Child being 'punished' for a choice I made

Nicki

thehappybutterfly wrote: »

am I the only one who is shocked that the school are charging for swimming lessons? What next - entrance fee to English classes?

No, I'm not in the least shocked unfortunately.

When my son, who is currently in Year 8 was the age of the OP's son, swimming lessons were free and that was manageable but tight in the school's budget (I was a governor on the finance committee of the school, which was in a poor inner city borough, so as a consequence very well funded by the government compared to the budgets other schools in richer areas were given). By the time he left, the reception class teacher was having to buy glue sticks and glitter out of her own pocket, because the school's budget would not cover it, and free swimming and music lessons were a hazy distant memory.

This government, whatever it says publicly, has totally decimated education budgets, and schools barely have enough money to pay for a teacher for each class and pen and paper for the kids to write with! It is the norm rather than the exception now for schools to have to charge for anything other than the absolute bare minimum education they have to provide under the NC (swimming is in the NC but the amount they have to provide FOC is tiny and far less than most schools do actually offer)

JimmyTheWig

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

They have seen him swim and they know he can swim well, I believe they are just being awkward.

I'll rephrase, then, to what I really meant. The school can't be seen to be picking someone who doesn't swim at school. Would look like favouritism.

Lifeisbutadream

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I'll rephrase, then, to what I really meant. The school can't be seen to be picking someone who doesn't swim at school. Would look like favouritism.

I see your pour point, but most kids in his year know hes a good swimmer and would probably rather have him on the team to give them a better chance !

pollypenny

How on earth can a school charge for 'school swimming lessons'?

Is there a transport cost involved?

FBaby

Sorry but I'm with the school on this one. The galas are part of the swimming lessons and it wouldn't be fair that pupils can chose to the galas and not the lessons. If you've decided that the lessons were not good for your son, then he has to accept he can't do the galas with the school either. Surely they would expect the same of him during the galas than during the lessons anyway and attending the galas could potentially have the same detrimental effect than the lessons from your reasoning.

Nicki

pollypenny wrote: »

How on earth can a school charge for 'school swimming lessons'?

Is there a transport cost involved?

Most schools don't have their own swimming pool, and the lessons aren't taught by the class teacher. So what usually happens is that the school has to buy in a session of swimming from the local council pool, which includes exclusive use of the pool or part of it, use of the changing rooms and a specialist teacher. Depending on how far away the pool is, there may also be transport costs too. The figure per term per class is surprisingly high.

Dunroamin

I bet they wouldn't be telling him off for swimming "too fast" in a gala!

rpc

From their perspective, if he isn't on the school team then he can't be on the school team. I can see that and agree with it.

However, they are totally unreasonable in failing to recognise that this is a talented individual who receives better coaching elsewhere and they shouldn't mess with that too much.

I've seen a similar scenario where a school sport starts at a certain age and kids come along who have previously done it elsewhere. Usually they can be put with better kids, but there is no way we would have let someone swan into a race if they hadn't shown committment to the team. That said, they did get different treatment because they were on a different level of ability and weren't expected to get worse in order to fit in with their classmates.

Lifeisbutadream

pollypenny wrote: »

How on earth can a school charge for 'school swimming lessons'?

Is there a transport cost involved?

No they have their own pool ! its to cover running costs of the pool and the teacher.

I have no problem paying, but im not paying for something I could probably do betetr myself !

Lifeisbutadream

FBaby wrote: »

Sorry but I'm with the school on this one. The galas are part of the swimming lessons and it wouldn't be fair that pupils can chose to the galas and not the lessons. If you've decided that the lessons were not good for your son, then he has to accept he can't do the galas with the school either. Surely they would expect the same of him during the galas than during the lessons anyway and attending the galas could potentially have the same detrimental effect than the lessons from your reasoning.

No the galas are external - i.e they compete against other schools, its not part of the lesson.

The teachers take them to the galas, not the swimming teacher, they usually have several parent helpers too - of which I always offered when my DD did the same a few years ago.