Might be in wrong forum so feel free to move if it is

Need some advise for a friends pls. He works as a swimming teacher at a pool teaching groups of children from the ages 5
and 10. Some are groups of child from schools and others are children who come for swimming lessons after school.

A few days ago a parent accused him being too short with her children and bullying them. For the first 2 weeks they were
jumping in and out the pool when they felt like it, spitting water, splashing aimlessly and the water was going on other
kids, wondering off and messing around and not standing with the class listening. On the third week they were spoken to and told why they would be asked to sit out side side of the 5m pool. This was to keep them still so they could listen to the instructions without distraction to others. The fourth week one of them threw water over him. So the child was then told to sit on the side next to him whilst he gave instructions to the class.

To me this is unacceptable behaviour.. ppl have said to him they r only 5/6 yr old children but i dont think thats an excuse.

What i would like advise with is whether you think places like swimming baths etc should have behaviour policies like we do in schools. Something every staff member can follow and can fall back on if they every do get accused of anything, like i mentioned above.

I've explained how we deal with behaviour at school.

He has been working at the pool for 8 years and has been teaching for 6 years and has never been in this situation before.

When my son had swimming lessons the instructor would deal with naughty behaviour in the same way. Being made to sit on the side is hardly a rough punishment

i agree, the kids need to know how to behave and be safe in the water

agree with DQ and True

I think he acted appropriately and the parent is over reacting!

Dot
xxx

Thank u ladies Will pass ur comments on.

Do u think that there needs to be some sort of behavior policy in place then?

yes, would make clear expectations and consequences.

I would have thought he could refuse to teach them, they obviously don't want to listen and learn. For safety's sake if nothing else.

Is he the only swimming teacher there? My pool has several taking differing ages/abilities. They need to get together and discuss this. I would have thought the rules should have been in place before they started.

im surprised there arent any in place already seeing as it is such a high health and safety risk, rules such as no running, diving in shallow end etc are usually in place in most pool but for swimming lessons things like listening stopping at a given signal, no shouting so you can hear instructions etc are definatly rules which should be observed for H & S reasons

Spoke to my sister on this one, she taught swimming for 10 years and had been a lifeguard for several years before that and was a manager for a number of years afterwards.

Her answer was quite clear on this one, she would have banned any child like this whose parents spoke to her like that. She would also have been extremely graphic in what would be expected of her if their behaviour resulted in an injury to themselves or someone else. She is realy good explaining how bloody a pool can get when someone has broken their nose, the dangers of drowning etc. But bottom line she would point blank refuse to teach them until she saw they were capable of behaving themselves.

Another point she made is while the pool is insured there is still an element of personal responsibility and any inquiry resulting from an accident would not be pleasant for your friend. She also commented that their line manager should back him up completely, however like anywhere else you do get bad managers. Your friend should discuss this with them and agree what to do together. Especially as they have been accused of bullying. As a manager she would either fully support the decision or quietly observe what is going on and would ban them herself, taking the onus off her staff.

There should already be clear policies on acceptable behaviour in place already, as well as clear policies and procedures for this type of incident. The pool should also have done a risk assessment on this type of behaviour and identified the proper course in reducing the risk. My sister says your friend did exactly what she would have done.

If your friend is not comfortable banning the child then another option is to have a quiet talk prior to class to explain to the parents why the behaiour is not acceptable and will not be tollerated. This should be done with a supervisor/manager in attendance.

Thank u very much George. I will pass this on to him and find out what has happened since.

I've sent him ur replies and this is what he said.

Thank you for ur help and advise. I have to keep teaching the kids. The swimming manager has decided to monitor all the teachers and give them feedback. I am hoping the kids will be moved to a different group but if not they have to stay in my group. I now feel I cannot tell them to stop messing around if they do. I have not had chance to see any difference yet as I have not taught a normal lesson with them since that day it happened. If I do anything else I will go through the main main manager before I do it, and either get him to talk to her or permit me to talk to her and ill say exactly wot I agree with him