Pedophiles, pedophile allegations that are patently false, and drownings are the worst news stories I bump into when looking for blog material. This one "takes the cake and eats it too." Kids in Scotland have to put their name on a two year waiting before they get swimming lessons.Is that a drowning waiting to happen?
I hate being a moralist this weekend but this really tweaks me. I guess it must be so cold up there that backyard pools just don't exist?
Glenn Mills should open up a franchise there. Get an inflatable pool with a good heater, a warehouse, and sanctioned GoSwim ninjas!
From the BBC:
Lists at Highland Council pools are three months to two years. In Aberdeen, 362 youngsters are waiting for lessons.Registering online at Inverness Leisure shows a wait of 1,040 days, but bosses said this was a "worst case scenario" and the actual wait was shorter.
Scottish Swimming has called for every child to be taught to swim before they leave primary school and the body said this could help ease waiting lists.
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7 comments:
Backyard pools are a rarity in the UK. I've never even seen one despite living in the uk all my life.
Responding to the posting on the SCAQ Blog, Mhairi Burns, Inverness Leisure’s Activities Development Officer who is responsible for the centre’s programme that teaches over 2,000 children per week commented, “My team and I are extremely proud of our track record in teaching literally tens of thousands of children to swim.
“As far as we are aware, Inverness Leisure could be the only facility in Scotland who is offering online registration and tracking of our swimming lesson waiting lists something that has been very well received by our customers.
“This means that a parent can register their child through our website and then follow their progress through the waiting list in order to gauge when their child or children will be given a place on our extremely popular learn to swim scheme.
“We are currently telling our customers that on placing their child on our waiting list, they will wait approximately 24 months before they get a place. However, due to the way in which our online database operates, it give a very specific date as to when the child will get to the top of the list, which can often indicate more than the time period that we actually know it to be. I suppose the website is giving our customers an absolute worst case scenario, however we are in discussions with our web designers as we clearly do not want the information supplied to be misleading.
Miss Burns continued, “However, due to the fact that our lesson programme is progressive, the two-thousand plus children move through different lessons in order to be taught all the necessary swimming strokes and techniques. This means that at re-registration times, as some children come out the system having been fully taught how to swim or maybe even progressed to the swimming club, there is then a large intake from the waiting lists.
“It is for this reason we know that the actual time of waiting is generally just under 2 years.”
Speaking on the size and success of the programme, James Martin, General Manager said, “Inverness Leisure is the largest sports, leisure and aquatic facility in the North of Scotland and we along with our partnership centres throughout the Highlands are the only facilities in the Country who offers swimming lessons as part of the inclusive membership package and at such a low price.
“Since this scheme was introduced we have obviously seen our numbers on the waiting lists grow. However, it is clearly a balance for our many thousands of customers in offering low waiting lists or effectively free swimming lessons within our High Life Card scheme, which promotes access for all at an affordable price. From the feedback we receive from our parents involved in the scheme, they are willing to wait in order to ensure that every member of their family has the opportunity to be taught to swim through the High Life scheme, rather than choosing certain members of the family to attend because there is a charge for every course.
He concluded, “We would obviously like to see the waiting lists reduce and I would congratulate Mhairi and her swimming team for enabling so many children through the High Life scheme to come out the end of our programme being able to swim sufficiently well to ensure they do not get into any dangers in or around open water. However, as qualified professionals they will not reduce the quality of lesson being offered to the children simply to get our waiting lists down – with something as important as this, our customers deserve more than this regardless of your ability to pay and nor do I think parents would expect us to compromise on the quality of the lesson programme.”
This may have more to do with the UK government's initiative of offering free swimming lessons.
Our US swim club turns away over 200 kids every year because there is just not enough lane time available. Popular sport.
http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/sport/5809.aspx
I should have made it clear that it is a scarcity of pools that is causing this problem and then highlighted how many public pools are empty that your government is not financing.
I have to admit I was shocked to discover (after the subject had been first raised by Tony well over a year ago) that by the 2012 London Games the entire British Isles will possess only fourteen long course pools - and that's after a major building effort over the past decade. In just the greater metropolitan region where I live (Vancouver, Canada) we have twelve 50m pools, a not atypical number for a major city in the West plus, of course, a considerably larger population of short course pools. For example Berlin boasts something like eighteen long course pools and Paris can point to a similar number. Greater LA would have what - double or triple that? Not having enough pools makes it very difficult to get the mass participation needed to find those exceptionally rare athletes of Olympian quality. That's the biggest obstacle to swimming becoming a mass participation sport - the enormous expense of building pools means the sport is restricted to athletes of wealthy nations. Still, it's nice to see that the UK has finally picked itself up after the travails of WWII and is rejoining our privileged club.
I'm an Australian who lives in Scotland. I take it you've never ventured across here? Cold is part of it. More so,impractical to have a swimming pool you would only use a few months of the year here. Also, Scotland/the UK don't have the huge expanses of land the US/Aus have so your actual home plot of land would rarely fit a pool unless you're lucky! As ofr "a drowning waiting to happen"--not sure about that,as there is nothing to stop parents teaching there own children-it is there responsibility to raise a healthy child, after all. My 5 year old can swim, despite not having had formal lessons yet (they start in school).But to be honest, we don't have the daily exposure to water that other countries may have. I lived on the beach in Australia and swimming lessons on a formal level didn't come into play until I was school-age there either.
I find it interesting that just a year after that post staunchly supporting Inverness Leisure and their swimming tuition. Ms Burns left to set up her own business teaching swimming.
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