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?

It's really not the school's responsibility to teach a child to swim. Yea they may provide swimming in yr 5 (I think) but children should be able to swim before that.

You don't have to pay for lessons. You could take you dc to the pool and teach them yourself

Why are you blaming the school? Mine weren't even in school when we put them in swimming lessons. We searched out swimming lessons (knowing it was a life skill and our responsibility) and they started them at three. When i was young I remember we had swimming lessons every week with school but I had to attend swimming lessons in the holidays to learn as other's have said there are far too many kids in a class for lessons to be of a benefit to anyone. Stop blaming the school!!

@Jobseeker19

I have 3 children I can't afford swimming lessons for all.

Plus I think the school is doing a disservice.

Sadly cuts to public spending have impacted this. I pay for swimming lessons for my youngest but my eldest 2 only had a term of lessons and so we used to go swimming as a family at the local pool. See if you can get a passport to leaisure card or some council scheme inventive to support you. There may be discounts available. We used to have cycling lessons when I was a child and now with all the climate change, you would think this might restart but I doubt it.

In the 80s I went school swimming every week throughout junior school. Unfortunately, I can’t swim. It doesn’t actually bother me that much - I actually don’t see it as being quite the life skill that others do and it’s only very recently that being able to swim has become the norm, however I have paid for dd and ds to have private lessons, mainly because they wanted to. They enjoyed them for a bit but they are expensive and very low quality. Before you invest money you don’t have in those, watch a few YouTube videos or read a book about how to teach kids to swim and try and do it yourself.

Local council usually have swimming lessons. That's what everyone does in my area. Never heard of school doing lessons. Just a few trips to a pool for a term.
I live next to the coast and so it is very important in our area that thry swim from a young age.

Sorry but I don't agree. Swimming is a very important life skill that is a parents responsibility to organise for their children.
We live on the coast and it is a must. And no we don't have alot of money but I make sure I budget for lessons that are 30 a month for 2 children, to ensure they don't die due to my neglect.

And the family living hand to mouth each month where do they get this extra money from? Especially those who (without getting political) are about to have their tight budgets stretched even further)

@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?

Why is it the school’s responsibility to teach your child to swim? I’ve been taking my Daughter since she was a toddler as I think it’s important and she had lessons from the age of three . You don’t have to have lessons though you could teach them yourself by going to the local pool if you can’t afford lessons . Some schools offer swim sessions in the holidays too.

I think posters would have been more sympathetic had the OP not been so rude about the school in her first post. I can only imagine the phone call - I am glad I wasn't the person in the office who had to deal with that.

Schools simply cannot do everything - though many parents think they should. I have seen an increasing number of secondary age students who cannot sit at a table to eat, cannot use a knife and fork, cannot eat without leaving food over the floor, cannot eat without showing the room the content of their mouths. Many cannot hold a conversation without swearing. The cannot say please, thank you or excuse me.

I am frankly fed up of teaching students who are 11 years and above basic manners and social skills. Some people need to step up to the mark and do what parents are expected to do. I think this also includes teaching their children to swim, or organising swimming lessons. Schools have no budget for basic educational equipment. They also have no curriculum time left. Unless they are very lucky to have a pool on site swimming lessons involve busing students to a pool - which costs time and money that they just don't have.

Our primary school did weekly swimming for one term in year 4.
I think swimming is supposed to be on the curriculum but there's no requirement for any particular length of time. The lessons weren't great as there were so many children there - plus we had to pay for transport to get there but of course some parents couldn't or wouldn't pay so it was a significant financial burden to the school.

To the people telling OP to go to the pool and teach them to swim herself (assuming she can swim), around here, an adult and three children would cost around £14.00 per session. That's £56.00 a month. Still unaffordable for the families of the 4.3 million children living in poverty. All children should have the opportunity to swim, whether at school or in council provided lessons, but sadly, many areas don't see it as a priority and in times like ours with budget cuts after budget cuts, you can see why. Like many have said, swimming is on the curriculum if your children don't go to an academy, so in an ideal world, schools should be supported to provide that aspect of the curriculum.

[quote pollymere]@DumplingsAndStew The National Curriculum is what any school not in the private sector must teach. And it includes swimming. So to all those people who say it's not the school's responsibility. Actually it is.[/quote]
Britain doesn't have a curriculum. There is a National Curriculum in England, but Britain =/= England.

Not only does the National Curriculum not apply in all parts of the UK, but it also does not apply to Academy schools.Somewhere in the region of half of children in Englad go to an academy school.

OP it really isn't the Schools responsibility entirely, and covid scuppered a lot of plans that now will not be caught up. Its just a fact. Academies don't have to follow the curriculum either. You can ask but take matters into your own hands. It's a parents ultimate responsibility... pay for the oldest child for a term or 2 to get basic skills. Take the 2 eldest ones to the pool to judge practice even if you don't teach them. Stand away from them and encourage them to treat water to you. They don't need to know breaststroke.... they just need to be able to help themselves if they fell in as a basic skill. School sessions don't teach you any more than that honestly. After that it's confidence and practice. Leave the 3rd child with a relative or playdate so you can take 2.
If you can afford to either take 2 with you or pay for the 1 that missed out for a term (the other 2 might get swimming at school now things are back to normal) the leave it for now. It is unfortunate that you xxnnog afford it, but swimming is then not your biggest problem to worry about... life is hard as it is and focus on the critical stuff instead. You can always take them for lessons later in life dhfn things look better financially. Good luck 👍

Sorry about the typos! If you cannot afford it I meant, then worry about the more critical stuff. This is not one of them.....

I really find it a bit weird that people expect schools to teach there children to swim. I think when you have a child that you should except that you have to teach them life skills , ride a bike, swim, eat with a knife & fork , get dress, personal hygiene, and some manners. But apparently some people think some of these life skills should be sorted by the state.

Guess it’s a political stance really - how much you expect the state to do for your children choice of high tax more provision for all or lower tax sort your own children out if you can’t too bad work harder. British public have been voting for the latter approach for years.

Our kids state educated but we were involved with school and quickly realised there’s no money. If you want decent swimming /sports music and even decent language provision you find it and you pay for it. The gap is widening.

As far as I am aware the curriculum is half hour a week swimming lessons for one term (6weeks) a year for year 5 and year six. A child cannot learn to swim in 3 hours with 14 other children in the pool. Our school do have swimming lessons from reception but it simply cannot compare to actual swimming lessons you pay for.

I disagree with everyone saying school lessons wouldn’t be enough to teach them to swim; maybe with some children it’s true, but for many I don’t see why the combination of a term or two of lessons plus going casually with parents during and after that wouldn’t be enough to get them going. Many children don’t need years of lessons. Mine actually learnt without any lessons at all.

So OP I do think what you are missing out on would help your son and I do sympathise. Can you think about cutting back some other expense and getting a few weekend lessons. It must be hard though with the cost of everything rising.

@Spidersinmyhair

Can't believe the responses on this thread. Everyone saying it's the parents responsibility to teach and that parents should pay for lessons without recognising that it's a massive privilege to A) be able to afford lessons B) to have parents that can swim Many children from ethnic minority backgrounds have parents that don't swim My parents couldn't swim and my school swimming lessons were shit so I've grown up not knowing how to swim. At 36 I'm now paying for my own swimming lessons. Please don't assume that everyone has the means to teach their own children or pay for lessons FFS.

Agree completely. Some on here will say that if you can’t teach them to swim or afford lessons you shouldn’t have had them. Because of course everyone’s life circumstances stay exactly the same from when they decide to have a child right through to that child’s adulthood.

Those saying its a life skill, I often see driving lessons referred to as that too on here but we don't expect 6th form kids to have lessons at school.

When I was at school about half the kids could swim. The school had a small unheated pool and we had lessons each year but I never learnt my comp also had a pool but the teacher there just destroyed my confidence. I learnt at 39, was taught by a friend at the time.

My DC had lessons through school as well as private lessons but we only went as a family with another family (1 child) for adult chilld ratio. The private lessons were paid for through a charity for giving kids opportunities.

My partner is a swim teacher. All schools do it differently. Some bring the whole school, others just particular year groups.
My kids primary do a term in y4 5 and 6. They also offer booster lessons to y6s who can't swim, this goes on all year.
Both our local secondary schools do lessons in y7 aswell but he says these are just for students who are poor swimmers, not the whole year group.
My two both missed out on one term due to covid but they both did lessons from being young so they both swim well

My daughter also missed out on school swimming lessons. Should have been last year but was cancelled due to COVID. She’s now in high school and can’t swim. Swimming is part of their PE. She’s already dreading it.

I did actually pay for (a lot) of swimming lessons for her when she was younger. She hated it. I forced her to go every week for 2 and a half years. She could swim a little bit but started to get worse over time. Refused to jump in the pool. Her actual swimming got worse over time and it was a battle to get her ready for it every week. We gave up eventually. She said she hated the way the water feels and was scared because she couldn’t stand up in the pool. Most lessons would end with her in tears. She can’t remember how to swim at all now. So that’s hundreds of pounds wasted.

My husband was like that, Thanksforallthefish. He hated swimming and could barely swim. He'd go in the pool with our son and stand (he was a tall chap), helping him, and I could swim well enough back then and enjoyed it.

Some people find it easier to learn to swim in the sea, I did and it was lovely. School swimming lessons were for messing about at the shallow end. However we can't import a beach to wherever we live :-), so it would be holidays only.

I think swimming is more of a life skill than driving @coldwarenigma but I’m probably biased because I don’t drive and I get by just fine Swimming is different because it could save your life, whereas driving probably puts your life more at risk!