PUPILS at Westlea Primary are losing the opportunity to learn how to swim at the school after parents were told it was too expensive to run for everyone – despite the school continuing to fund a circus skills club.

The news was made public through a newsletter a fortnight ago which said that due to “school budgets not rising in line with rising costs”, the school would be reducing its swimming provision to only benefit Year 3 and 4 pupils.

Another listed reason for the controversial move was that the school had been running at a loss with swimming and this year, they were short of £3,500 in parental contributions.

But despite the explanation, some parents are annoyed about the lack of communication before the decision was made as well as why an extra-curricular club for circus skills is still running.

Dad-of-one Neil Hinder, 35, said: “It almost feels like they are looking at what parents are paying for it and what parents haven’t been but personally, it is weird to think why they’ve picked to carry it on for just Years 3 and 4.

“I get that budgets are getting cut but it was only £3,500 short of parents’ contributions to cover costs – surely they have that money in the bank for this?

“The thing that gets me is that it is the parents who are paying regularly that are the ones losing out. The school hasn’t said it would do any fundraising to make up the money either.”

Swimming lessons, held at the Link Centre, had previously been provided for pupils in Years 1 to 5, at a cost of £11 per half a term per pupil.

But Neil, who has a four-year-old daughter in reception, believes that if the school had consulted with parents then a solution could have been found for the other year groups not to miss out.

“Swimming is a life skill and it teaches children a lot of other things beyond the water like body confidence and accepting all body shapes,” he said.

“If you are talking about a few extra quite per pupil then we, as parents, don’t mind paying extra but it is the fact there isn’t the opportunity to do that now.

“My daughter is in reception and one of the reasons we picked Westlea Primary was because of the swimming provision they offer.

"We haven’t had the chance to pay but we would have happily paid for it when she got to Year 1 but now she doesn’t have that option.”

Headteacher Rose Carberry said it was with “much regret” to make the announcement.

“We already heavily subsidise our swimming lessons, but each year we are making considerable losses due to the parental contributions not being enough,” she said.

“This year we have had losses of £3,573, which unfortunately happens every year. We are under considerable pressure to reduce our outgoings, due to budget cuts from the Government and so have had to reduce the time we swim at Westlea.

“We have been very fortunate for many years to swim from Years 1 to Year 4, most schools in the local area only swim for part of Year 3 or Year 4.

"We are committed to continue to swim in Years 3 and 4, as it is such an important life skill and one that we support whole heartedly. If we had not sustained the losses that we have, we would not be in this sad position.”