School swimming lessons

[paul2louise]

My son is 8 in year 3 and had aquazone swimming lessons for over a year and was ok. He did mess about so I stopped them as he was confident under water and could swim a length not brilliant technique.
So I wasn't worried about his safety but he was bored.
He started school lessons ( 9 in total) a few weeks ago. Put in middle group and was enjoying it until today.
They put him back into bottom group because he couldn't climb out. He had climbed out a couple of times but said he hurt his leg trying to get out as he found it slippy.
I asked the teacher and they said safety is paramount and if he can't get out then he isn't safe.
He is swimming a lot better but struggles with this one thing.
I am going to try doing some arm exercises with him over Easter.

I don't really understand why LEA community swimming lessons are so different to school lessons. I don't think I would find it easy to pull myself up out of a pool several times in a lesson. Maybe my upper body strength needs some work too. Legs are fine run 10k 3 times a week.

Just want to understand it a bit more. He only gets 9 lessons so don't want to waste them.

Thanks

I’m an ex swimming teacher and the only reason I would move some one down is if they were weak. Climbing out is a very important aspect but if he had climbed out several times during the lesson that would have proved he was capable and just tired.

School swimming runs of a different frame work with different goals. They are often not as intense as paid lessons because numbers are higher, ability mix is often greater and there is only a short time to reach the goals set out by the government.

Plus it can just totally boil down to what ever the teacher feels.

Do you watch the lessons?

I agree that seems crazy. The swimming is most important. Realistically a good swimmer could swim to the steps...
I cant get out easily, bony knees.
I find aquazone equally bizarre. DS is stuck on level 1 but can swim lengths unaided.
Also some things will need to build up strength/get over sensitivites like having water in the face, not necessarily possible in 9 lessons.
What im finding is they never did a proper assessment, as i think dc should have gone to level 2. Stuck on level 1 they are messing about and with arm bands which they dont need

In fact climbing out is one of the fundamental starting blocks. I used to teach 3.5 years olds to climb out of the pool, why at 8 after a years worth of lessons is he still struggling?

Was he in the deep end?
How many lengths/widths has he done before attempting to climb out?
Was he messing around?
Was he tired?

A teacher wouldn’t move him down because he hurt his leg and couldn’t get out.

You do need upper body strength but it’s more skill that’s required. When he was having paid lessons did he use steps to get out or did they climb out then?

My dc do swimming lessons at our local pool. One of the things they have to pass before they can move on to stage 2 is climbing out of the pool.
Seems a bit mean if he had already climbed out before though but I guess they are just trying to be safe.

I would have thought you had to learn to climb out of the pool pretty early on. My power to weight ratio is pretty bad and I can manage it.

Was this not covered in the previous lessons?

Entering and leaving the water is one of the elements of the certificates though - if he can't get out easily (my DD was the same and always uses the steps!) that might be the reason he has been moved because he hasn't met one of the standards. The group is probably in a shallower part of the pool?

I think he managed it in the shallow end of the pool but may have struggled at the deep end. The first few school lessons were mainly in shallow. But I think they had them swimming up to the deep. I am put in the small pool because he is in the big pool. I am not allowed to watch him. I only knew this happened because they moved him into the pool I was watching. I think he can do it. I tried to ask him and he said he finds putting his leg in the gap a bit tricky and slippy. He had aqyazone lessons at a different pool and I think they climbed out at shallow end and walked to deep end if required. And they definitely used the steps in the deep end as they would take turns. I will take him swimming over the holidays myself and see how he gets on.

They have school lessons on Friday afternoon. They are about an hour long. It was probably 3/4 of the way through the lesson so possibly he was a bit tired or just fed up of doing it. He says that a lot of them moan about the lessons because it's hard work. So maybe I can take him over the holidays and we have some fun as well as practicing.

To be honest, I really wouldn't worry about it. School swimming lessons, especially if there's only a few of them, are not likely to significantly improve his swimming or change the world . It's frustrating, but if you can try and forget about it and just encourage him to have fun, then that's probably the best solution. Frustrating though.

Climbing out is fundamental. Wherever you swim or do water sports you need upper body strength. Sounds like he could do with some practice.

Outside the pool, can he climb over a fence with good technique, as that's basically the same skill. (arms on fence, pull to straight arms, foot on top step over as opposed to using any knees or stomach in contact with it?) If not then I would say it does seem appropriate to move him into a group who is learning and practicing the correct way to get out. The fact he needed to put his foot in the gap suggests he's either weak upper body strength or doesn't know the technique at all.

The safety part of swimming (which is what the school is primarily teaching) is about being able to get out of the pool, including when tired is essential to that.

To be honest he has never been a climber. He had tight Achilles from young and wore night splints for 2 years. He can stand flat footed now. I have never known the climbing out be that important in previous lessons. I understand safety is important and they are very keen on practicing emergency evacuation which I never saw in previous lessons. I think because he isn't quick enough that must have become an issue. His swimming technique is a lot better than before.

Went swimming yesterday. It was a different pool than the one my son has school lessons in. He climbed out 20+ times with no trouble. We had an hour on the inflatables followed by another hour playing and swimming. I spoke to his old aqua zone teacher while I was there. I told him i was worrying about the climbing out issue. He said their pool the water is at the height of side of the pool. The other pool where my son has school lessons has about a foot drop from the side to the water level and a gutter. He said it wasn't a very nice pool. I am not going to fret anymore. And my son has agreed to start lessons again after the school ones finish.

Thanks for all the help I just needed to sort things out a bit