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?

Neither of my parents could swim and they thought nothing of it. I swam but never went swimming with parents.

It does seem to be a thing now that all children must learn to swim, I don't know when the emphasis changed.

Paying for swimming lessons seems a bit much to me when you can take your child swimming and teach them yourself, it's not rocket science. I learned to swim without formal lessons.

@Gorkys

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)

me neither. As has been pointed out - one can learn as an adult if it is that important to you.

Just skimmed the thread, and I had no clue people thought of knowing how to swim as such a crucial life skill!

But it is if you fall in some deep or even not so deep water you can easily die - if you can swim it’s highly likely you’ll be fine, unless obviously it’s a storm at sea or strong currents in the water. And if someone comes to your rescue then it was crucial for them to have that skill. It’s a simple yet massive change of outcome in an emergency situation. As a pp said school lessons may not teach you to swim that confidently but probably well enough to avoid drowning those situations.

I don’t think being able to swim is the vital bit. It’s being able to know what to do to stay safe in an emergency or how to safely help someone else in an emergency. I think the school offering needs renaming to take the focus away from the idea it will teach you to swim

I think your school should be offering swimming lessons. My own primary is giving 2 weeks intensive classes to those years who missed out weekly lessons due to covid. I would complain to the governors and perhaps Ofsted. Because swimming is a safety issue it's unfair to expect every family to afford to pay for lessons.

I think your perspective is a little skewed.

Firstly, extracurricular or specific topics things are added to the curriculum because parents fail in their duties as parents. Parents who don't teach children about puberty or hygiene. I mean some schools do toothbrushing lessons and sessions. Does that mean you shouldn't teach your children to brush their teeth?

Second to that, why do you think that there are so many swimming classes etc if schools 1. Did swimming lessons or 2. To an acceptable level? I have four children, it is expensive when you have a lot. So I do understand. There are summer programmes and monthly schemes and lots of options, mine have all had lessons and we teach them ourselves too, two at excellent swimmers, one has severe additional needs and has struggled, he can sort of swim ish but not to the standard of the others. My youngest is 7 and still can't swim. She has had a lot of hours of swim lessons, way above what they are offered at school.

Lastly, school lessons are more part of PE than actual swimming lessons, it's really basic lessons with a high level of pupils for one teacher, its not ideal at all. The school are not responsible to teach your child from a non swimmer to a confident swimmer. It's likely they would only have hot 6 weeks of "lessons" max.

Also, what the curriculum covers is the ideal. Ideally children leave school with those skills, also ideally they have some of those skills before they start those lessons. Like ideally children have a certain attainment in various skills, knowledge etc when they leave but of course that's not the case. My eldest, who also has additional needs, was above average in maths and below in English, is that the schools fault? Absolutely not and the attainment from what he was at when he joined the school (in year 3) and when he left was remarkable.

If Covid hadn't happened your child would likely have lessons but that doesn't mean he would be a confident swimmer.

Yes lessons take money, time etc, it's a struggle balancing it all, have you considered a half term programme? It's a good way to learn quickly.

I learnt to swim at school. The primary schools in the town we moved to used to teach children to swim (£1 per lesson), oldest 2 dc learnt at school but it stopped before youngest 2.

Totally agree op that cost of swimming lessons is massive, my budget would never have stretched to it. Don't think many of the pp appreciate what living on a tight budget really means.

My parents taught me how to swim, it really isn't hard or a big deal. One day in the pool, teach your kid to doggy paddle and then teach them how to get around and keep afloat. They don't need to know all the dumb strokes. I went to school in America and basically no school has pools or teaches children to swim. I have no idea why it's taught in schools the way it is here, the schools that do have pools waste a huge amount on their budget on something parents can easily teach themselves.

@EllieNBeeb

My parents taught me how to swim, it really isn't hard or a big deal. One day in the pool, teach your kid to doggy paddle and then teach them how to get around and keep afloat. They don't need to know all the dumb strokes. I went to school in America and basically no school has pools or teaches children to swim. I have no idea why it's taught in schools the way it is here, the schools that do have pools waste a huge amount on their budget on something parents can easily teach themselves.

‘Dumb strokes’. Err… so swimming?

Swimming is keeping afloat and moving in water. You don't need to know the breast stroke or butterfly or whatever. There is no need in adult life to know how to make yourself look as ridiculous as possible while getting across a pool.

I feel like giving low income parents a pack of vouchers for a crash course of actual proper swimming lessons to do done at weekends/holidays would be more effective... except that of course some parents wouldn't bother, and some find the logistics of getting several children to the pool too difficult.

School swimming lessons are of course a complete joke. It's not the schools' fault. Huge amounts of time and organization go into making sure kids get a tiny bit of time in the water and maybe a minute or so of individual attention/instruction. Nobody is ever going to learn to swim from that.

@EllieNBeeb

Swimming is keeping afloat and moving in water. You don't need to know the breast stroke or butterfly or whatever. There is no need in adult life to know how to make yourself look as ridiculous as possible while getting across a pool.

I think an adult doing doggy paddle looks a bit ridiculous, personally. At the very least they need a proper front crawl.

I agree on the doggy paddle, but a front crawl is completely easy and my parents taught me in like an hour. It's nothing that's needed to be taught at school, hold your arms under your kid's torso, instruct them how to flail, remove your arms, repeat until they're moving.

We tried to teach my 6 year old to swim for years. Even spent 2 weeks solid in the swimming pool at a relatives house, and she refused to lift her feet off the floor or put her ears under water.
Booked her 1:1 lessons and she was swimming in a couple of weeks. So not all kids will learn in an hour with their parents sadly!
On the other hand, I taught my older daughter to swim when she was 3 so I don’t think it was just that I was useless at it. It depends on the child.

My year 5 child has had one term of lessons

I hadn’t expected a few terms of lessons in 6 years would turn him into Michael phelps I’m surprised anyone would

You need to take them yourself and realise they will learn through repetition and opportunities to be in pool that’s your job I’m afraid not the schools

My dh taught my dc to swim is this something you can do? Public pools aren't expensive to use. My dad taught me to swim I find it odd you wouldn't put more effort in to enduring their safety around water rather than blaming the school system.

I had swimming lessons run by my school all through primary school. We were lucky because in the infants we had a school pool, then we went to the local leisure centre when we got to juniors. However, I had to pay for my children's lessons, as the school only did a term of lessons in year 3 at the local pool and of course this wasn't enough. Worryingly, one of my children aged 11 has a fear of water and refuses to learn to swim after a bad experience during a school/leisure centre lessons - not the fault of the school.

@Gorkys

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)

Whilst I understand why it's an important skill, I didn't know so many people thought years of private swimming lessons were 'non-negotiable' before I started reading MN threads about it. I'm not sure how many people actually consider the cost of swimming lessons when they're considering having a baby, as someone suggested you should.

Like I say, I understand it's important, and I can swim (weak swimmer), but MN was a bit of an eye-opener for me too.

My parents took me to

I have 3 children two could be in one class but the other would be in a different swim class. How much of my time is going to be spent taking then to lessons and moving my work around that?!

You find weekend classes like I've had to because I work and you stay there until all three have had a lesson. Having kids means time gets taken up by things you may not love doing yourself!! Wow. My son had a term of school lessons in year 5. That's not how kids learn to swim.

@EllieNBeeb

My parents taught me how to swim, it really isn't hard or a big deal. One day in the pool, teach your kid to doggy paddle and then teach them how to get around and keep afloat. They don't need to know all the dumb strokes. I went to school in America and basically no school has pools or teaches children to swim. I have no idea why it's taught in schools the way it is here, the schools that do have pools waste a huge amount on their budget on something parents can easily teach themselves.

It’s taught in the U.K. because we live on a group of islands where no one is more than 60 miles from the coast and we want to prevent people from drowning because they don’t know how to swim. And breaststroke isn’t ‘dumb’ - it’s actually a good one to teach children who might not want to put their head under the water.

This is all a bit silly. How much of your adult life do any of you spend swimming? The UK has miserable weather, leisure center swimming pools are humid and disgusting, when we go on holiday, we spend more time lying by the pool than in it. Why does everyone think formal swimming lessons are necessary. How much time does anyone actually spend even remotely near water.

I live on the coast in a tourist beachy town. The amount of people that actually get in the water further than knee depth, even during peak season, is minimal. The only people that swim are the 70 year old lady cold water swimmers. No one our age or younger cares to be that cold and miserable. Don't be ridiculous.

Teach one child at a time. I have three kids. I never have more than one in swimming lessons at any given time . Granted I started a bit earlier. Make it a priority. Ask for it for birthday presents if really needs be. Maybe do an intensive course for the one that at you think is the biggest priority,

@EllieNBeeb

This is all a bit silly. How much of your adult life do any of you spend swimming? The UK has miserable weather, leisure center swimming pools are humid and disgusting, when we go on holiday, we spend more time lying by the pool than in it. Why does everyone think formal swimming lessons are necessary. How much time does anyone actually spend even remotely near water.

I like swimming. My kids like swimming. My in laws have a swimming pool… when we visit them, we spend most of the day in the pool. I go open water swimming. My children have been invited to swimming parties, we go to Center Parcs where the main attraction is the swimming pool. My toddler loves water so I take him to our local pool weekly (ours isn’t humid and disgusting), and none of us sit by the swimming pool on holiday. That’s why learning to swim (properly) was important to us as a family. Just because you don’t swim, doesn’t mean no one does!

Lots of people like swimming in this country @EllieNBeeb and visiting the beach is very common. I go swimming at my local every week and it is always busy. I recently went on two U.K. holidays - the south coast and the Lake District. I swam in the sea/lake on both and again there were lots of other people in the water too.
If you are in the pool then doggy paddle is fine. It’s less fine in the sea - it doesn’t have as much power compared to proper strokes so if you get caught in a rip tide (which is unfortunately quite common) you will struggle to get out of it if all you can do is doggy paddle.