Year 4 swimming lessons

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DS2 has just got the letter about this and the school are asking for a £12 contribution per child.

They are walking to and from the pool so I'm not sure what 'costs' they need covering (my understanding is that the costs of the actual lessons are covered by the Council).

Does/did your school charge for this?

Could be Sootica, but £720 (60 X £12) seems pretty steep.

Are you sure it is £12 per lesson - that is v steep considering it is a joint lesson!

Ours are free. They also walk, so no transport. Can they charge for something that is a compulsory part of the curriculum? Where will it end, charge for PE lessons or maths?

Swimming is part of the National Curriculum and should be offered as any other PE lesson would be. My class have been going for a term and are bussed to the pool and back. Absolutely no charge to parents as its part of the NC.

A few years ago now so can't quite remember, but ours were a few pounds for the term to cover insurance

It could be that the school are paying for the swimming lessons. A while back the councils took a lot of money if schools that was usually used for swimming. So a lot of schools dropped out if swimming. So it mght be that they are asking you to part fund it.

suffolk I think it must depend which council your under. Some of our schools opted out of swimming and choose to have cheaper specific sports coaches come in.

It's £12 for the term madaunt (I appreciate its great value and don't really begrudge paying for it, I was just wondering what the contribution was actually for.

It could be chocaddict - I'm going to ask tomorrow, I just was interested in what other schools did.

Also some schools had to choose whether to use their budget to ensure every child has a hot meal (government plan) or use it for swimming - obviously swimming got the boot in many of them. It was such a good idea but they didn't really let on that something else had to suffer for it.

Retired swimming teacher here!

Every child between year 1-3 *

Ours was about 4 times that cost, did include coach but they also charged entry and teacher costs. I know that they shouldn't charge but hard to argue about their 'voluntary' contribution.

should that sounds expensive !! Are you talking school swimming lessons?

Presumably that is the cost of using the pool and booking the swimming teacher. At our school the pool is not open to the public whilst schools are using it so presumably there is a cost to that.

Ours walk to the pool, get 5-6 lessons a yr which are free.
A few yrs ago they used to get 10-12 lessons a yr plus even the yr1s got 5-6 lessons in the summer term.
Most area schools can't walk, so charge something for the bus hire.

It's no different to school trips. They can ask for a contribution but they can't demand and they can't stop a child going for non-payment.

Lessons cost money and if transport is needed, that costs too. Some LEAs pay or subsidise costs but mostly it comes from school budgets that are squeezed anyway.

Yes school swimming lessons which weren't as good as the private ones (according to dd). They wouldn't tell us more than a week or so before which class was swimming that term by which time had already paid for private ones. I think would have been better to target just those who couldn't swim and give them intensive lessons, weekly say throughout yr4 as 8-10 sessions a year isn't enough.

Your right and that's quiet unusual as they normally have at least a year of swimming sometimes two.

Sadly school swimming lessons sometimes are larger than private ones so it effects the standard that can be delivered to them also the mixture of abilities all lumped together can seriously hinder it.

Still very expensive for school swimming lessons though.

Ours are not free but I think it covers transport, not the lessons themselves.

I don't think the lessons are much use if you have a nervous child who can't already swim. But sadly we have no choice. I'm paying again for private one to one tuition, like I did with my eldest.

They probably have had a year or so in total, but they might go from Jan-March one year and then not swim again until the following January. Fine if you are also having private lessons or go regularly with parents but very little progress if that is the only swimming you do. They only ever divide into three groups (three instructors) so those who can swim well end up in groups of 12-15 splashing around in the deep end while the others are in smaller groups. Dd on silver so I am not bothered about her swimming but it doesn't seem the most time or cost efficient approach. It takes about 2hrs (getting out of school, catching coach, getting changed etc) for 25 mins in the water. She enjoys swimming but it isn't a good use of time or money.

For a regular state school (not academy or free school) then swimming is indeed part of the National cirriculum and must be offered in ks1 or ks2. Schools can ask for a voluntary contribution, but cannot insist. There is no mandated length for lessons; many schools now only offer a term.

The cost may be associated with extra staff required to supervise the children, for example, or the lessons themselves. However, paying the charge must be voluntary.

If a school is an academy or free school, the they don't have to follow the national cirriculum so could choose not to offer swimming at all.

DD (year 4) has done swimming lessons at school throughout year 3 and year 4 (still doing them). It is £4 contribution per lesson, weekly and it covers the cost of the transport I believe (they go on a coach). I personally believe it is good value for money and I am happy they didn't just do it for 1 term only but for a solid 2 years by the end of this academic year.

In year 3 we had to pay £25 for a term. I guess that was to cover the coach? This year we haven't even had any swimming lessons via the school.

We are asked to pay a voluntary £25 per term, as the school does have to pay the leisure centre that provides the lessons (kids walk there and back) and they have to offer it as part of the curriculum. I'm happy to pay, some people won't , but state primaries are not awash with money. I've stopped private swimming lessons for the two terms DD is swimming with school and so am already making a saving even after paying the £25