Swimming lessons

[wkmmum]

DS has just started yr4. Before the summer holidays we were told that swimming lessons would only be for half a term at a time rather than a full term as it was in previous years.

His school have never been great at communicating but his dad has just phone to say that he's brought a letter home to say they start swimming lessons on Monday. Fair enough but they want the money by Monday as well! Plus it's £34 which I'm sure is almost as much as it was for a full term last time.

There's no way I'll have £34 by Monday. I can probably arrange to pay it in installments but £34 for what will be 6 or 7 trips seems to be so much money. Bearing in mind there'll be about 60 kids on the coach, that woks out at nearly £300 per day!

Do I really have to pay this (bearing in mind they say it's for transport not lessons)? xx

We have just had a letter about swimming lessons- the fee is £30 till half term- this is also inclusive of coach to the pool- it does seem a bit steep, but we can pay weekly .

The school cannot charge for activities related to the national curriculum, which swimming is. They can only ask for 'voluntary contributions'. You do not have to contribute and your child may not be excluded from the lessons as a result. The school must have a Charging Policy, which must be available to view on their website. Just return the slip stating that you give permission for your child to go to the lessons, no need to send any money. They cannot argue that the lessons are free but they are just asking for the cost of transport, it's all part of the same thing.

It'll be the coach. We're trying to book a trip and the coach is going to cost £900 for 60 children! We're only going a few miles!

It's be "voluntary" contribution so I'm sure they will be happy to get in it dribs and drabs or as you can. DS's school (with a lot of lower income families in catchment) has stopped taking the children swimming altogether because the coach cost was so high and the headteacher felt he couldn't ask parents to pay it (it would have cost more to pay for the coach than private lessons).

Juniper - £900!!!! Swimming pool is only in the next town - a 10min drive each way. But if that's what you've been told then maybe £300 is right!

I'll have a word with the office tomorrow. Haven't seen the letter yet but I know last time they said Hal could be paid the first week and half the second week which still is possible for me. I'll pay it if they say DS can't go if I don't cos I don't want him to be left out. But it'll have to be as and when I've got it. It's just frustrating cos I've just had to buy him complete new uniform and shoes as he's grown so much xx

wkm,

No reasonable school would have any problems with payment coming in over several weeks. We (very diverse catchment) often get parents who bring in £1 a week all year, or bring odd sums in cash as and when. Just let the office know what you are planning, I'm sure they'll be fine with it.

Tubsy,

I understand your point of view, and of course in theory that is what should happen IF all schools had all the money they needed for all the things that they would like to do. As that is not the case, then as you would like swimming lessons and associated transport (almost always the vast majority of the cost) to be free, what would you like the school to cut / do less of? Fewer new books? Fewer art materials? No visitors into school to enrich the curriculum? Few TA hours to help children who may have need additional support but do not have statements? Small schools which are not completely full to become financially unviable and ultimately close (it costs almost as much to take 20 children swimming as it does 60, but funding is per capita so the net loss to the school is hugely greater)? Less PE equipment for other sports? Parents to be asked to provide stationery (or teacher having to buy it out of their own pockets)? Which would be your preference?

Coach costs have gone up yet again this year. Had quotes from about £250 for half a day hire.

juniper - £900 - that is exepensive!

we just pay £1.50 towards the coach cost each time they swim, but at dc's school, it's all subsidised by the money the PTA raises.

ours dont get charged for the swimming lessons at all despite them using a coach to get them to the pool

The problem I have with it is that we already pay for private lessons, but the school ones are only for a term or less a year so not consistent enough to replace the private lessons, and dd says they don't learn very much in the school lessons. I still have to fork out the extra #45, which imho would be better spent taking the whole family swimming 4 times, where we spend some one on one time with each child concentrating on the areas identified as needing work by the private swimming teacher. There is never any feedback on the swimming specifically (just a general pe result), if I didn't know from dd and her (private) teachers (and of course we take them ourselves too), then I would have no idea whether she was making any progress.

Someone once said that their school takes the children swimming once in yr 4/5 to assess them and if they don't already meet NC standards then either they just take those who don't in a small class, or offer the parents the money for a crash course in swimming. I realise that my children are lucky that we have enough to pay for some lessons for them, and that we take them, and yes swimming is an important skill, but with costs approaching that of the private lessons (which are nearby), it is a bit mad. We get charged for transport, pool entry and ineffective swimming teacher.

Pay by staggered payment, they can't expect everyone to have the money available in 4 days.

Vodka, Then either the PTA will be subsidising it or (behind the scenes) some financial choices will be being made, which you may or may not see in 'visible' ways.

In general, larger schools find absorbing costs like swimming slightly easier than small schools, but there is also a really surprising level of school funding variation across the country and that has an impact on choices such as swimming.

Teacherwith2kids

Yes, I completely understand the implications of the lack of funding for schools, and I agree with you entirely - I'm not suggesting that parents should not contribute. However, what annoys me is that there are some schools which, either through ignorance or disingenuousness, do not make it clear to parents that the money they are asking for is a voluntary contribution, and not mandatory. This causes upset and worry to parents who can't afford to pay - as we can see from the OP. Indeed, in the school where I work it's very often the better off parents who are savvy and don't pay and those without much money who scrape together the full sum - and we always ask for a voluntary contribution. Parents should be aware that they should only pay as much, or as little, as they can afford.

Our Head cancelled our trip when she realised how expensive the coach would be. Means our day trip is £20 per child- £15 of which is the coach! I pointed out that any trip would involve a coach, and so even with free entry, it will still be £15 a head.

We're in London, and the Head doesn't want the younger children using public transport.

Posters are correct in saying that schools are not supposed to ask for payments towards swimming, including transport, as it is part of the National Curriculum, but I agree with others that say if schools paid for it out of the budget then something else would suffer, especially in a small school.
The issue I have with compulsory swimming lessons is as posters above have mentioned: in some schools (ours) 95% of dcs are having private swimming lessons so it's only annoying to pay again for the school ones which are not as good or regular as the private ones but it takes valuable time out of the school week for other PE or academic activities. Ds lost virtually all morning one day for a whole term.
OTOH, I do believe it is important that the dc (however few) that do not have private swimming lessons should get them through school and that it would be a logistical nightmare to take only the few from each class who cannot already swim well. So, basically, there's no solution...!

• not only annoying -

KitKat, I would say that only 50% of our cohorts have ever had private swimming lessons, and at least half stop as soon as they have very basic swimming skills (e.g. able to swim a width, a length max).

It would be wrong for us to stop teaching swimming - but then, it's likely to be schools like us where the need is greatest that also have the greatest pressure on budgets elsewhere....

Absolutely, agree, teacher, the need must vary greatly and it would be lovely if there were extra funding for those schools which need it the most (and even more funding for rural schools who can't walk to lessons...but that's another thread, funding of rural vs urban schools...)

I just think it's a shame there's not some way to be flexible with regard to this requirement. Honestly, in my ds's class of 34 last year (yr 4/5/6) I think fewer than 4 dcs weren't able to swim at the very least 400m from private lessons, including 3 dcs in a county swimming squad; I would rather they'd been able to stay at school and do art or music or something!

we often have a "swimmers" group of 4 or 5 children. Which means that the other 29 or 30 children in a year group are non-swimmers, some of whom haven't been taken swimmig at all by their parents. So in our school (which is something like 60% FSM) swimming in school time is well worth the effort. They pay £1 a lesson. The latest plan, which I heard about today, is that those of us who are already able to drive minibuses, are going to be using local authority minibuses to transport children to local trips, including swimming, for a cost to the school of £40 a day for the bus hire. Even if we were to use 3 buses, and take an entire year group, it's half the cost of a coach :) The bonus to the school is that most of us who can drive the buses are also swimming teachers I do appreciate that our school is lucky. But maybe others should be looking at this sort of thing too.

It does seem to vary considerably from school to school, however at dd's school half of the children were able to swim competently in the deep pool at the end of yr2. The HT has said that they want more swimming to win galas, which is all well and good, I would rather prioritise paying for my younger two(5 +2) to actually swim so they are safer in the water, than pay for dd1 to miss a whole afternoon of school for a 20-30 min splash around.

I also think that 10 lessons a year is inconsistent. There is massive pressure on the times available to schools, so only space for one term per year group. Surely that time would be better allocated to teaching yr4/5 children who still can't swim over a period of a whole year so there is some consistency. I notice a difference if they haven't swum for a few weeks(esp when first learning), so having a 40 week break between swimming lessons must mean they are almost back to begininers again (if they haven't had lessons/ been swimming in the meantime).

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to say thanks for all your messages. I spoke to the school today and they're happy for me to pay £5 a week which works well for me xx