Swimming lessons - how cross should I be?

[roisin]

Ds1 has always been in really small swimming lessons (at unearthly hours at the weekend!) with fab teachers - usually 5 or 6 kids per class.

After Christmas he graduated into 'Improver 2' lessons, which are swimming lengths. There have been 24 kids in the class, with a huge variety of abilities, of which he is towards the bottom. He and a couple of mates still need considerable work on basic stroke technique, which they haven't been getting.

Anyway, I wrote a vaguely complaining email to the leisure centre about this class in general.

I've now had a reply which says they have had some problems with this class, agree with all the points I make, and are going to make some changes.

BUT ALSO this class has an absolute maximum number of 20 students ... but they enrolled 24!!!
I think that's outrageous. What do you think?

Hi roisin - presumably the reason for having a max of 20 kids is a safety issue. In which case, by having 24 they have been compromising the safety of the children involved.

I'm trying to remember how old ds1 is - is he 7? In which case I think even 20 in a class is far too many to teach effectively. Presumably there is only one teacher (ie one person supervising all these kids?).

The fact that they are going to make changes is really positive. However if those changes are not going to be immediate, and in the meantime your ds is still attending a class of 24, I would raise this with them as a safety concern.

I guess they oversubscribe the classes on the basis that you always get a few dropping out. That does not make it excusable imho!

Miaou x

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Thanks for your input.

Yes, he is 7, but he's the youngest in the class, and many of them are 9 and 10. It's the only vaguely sporty thing he can vaguely do
The thing is he's not "swimming club" material, so I'd like to encourage him to keep going to lessons as long as possible, as the exercise is good for him.

There's one lifeguard and one teacher - the teacher is fab, but there's a limit to what one person can do!

There's only one class left of this term, but I think I'll give them a term off - we've all been getting a bit fed up with the early starts - then investigate the possibilities for September.

It does seem like a large number. How long is the lesson?

You'd never get away with skipping a term round here mind you. Swimming lessons are like gold dust...

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Thanks snailspace - that's extremely helpful, and confirms what I suspected is the case.