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Query on swimming lessons primary school

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Comments

  • #32
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    briangriffin wrote: »
    What useless information is taught??
    I work in a school where 1st to 6th swim in 8 week blocks and the biggest issue we have is with childr3n not taking part to the point where we now are reducing it to 2nd to 5th class from next year. That's the reality of the situation in my school, it's an issue in terms of cost, children being self conscious and parental concern about safety in the pool and changing area.
    It's very easy to criticise. if you think whats taught in schools is irrelevant my advice would be to train to be a teacher and in your own classroom when your qualified you can become Ireland's no 1 educator.

    How much of what we did in school do we use on a daily basis. A decade of Irish and religion, abstract maths, obscure literature and similar. I didn't say it was all useless just that I have no objection to some more practical subjects being introduced.

    From that you leap to book burning, the dark ages and we all have to be teachers to comment on education. Always a good omen.



    "....Japan’s primary school curriculum is divided into three main categories: compulsory subjects, moral education and special activites. Compulsory subjects are Japanese language, Japanese literature, arithmetic, social studies, science, music, arts and handicrafts, programming and PE. English is currently required in fifth and sixth grade, but it is taught through informal activities rather than as a graded subject. Beginning in 2020, English will be a graded subject for fifth and sixth graders, with informal activities starting earlier in third and fourth grade. Moral education is intended to teach students to respect one another and the environment, to understand the importance of life, to respect the rules of society and to learn general self-control. ...."


  • #33
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    Day Lewin wrote: »
    Do parents teach reading, writing, arithmetic? No? why not?
    Schools exist to educate.

    How do we go from a discussion about swimming to an attack on parents. I thought all parents do was educate... At the very minimum going through their kids school work. Then everything else.

    Day Lewin wrote: »
    Arguably, swimming is a far more useful skill, for lifelong health, fitness and even sometimes survival, than dismal history geography etc or which are forgotten as soon as you leave.
    Awful muddy field sports appear to hold high priority but they never saved a life.
    And every child should be taught this basic skill of swimming, ergo, the Government should arrange to provide it; like is done in nearly all civilised countries as a matter of course.

    I think there is a wider discussion about the value of what is taught by our society as education. We don't teach nutrition but people will get a master's in social media or gaming. There is a race for points, but is there any discussion about life planning.

    If you question any of it you're a bad and stupid person.


  • #34
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    byhookorbycrook wrote: »
    The DES comes down hard on schools who charge for say ,a PE teacher or sports coach coming in during the school day .The question of the cost of swimming in schools is excused by the DES saying swimming lessons aren’t compulsory.

    You know those voluntary contributions the DES says schools shouldn’t seek ? In many cases, that money subsidizes the costs of hiring buses /pools/instructors. In some schools, it is too expensive for a school to do lessons , even taking the “ voluntary “contributions into account .

    Buses are hugely expensive - the days of 4 children to a seat , in a ramshackle bus are well gone.

    I wonder at the practicality of schools teaching swimming for these reasons.


  • #35
    briangriffin
    Registered Users Posts: 333 ✭✭briangriffin


    I'm wondering who mentioned burning books? You are right though we should be able to discuss education and the merits of the Irish education system. I suppose I find "schools spend a lot of time teaching useless information" to be to be a tad insulting. But maybe I'm being overly sensitive. Have you much experience of the Japanese primary education system? Do the Japanese teach their children to speak Japanese? What's the pupil teacher ratio? You realise we teach about nutrition in Science and SPHE in primary school. Not sure what obscure literature or abstract maths is taught in primary school perhaps you'd enlighten us.


  • #36
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    Unfortunately if... I'm not a teacher... apparently....

    a) I won't know about any of this
    b) I'm not qualified to comment
    c) If I'm critical of the system, it will taken as a personal insult

    ...so I can't. You'll have to read up, or google it...or become a teacher in Japan.


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  • #37
    byhookorbycrook
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Regional South East Moderators Posts: 12,475 Mod ✭✭✭✭byhookorbycrook


    *Mod Note- keep on topic please *


  • #38
    Sammy2012
    Registered Users Posts: 1,232 ✭✭✭Sammy2012


    I'm a teacher and a parent! I pay 150e every 8 weeks for my kids to attend swimming lessons. There is max 8 in their level for this. I also have to drive my kids to the pool which is almost half an hour away from me but i do this because i think its important that my own children learn to swim!

    As a teacher of the younger kids we would have few if any opt outs! For much less than 75e per child they get 6 lessons including travel! Price is mostly the same for all age groups! However as some children have never been in the water before they are starting at the very beginning! They also don't be in the water from when we finish lessons until they begin the following year! I know kids that have taken a year to progress from one level to the next when attending weekly lessons! This is not going to teach children to swim! It will give some children a chance to go to the pool as unfortunately otherwise they would never get there.

    At the older ages we would have lots of opt outs due to reasons mentioned above! Body conscious/weight issues etc but all these opt outs make it more expensive on the children to go! We are also considering lowering the age requirement for the kids to maybe 5th or 4th class! Unfortunately schools can't do everything and if you really want your child to learn to swim you will have to take them yourself!


  • #39
    Sunrise_Sunset
    Registered Users Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭Sunrise_Sunset


    As far as I can tell aquatics is on the curriculum. However, how schools interpret this seems to be up to them. They can teach it in the classroom, or go the extra step and add in some lessons. My kids school do a block of 8 lessons per school year. Although this is great, obviously this is not enough to learn to swim. But, there are a lot of road blocks, and I can understand reading the previous posts why schools won't/can't offer more.
    I pay 196 euros every 8 weeks for my 2 kids to attend swimming lessons. I feel it's a very important life skill. I myself went to swimming lessons as a kid, for all of my primary school years. My school offered it, and although we weren't from an affluent area, we had to drive about half an hour to the pool, the bus was full every week. I'm very grateful for my parents paying for my swimming lessons for all those years. I hope my kids will feel the same way.


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