1 in 3 Eleven year olds can't swim

[Faith]

I have complained and complaint to our local authority about this We are keen swimmers, and have taken the DD's swimming since 3 months old.

However it is really really difficult to take a child swimming. We have 4 pools in the vicinity, but have often found ourselves driving around on a sunday morning at 9 am to find a pool- one shut cos the heating's broke, one has shut the baby pool cos no lifeguards, one operates a family swim policy where only 30 people are allowed in at once, one has a 1:1 adult child policy, and has "sessions" so opens for 90 mins, shuts for 30, which makes it impossible to get an hours swim unless you turn up exactly at session opening, which of course everyone does so the queues ate horrendous. Then there's the free for under 16's thing, which means there are large gangs of unsupervised teenagers- the police were called one memorable saturday.

Then there's some pools/lifeguards who seem to think any child under 3 is about to drown. There's one we don't go to as the lifeguards give us constant hassle about putting armbands on. Ours don't, and have never worn them, both are confident in the water from an early age, and DH and I are both ex-swimmer within an arms length

Then there's the new policy about car parking, apparently no one needs to drive to a pool in London, so they've sold the car parks for flats. Well if you've got two or more small children walking is impossible unless you're very close, and unless you live on a direct, frequent bus route it can still take a good hour to get a 20 minute walk down the road.

We now have to drive to a pool 30 minutes away, past the 4 other pools, to get a (relatively) hassle free swim. I can totally see why people don't bother. Lessons, IMO, aren't really that useful until 5 or so, so an unnecessary expense unless you're a non-swimmer who wants your children water confident...

[Bluebabe75]

Faith - I totally agree with you about the pools. What drives me mad is the lack of consistency and shutting the kids pools for no apparent reason (or, at least, without providing an explanation of WHY it suddenly isn't open until 11 when three weeks earlier it was open at 9.30). And, when they do bother opening it, is is full and you either have to queue or go in the big pool where the kids can't stand up in the shallow end

M has weekly lessons and E is a natural water-baby so I'm guessing they should both be able to swim well before they are 11 (otherwise we will have wasted a lot of money!) but I just wish it was easier to take them regularly

[scatterbrain]

I'm suprised. I help with swimming at dd's school and in her class last year (year 3) around half could swim to some extent without armbands. The only do swimming classes at school in the summer term as the pool is outdoors.

I guess with all the water round here (rivers & coastal) maybe parents do more top teach their children to swim confidently. Too many scare stories of holidaymakers who couldn't swim falling in the Broads.

I did insist that she had swimming lessons at the local pool too & she's had them since she was 5. I'm a very week swimmer because I only ever did the school lessons & was never taught how to swim properly. DD (now 8) can swim 1km!

[*Uptowngirl*]

We are lucky as we have an indoor pool at the boys school, so they swim every week from the start of year 1 till the end of year 6, so i very much doubt it is 1 in 3 here. I guess in areas where swimming with the school is not offered then it could quite easily be 1 in 3 who can't.

[Jelly]

DS1, aged 9, has only just got his confidence certificate from swimming at school.
I started him on lessons when he was 4 and it was a disaster! Tried again at 7, then at 9 in smaller lessons, and again... disaster. He has a real fear of water, and aversion to swimming. He also hated baths pretty much from birth.

DS2 was doing ok at lessons, until he saw the state his older brother would get in, then he decided to be scared as well

I honestly thought that my children would learn how to swim well before now - I did, but then going to the pool was something we did a lot when I was growing up.

The cost of lessons and the hassle of the pool puts me off, as well as the fact that I can only now take both of them at once (DH doesn't swim). It costs £7.50 and takes more time to get undressed and dressed than we spent in the pool last time

It is something that I feel guilty about from time to time, but I refuse to spend any more time watching DS1 having a panic attack in the pool while an instructor loses patience with him. I figure he'll get there when he is ready. Meanwhile, swimming holidays are not on our agenda.

[Supermum123]

The school our children go to doesn't have a swimming pool so it does make it difficult. To be fair, a school near by does have a pool and they let the children use that. Private swimming lessons are so expensive !