Child being 'punished' for a choice I made

Lifeisbutadream

TBH it doesnt matter what I say, people are just making up their own answers.

Yes he was swimming so fast everyone else was flying out of the water, the speed he was going was unbelievable, there were kids being rushed to hospital left right and centre!

He was showing off and I was ringing the school every 5 minutes, because I am so difficult, as is my DS.

Now got to go, must ring up the school to tell them off for something irrelevant.

Dunroamin

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

He doesnt have to swim in a school gala using the methods taught in school, as I have said the swimming teacher doesnt even go, he certainly doesnt care!!

Now that does strike me as something strange and worth complaining about!

Lifeisbutadream

TBH all I care about at the moment is having my name removed from this thread, I feel very exposed at the moment

I will just go through a few points (for the record, not arguing, just making a point, if thats OK)

I dont really see why I should do this, but a select few seem to have taken it upon themselves to make me out to be some sort of serial complainer and awkward parent, with some sort of monster child who needs to be 'taught a lesson'

- I took a stand when they started charging for lessons a few years ago, I wasnt being awkward and I wasnt the only one who wasnt happy about it, I was one of many who removed their children from swimming at that time

- things changed so I sent him back, but he was still confused, so after some discussion with the school I removed him again.

- that was over a year ago, I have had hardly any contact with school since then, about swimming or indeed anything at all.

- out of the blue I got a call from the school secrtary to 'inform me' that DS would not be able to attend swimming galas. This seemed so random I almost ignored it but then decided to see what others thought and posted this thread (god do I wish I hadnt!)

- the incidents I was talking about before where DS had been 'corrected' for his BS and told off for swimming too fast, I was witness to. DOnt let vthat stop minds ticking over though (showing off, shoving people out of the way etc.) there were 4 in a row swimming at the same time, teacher was shouting out (I kid you not) 'froggy arms and legs' and DS was swimming in his usual style and usual speed and the teacher shouted SLOW DOWN. Now I am not saying that slow swimmers should swim faster, I am merely pointing out that I totally understand how my DS would be confused by this !

- I thank you all for your suggestions on how to handle the situation, but I would like to point out that making up things that 'could' have happened is not at all helpful.

Person_one

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

TBH all I care about at the moment is having my name removed from this thread, I feel very exposed at the moment

Have you reported it to the forum team? They're unlikely to see your post addressed to them in the thread without a report.

Lifeisbutadream

Person_one wrote: »

Have you reported it to the forum team? They're unlikely to see your post addressed to them in the thread without a report.

Yes several times

It was addressed to Landy Andy to remove it directly but he has gone now

valk_scot

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

No problem with kids swimming slowly! but being 'told off' for swimming too fast??

My DD (11) swims for both her club and for the school team. She goes to school swimming lessons as well as her club training. The two types of teaching are chalk and cheese, she tells me, they don't work on things like speed stroke development and race technique, the emphasis is more on fun, activity and water safety at school. One of the most important features of water safety when there are several kids using the same lane is to make sure that one kid isn't "swimming over" the other slower and less confident kids as it can panic them so the club swimmers at the school lessons are either put together in a lane or told they musn't go faster than the group they're in. My DD thinks that being told to swim slowly is rather funny but it's just one more feature of the differences between the classes, the school lessons don't start with a twenty length warm up session either, just to pick one example! But DD likes being with her pals at the school sessions, she goes in and has fun and doesn't take it particularly seriously.

And yes, she does get picked for the school team, every time. The criteria to be picked for our school team are (a) being well behaved (b) showing a good sporting attitude at school lessons and (c) their school swim times, which are taken in school sessions. So if your son isn't going to the school sessions that's (b) and (c) out for him and he wouldn't get picked at our school, no matter how good he was.

Lifeisbutadream

valk_scot wrote: »

My DD (11) swims for both her club and for the school team. She goes to school swimming lessons as well as her club training. The two types of teaching are chalk and cheese, she tells me, they don't work on things like speed stroke development and race technique, the emphasis is more on fun, activity and water safety at school. One of the most important features of water safety when there are several kids using the same lane is to make sure that one kid isn't "swimming over" the other slower and less confident kids as it can panic them so the club swimmers at the school lessons are either put together in a lane or told they musn't go faster than the group they're in. My DD thinks that being told to swim slowly is rather funny but it's just one more feature of the differences between the classes, the school lessons don't start with a twenty length warm up session either, just to pick one example! But DD likes being with her pals at the school sessions, she goes in and has fun and doesn't take it particularly seriously.

Sounds like you have very good swimming lessons at your DD's school. You are very lucky

Madmel

I don't want to get involved in any slanging matches here...

My DDs had swimming lessons from the age of 3 and are competent swimmers now. Swimming was introduced by the school for which we had to pay a nominal amount. They asked for a few parents to sit poolside whilst the lesson was going on, and as I did not have to be at work until later, I watched the sessions. The teacher had a vendetta against my DDs' teacher [a well-respected local swimming coach]. She nit-picked their techniques, even to the point of ignoring the kids who didn't have a clue so she could lay another criticism at the girls' door. DD1 got very worried by this [DD2 didn't give 2 hoots ] so I had to explain to DD1 that it was a personality clash and they were simply in the cross-fire. An example of this is when she was *teaching* front crawl. She explained about breathing and told the children to swim a width [yes, all 5 metres of it] of crawl. DD1 pushed off, glided 4m, did one stroke and touched the other wall and was then screeched at for not breathing. I intervened and suggested that they swim a length so DD could show the teacher that she knew how to breathe, but was ignored. She also insisted on DD1 swimming without goggles because "the National Curriculum says you have to". Being the way I am [and a teacher] I checked and it was total nonsense. I sought advice from my own school which was a Sports College and the Director of Sport said the teacher was bonkers.

In his club, your DS is probably with swimmers of a similar ability. At school there will be a huge variety. Added to that, the teacher is almost certainly a non-specialist, so you have a recipe for potential problems. Perhaps you should ask if there is some way in which your DS could help, for example by demonstrating a technical detail in the water, which would almost certainly help the teacher and give your DS the opportunity both to show his skill and to ensure that his own technique was good.

valk_scot

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

Sounds like you have very good swimming lessons at your DD's school. You are very lucky

I don't know about "good" tbh. Our school doesn't have a pool, they walk round to the council one and get the same lessons as all the other local kids from the other schools get. It's all very simple stuff, many kids don't get sent to swimming lessons as tots or taken swimming by their parents after all so lessons have to include everyone from complete beginners to the ones doing training elsewhere. TBH it is a complete waste of time for her as far as competative swimming is concerned but she'd hate to be sitting back at the school doing extra sums or whatever when she could be with her pals. Her reward is when they do the school timetrials when she and the other kids that do go to club sessions absolutely blow the rest away. But none of the other kids begrudges them that because the club kids are still part of the school swimming group.

Do you see what I'm getting at? The problem may be that because your DS is no longer part of the school group he's disqualified himself from swimming for them on a number of levels. I'm guessing that not only will he not meet the school selection criteria but also that there would be some resentment within the other kids if he took one of "their"places when he's no longer attending that group. If he really does want to swim for the school then my advice would be to send him back to school swimming lessons and then all the selection problems would cease to exist.

We pay for our school swimming lessons too btw. It's in a block and I can't remember the exact figure but I recall thinking it was a darn sight cheaper than swimming club per hour! But our council is cash strapped and if we parents didn't contribute there would be no lessons, end of story.

poet123

The OP's problem wasn't with paying for the lessons but the fact that the children of those on benefits got them subsidised. There is a long thread about it.

I mentioned it further up the thread because as a school governor I was perturbed that a parent would make an issue of this when the school are legally bound to do this kind of thing and it is to me, the proper thing to do. I suspect that is why the school made contact with the OP about this swimming issue, because they had been there before. That is the back story.