Has anyone's child actually ever learned to swim during school lessons?

[Pipistrella]

I have an 8yo child who cannot yet swim. I'm intending to pay for one to one lessons when the weather is warmer so that he can properly learn to swim, just like I did with his older brother, who can now swim.

Meanwhile the school want him to go to a weekly lesson in a group, as it's part of the national curriculum apparently, but we still have to pay for it to make it possible (?)

I don't want him to go. For a few years now during these token sessions he has splashed around, not learned to swim, been threatened by the instructor that if he starts to drown, they won't help him, and been thoroughly disheartened and put off.

I don't think there's any way at all that he will actually learn to swim, or in fact anything useful at all, during these sessions.

I just wondered if it did teach anyone's child to swim or if it's basically a bit of practice for those who already can, while doing those who can't no favours at all.
Also - has anyone successfully withdrawn their child from school swimming? I'm not sure what my rights are considering there is a consent form involved. Could I just not sign it?

I don't think you should pull him out of school swimming. It will make it difficult for the school to make other arrangements for him and make you look like a difficult parent. If there's a medical reason e.g glue ear then fair enough but you can't shield your children from colds. If nothing else, surely it will make swimming more fun, even if he is just splashing about with his friends?
My kids loved school swimming but I do agree that it won't teach them to be competent swimmers! They cheerfully admitted that they both got their 'width' badge by swimming with one foot on the bottom of the pool!

You're probably right. I will talk to him about it and try and suss out whether he just dislikes it or if it actualy scares him, and go from there.

I agree that he will probably just muck in with his friends, and if I have the private lessons on the horizon I'll feel better about it too.

School would just put him in with the other class for a couple of hours so it wouldn't be that hard. But I want to be careful which battles to pick as he does have a few other issues, so you're right about not wanting to be a difficult parent.

May I jump in here, pls? (Pun intended)
I'm a mum and a swim teacher.
The answer is yes and no.
PPs have mentioned lots of issues, quite correctly.
I teach schools, private, small groups and babies.
If schools invest in swimming as part of their curriculum, and have regular swimming for the kids over the years, then yes, kids can learn thru school swimming.
If they don't, and it's only arranged for say, year 4 for a few terms, then with all the different abilities, it's fairly unrealistic to assume a non swimming child will be swimming in the deep end unaided in that short space of time. But it can happen.
Swim teachers are so safety conscious that with numbers in the pool so high, they need to stay out of the water so they can see all the kids all the time. Plus the lifeguards too.

Some kids will do a school year of swimming and then never get in a pool again. That's no reason to not teach, but IMO half an hour once a week isn't enough, even in a small group lesson.

OP I would be very concerned about a teacher saying what they did. I would have words. But I wouldn't want my DC being left out of swimming. Don't they want to be with their peers? I send DC to any swimming he can get. Even if it's only a glorified bath!

I would also be worried that a school was using non qualified swim teachers. It's quite popular these days for schools to send teachers off to become swim teachers. Adds another string to their bow, but also keeps costs down because the school will only have to pay for hire of the pool. Not the staff to conduct the lesson.

FWIW I enjoy taking private lessons, but I think the kids prefer group lessons. It's much more fun for everyone. They learn from each other, compete with each other, make new friends etc...

hTH

Thank you very much, you make some very good points and that's really helpful.

I've watched group lessons with some very small children (aged about four or five) and was quite worried because there was a little girl who was really upset, and didn't know what she was doing, and she was crying, and her face kept going under the water and no one took a bit of notice.

So I always hesitate at the thought of group lessons, though of course some will be excellent and perhaps I just witnessed one that wasn't being conducted well.

So I think I'll go for the individual lessons - also ds is very shy and would rather say nothing than put his hand up and ask for help. So I need him to have someone he can talk to quietly without the competition from other children, if that makes sense?

Ds1 had a really lovely young woman who was a student. She was kind and patient as well as being good at her job. So I hope ds2 gets someone like that.

Yes, I've 2 very good swimmers both only learned through school.

Well, I've just had an email and seem to have secured some tuition in the Easter holidays. I'm not sure if it's like a block of lessons or what, but at least he will have a handle on it by the time the school sessions begin in earnest.

It's always heart wrenching to see kids crying in a swim lesson. I've had it many a time. Usually I've had the parents in the corner of my eye waving "carry on!". Sometimes we have to pay no heed to the crying. All the drama, etc. But if someone is clearly miserable, we let them get out. Most parents just want their kids to get on with it. The crying doesn't last forever...

Of course, if you know DC will be better in a 1-1 then go for it. It will boost his confidence, and then he should happily join in a group lesson when he's ready. Of course, now he's 8, he may feel a bit embarrassed about being in a beginner group with kids much younger than he.

He will be fine. The important thing is that he learns to swim. Not everyone becomes an Olympian so bear that in mind and be patient.

Good luck.

Hope the lessons go, well, swimmingly.

At dd's school they have weekly swimming lessons from reception to Y6. I've never taken dd swimming myself. She's thoroughly competent. DS is 4 and has never been swimming. I suspect he'll learn at school too.

city you say half an hour isn't enough. Dd is in a group of six but often there's only 2 or 4 of them (who pays all this money then doesn't turn up?!) anyway what would you recommend? Would taking them swimming for an hour with a parent once a week or even a fortnight be enough to help them improve? I feel bad because actually we don't take the dc swimming hardly at all. Dd gets free swimming with her lessons so I really should take advantage of it I think.

Spottyteacakes, if you get free swimming and can afford the time, definitely avail of that.
Life is so busy but once a week extra would be the ideal. But not everyone has that luxury. We made it a family outing, each week, when DS was in the throes of his lessons ( not by me). It was a great way to keep the learning going, showing mum and dad what he could do, practising what he was learning and we all got some excersise. Especially when the weather was crap at the weekend. Sometimes we went Saturday and Sunday. But that's just us!

It all pays off when they come home with a certificate and a badge.

Thanks I'll talk to dh about it

When I was teaching we had a child who was terrified of water. By the end of the year of weekly swimming lessons he couldn't swim, but he could get into the swimming pool, put his face in the water, and allow himself to be supported by a float with his feet off the ground. In the first lesson he wouldn't even put a finger or toe in the water, he sat with his back against the wall and refused to move.

Our school does one term of lessons in Y3 and Y4. I pay for group lessons for my Y1 DSs, purely because I know in the area we live in almost every child in the year will be swimming excellently by that age, and I don't want them to feel left out stuck in the shallow end like I did.

Both my DS are under ten and apart from a short 4 sessions crash course when they were 5 to get them over the fear of no armbands and water, they have learnt solely to swim through school lessons. Their school does have its own pool though, and they learn april through October.

They both swim like fish, and far far better than I do.

Have you tried going to the pool often and making it a comfortable environment, fun w friends that know how to swim? My daughter hated swim class...did not like to get her face under water too much etc. She would even cry in the class :( She is only 3 years old, so I thought I would just pull her out for the time being and take her for fun. We started going three times a week and she would go in the pool by herself while I watched. She can just stand in the water. She has two friends that can already swim and she started mimicking them and by the end of the summer she was able to swim on her own. Now she is like a little fish in the water and can swim from one end of the pool to the other. Completely different child. She basically taught herself to swim by watching her two friends swim. It did help that we went to the pool a lot. It was little by little, but I would say after 3 months she was able to swim a little on her own and now she is almost 4 she can swim on her own. I think, sometimes when it is forced, it makes the child scared or not want to go in the water. But if you make it fun and with friends...they will want to learn and try.

Have you tried private companies? My local pools had waiting lists for waiting lists So I tried Splish Splosh - same kind of price, have been great.

My niece went to school swimming lessons in Reception and learnt to swim, she is awesome now at 9. So much better than the Y4 half an hour I've seen in the schools I've taught at (or, even worse, a term in Y4 and a term in Y5 like my son's school).