential. And for those who could sort it out, but choose not to, it’s hard to know heat the answer is really. Is it more information so people understand the basics they need to do…and will that ever really work if people could provide those basics but actively choose not to??

Swimming is not on the curriculum in Scotland.
I’m sure there must be weekend lessons offered by your local council. I work and had to juggle my children’s lessons.
The school will be concentrating, quite rightly, on literacy and numeracy post lockdown.

So what about those kids who did drown (which still happens)? Is it their own parents' fault for prioritising eating and heating over something that's already in the school curriculum?

Isn't it the case that most people who drown can swim?
Non swimmers are usually more risk averse to water whereas confident swimmers can become over confident and take risks through not making good judgements regarding depth, temperature, etc.

Pay for his swimming privately. My DS started lessons when he was 6 weeks old as it was crucial that he knew how to behave around water. Schools have enough to do. Some parenting has to be done by the actual parents.

It is expensive to have three children and we should acknowledge that and help.

And for many (most?) having a third child is a choice.

Many parents chose to stop having more children due to family finances.

Yes, it's expensive to have three children, and most families need to consider this fact before having additional children surely. It's not like we need people to having large families - I can't imagine most families are forced into it.

Ds school has started back swimming this year. I think they only do one term though. Not enough time to make a competent swimmer imo. Ds has been having swimming lessons for a couple of years now (paid for) stopped due to covid but I've not restarted them yet. Could you take it in turns for the swimming lessons for your 3 dcs to cut down costs? I think it's unfair to put all the blame on the school, most people
I know take their dcs to private swimming lessons at the local leisure centre. I don't know anyone who solely relies on the school to teach their dcs to swim.

My son is p6, so 10. He should’ve had swimming last year. My older son covid hit halfway through his school lessons which is a shame as he really enjoyed them.

They get a term of lessons as part of the pe curriculum but at 9 you’d want your kid to be somewhat safe in water.

I have 4 am a single parent and yes lessons are expensive. My eldest 2 can swim - 20 now doesn’t take that long, (thet learned via the council pool lessons locally) then next one starts you don’t have to put them all at the same time. My 11 year old learned 1:4 as he really wasn’t keen until he was 8 so we chose something a bit more intensive and he is a fish and loves to swim now I think he learned quicker as he is older but he’s have looked daft in a level 1/2 class with 5 year olds. Youngest will be doing 1:1 if I can get him to go in, he has asd and a bit of a water phobia he’s done really well but isn’t quite there yet. I’ve never paid for more than 1 lesson set for 1 child at a time. But loads of sitting watching lessons which is a tad tedious. They also did the term at school - eldest 20 and ifs been the same all that time one term of lessons.

Academy’s do not have to follow the national curriculum.
Some schools have no access to a swimming pool.
Some schools charge for transport to and from the pool, many parents cannot afford this.
No one I know leant to swim from school lessons alone.
Many children leave primary school unable to read or write, that’s on the curriculum too.
Daily act of broadly Christian worship is also on the national curriculum, if your going to kick off to enforce the national curriculum make sure your ok with all of it.
In law it is the parents responsibility to ensure that there child receives an education, I don’t know of law that holds a school responsible.
Where is the farther of the children, can they not help out?

I’m still confused why if you thought swimming was so important, you waited until now to plan for lessons.

Most children start around age 3-5

I can't swim so it was very important to me that my two DS could. I took them to lessons as soon as they had their jabs as babies and they are adults now and very water confident. I relied on swimming lessons at school and can't even doggy paddle so if its important to you OP, pay for lessons and don't rely on school.

I think you are having a hard time here OP.

Your own school wasn't ahead of its time, I also learned to swim solely from the few school swimming lessons provided and that was back in the 70's/80's. I have paid for lessons for my own 3 but can well understand the difficulties all round of doing so.

My primary aged DC's school has just started lessons again - they do a block of 10 for each year, starting in Year 3. I would say there is about a 50/50 split between those who have learned outside school and those who haven't. My Year 6 will also be doing cycling proficiency next week.

While they may not become competent swimmers from school lessons alone, I don't think you're at all rude, entitled or unreasonable to expect the school to provide them and if some schools can do it, it should be consistent across the board.

OP it's like MFL teaching in primary- something that is taught but there's no requirement for the kids to reach a certain level.

I'm surprised that you learned at school. I had a term back in the day and people who started unable to swim still couldn't swim at the end of the term.

I think kids these days learn from private lessons or practice on sun holidays.

I had swimming lessons at school and also had private ones. All my kids started private lessons ages 3. They go to a school with a pool. They still have private lessons. I genuinely don't know anyone who has relied on the school to teach them to swim. That's your job to organise

Have you considered a half term crash course if you work term time only ? Ive heard of older beginners having good experiences with that kind of course

Swimming pools in our local area are currently offering free sessions for children. I'm sure this happens in other areas and would allow you to take all 3 children swimming and only pay for yourself

Good luck OP. Hope you get your kids taught to swim. Just don't suggest they are likely to win medals in the Olympics next time. Knowing how to swim is an important step; if they love swimming, annother door may open.

We had a swimming pool also a 90s baby but I never learnt to swim properly.

Honestly it might be a life skill but it didn't harm me by not knowing.

I've taken swimming lessons up as an adult now and doing well.

If you can't afford it then they won't learn until you can either pay for lessons or they are old enough, working and decide they want to take lessons and pay for it.

There are lots of things I'd have loved to have learnt when I was younger my parents couldn't afford it but I dont begrudge them for it. Now as a working adult I can pay to learn myself.

I agree swimming lessons are extortionate here, I can't believe people saying £20 pound a month, what a bargain . Our council leisure Centre is £50 per month by Direct. debit and the lessons are 30 minutes at beginners level. My DS has done a month of lessons so far and come on really well, so I actually think a term or even half a term of lessons via school would really help, not to fully swim but working on it.

I remember doing lessons at school in year 6, our primary had an outdoor pool, so shallow and unheated I scrapped my knees on it, I was too tall. It wasn't deep enough to support you.

If they can’t provide it that’s fine, but then it should be taken off the national curriculum.

Oh, if we could get things off the national curriculum standards just because many schools don't have the resources to provide it, that would be amazing. Might get some attention then.

As it is - with schools still able to get through OFSTED pretty well even missing some things, there really isn't the political will to take things off. Which political party do you think is going to admit it's become overbloated and needs trimmed down? Or actually provide those resources? Many of these issues started before Tories came to power, and it'll take a lot of public will to get either to U-turn on the idea that schools should provide all the things on a shoestring and a prayer.

Just skimmed the thread, and I had no clue people thought of knowing how to swim as such a crucial life skill! I can't swim, and it hasn't impacted my life that much (granted, I don't spend a lot of time near bodies of water I could drown in)