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?

Presumably you’re also the kind of parent who never reads to your children and thinks the school should be doing everything? Lazy parents is a really sad thing. It’s not unaffordable to take you children swimming, and they could have picked up enough experience to learn to swim. Then you could prioritise swimming lessons for the older child, or however you wanted to do it.

Easier to just complain about the school and the teachers though, isn’t it?

Yes there is a requirement actually.

www.swimming.org/schools/swimming-national-curriculum/

@Jobseeker19

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

Plus I think the school is doing a disservice.

What age are your other kids? Pay for swimming lessons one at a time rather than all at once if you cannot afford for all of them at once.

My daughters school do 2 terms of swimming lessons over the whole of primary school in 2 different year groups. Tbh I would hardly say this is enough ti really learn how to swim and be water safe. They really needed smaller private lessons on a regular basis for quite some time to be reasonable swimmers.

We're in Wales and our primary did one week of swimming in Y4, every afternoon. No way would it have been enough to actually teach anyone to swim. My DS was already a pretty good swimmer by then but the non-swimmers basically kicked widths with floats and not much else. It's very difficult to access private lessons at the moment though - even many years pre-Covid, we had a long wait for a place to come up at our local pool.

@Placido

This is a compulsory thing for primary schools to provide - the only part of pe that they must provide. Each and every child should leave school able to swim 25metres by law.

gosh I am glad that was not the case when I was at school and dinosaurs walked the earth or I would still be there. I did swimming lessons at school, (very early 1960's) proper teacher and everything and i still cannot swim, and then when i was older, swimming lessons again and still I can't swim....I mean "they" can make all the laws they like but some of us just can't.

One term in y 5 is standard around here. It is not long enough to teach a child to swim.
I would look into bursaries locally to find swimming lessons, locally rotary club or similar if you really can't afford it.

It's a life skill and you are right it is so
Important so maybe look at your other expenses and see what can be cut out to pay for the lessons.

Look at different pools offering a range of times.

[quote BlackberrySky]@Silverswirl I not "expecting" them to be taken out of class, it really annoys me that they are. In our school, every single child can already swim and school lessons are a massive waste of time. I wish they didn't bother![/quote]
Then be extremely thankful that you live in such a fortunate environment where all the kids mums and dads have been able to make sure their child can swim. Spare a thought for those classes where the ones who can swim by year 6 are in a tiny minority. Step outside of your privileged bubble for 5 moments and consider that some are far less fortunate and those lessons are a life line

Swimming pools were closed. It's unfortunate but it's just another thing that happened.

Speak to the council if you can't afford a few swimming sessions at the local pool. Our schools have only just been allowed back into the leisure centre and don't have double the slots.

Kids didn't get to take exams or do any practical stuff. As for everyone you know learning to swim through school, that's probably not the case if you were at school in the 90s. You just assume it is.

I also had swimming lessons at school in the 90s, they taught you to swim 50m over a couple of weeks. It’s really not sufficient for any sort of live saving purposes.

I'd like to know how many parents who can't afford swimming lessons can afford non-essential things such as takeaways/alcohol/football clubs and kits etc though. Not all, of course but it's often about what you prioritise.

Yh seriously, how can I get the school to actually do what is compulsory on the curriculum
Schools are not required to catch up on parts of the curriculum that were missed due to Covid. That includes swimming. You can ask nicely if they’d make an exception and offer catch-up for swimming because it’s vital life skill. If they have the money they might agree, especially if the other parents are on board (petition?). But you can’t force them.

@RobertGalbraith

Swimming 25m by the time a child leaves primary school is part of the PE national curriculum so schools should provide some lessons. However, academies do not have to follow the national curriculum. Is your child’s primary school an academy, OP?

Reposting this as it’s clearly being ignored. 39% of primary schools are now academies.

It was part of the national curriculum. Children should be able to swim 25m by the end of year 6

mine never went either, nor could I take them as the rule locally was one adult per non swimmer. two non swimming children, one responsible adult. couldn't do it. Didin't have the money for lessons.

they have lessons now as their dad is funding now he has more money coming in.

@spiderlight

We're in Wales and our primary did one week of swimming in Y4, every afternoon. No way would it have been enough to actually teach anyone to swim. My DS was already a pretty good swimmer by then but the non-swimmers basically kicked widths with floats and not much else. It's very difficult to access private lessons at the moment though - even many years pre-Covid, we had a long wait for a place to come up at our local pool.

Back in the 80’s many people including myself learned to swim in 1 week but going for one lessons a day in the holidays for a week. It was total the norm then and everyone could swim at least across the pool by then.

There are two issues here.

1. School not providing at least two terms of lessons and
2. Do you want your children to be confident swimmers or maybe just learn enough to not drown if they fell in a river/playing in swimming pools on holiday abroad?

In my limited experience, I don’t think two terms of hourly lessons will be adequate to do more than teach the absolute basic at most. Especially given the numbers of children they’re dealing with. My son did very little actual swimming in his school lessons. It was mostly standing around in the shallow end waiting a turn. The pool is a thirty minute bus ride away and that was the most exciting part of the weekly trip.

You really need to pay for some 1:1 lessons with a trained instructor to get your children to a decent standard.

Jobseeker: I do not know how to teach a child to swim.
..
It really isn't that difficult, honestly.

Why don't you take responsibility for YOUR child's swimming instead of expecting someone else to teach them 🙈. It's really not the responsibility of the school, it's yours as the parent

schools must provide swimming instruction either in key stage 1 or key stage 2.

This is from the Gov website. But I think most schools just do one term and leave it at that. Def email the school and ask what they're offering. But be prepared that you may need to do it yourself in the end. In our area all the swim academies and private lessons are fully booked due to backlog so I'm having to teach mine myself, I've found some videos from YouTube and went with that but admittedly I only have to teach 1.

If you can't afford all to learn at once, then get the eldest taught first to a reasonable standard. Observe the lessons and you can replicate with the other two.

At least it's a start.

My generation did not view learning to swim an essential life skill - so, guess what, I never learned but it is not that difficult to pick up the skill as an adult and far more enjoyable. In fact as most PE teachers can be uncaring about hesitant or uncoordinated pupils at school I suspect many children are put off swimming.
I would echo what a previous poster said - thinking they can swim well in a pool can get teenagers and adults into dangerous situations when they get in the sea or deep lakes,
It is good exercise for everyone but I don't view it as so important as not everyone excells at it and water survival is more useful.

mine never learned to ride a bike either until they were much older.

live in a flat with nowhere to store bikes.

It is about time some people undertood how things like bikes and swimming lessons are a privaledge that some people are never going to be able to afford or manage properrly.

maybe some people think one could learn to swin in the local canal?

I did swimming lessons in primary school. I think it was one term in around year 4. It was nowhere near enough to teach me how to swim. It's not something I would expect school to teach my children to be honest.

I only had one term of lessons in year 5 through school like your school says. They were rubbish though because the class was too big and there weren’t enough hours to actually teach you to swim. You need to pay for proper lessons for all of your DC, it’s essential for them to know how to swim.

It is on the curriculum and school should be providing some lessons, I don't know why you're getting a hard time from some posters. Also lessons are expensive!

Im not sure what you can do about school but if you decide to book some, I find my children have made best progress in the intensive holiday weeks so, if you can find the money, I'd start there.

@NigellaSeed

You can't afford to teach your 3 DC how to swim? I think you needed to have thought of the cost of raising them before you had them then. You'll have to find the money, as pp said, it's a life skill.

Gosh how helpful it's not like she can shove them back in ffs