How long does it take to complete Stage 3 swimming?

[oreoxoreo]

My DS (8yo) has been in Stage 3 what seems like forever, for about 9 months now (term-time only). His swimming teacher completes online progress but for the last 1.5 months he just rearranged the progress, my DS still remains at 83% like before and has made 0% progress in the last 1.5 month and very little progress in the last 6 months. I think the swimming teacher is taking a piss and trying to keep him for longer. Any opinions please?

[wendz86]

Around a year or just over for my 7 year old . She’s been on stage 4 for over a year with not much progress . Know how frustrating it is .

[vamillasugar]

I gave up after two years. And the child swims like a fish but apparently his “technique” isn’t perfect

[Taxidrive]

My daughter has been in stage 4 for over a year. Can’t pass the butterfly part (which they never practice). Think I’m going to have to pay for individual lessons as it’s such a slog

[Pascha]

Ds1 took a year and a half to do stage two, and 2.5 terms to do stage 3 and just two terms to stage 4. I think he'll be in stage 5 for some time though as he seems to have hit a wall.

I think children do just stick for a bit sometimes and it takes longer to get them over a particular hump. Once they do it's often plain sailing for a bit and they whizz through the next level.

You could consider a crash course of private 1:1 lessons to boost him over the threshold.

[SalrycLuxx]

My DD has been in it nearly two years. Can’t move because she’s not ‘consistent’ in technique. Of course, that might be because she only gets 8 minutes of actual swimming per half hour lesson, she’s so tall that the junior pool is too shallow, and she’s bored out of her mind.

So I paid for private lessons and lo and behold she should be in stage 4 and can in fact do some of the things needed for stage 5! But the private teacher can’t get her moved.

So I’m about to cancel the class lessons as a waste of time and money.

[CinnamonToaster]

Both of mine spent a year in some stages. We've withdrawn them from that swim school now and sent them to a much more expensive one

The way the stages are interpreted seem to vary between swim schools. 9 months in one stage wouldn't worry me in the least - 2 terms per stage is pretty normal I would think and some stages take a bit longer than others. But no real progress is an issue.

[BikeRunSki]

I reckon to about a year a Stage, unless you swim with your child betweennlessins and practice what they have been taught in their lessons.

[spinabifidamom]

Maybe you need to find a new teacher. We do swimming lessons twice a week (I take them to a local pool at the weekend for practice). My children are at Stage One. Can you email the teacher explaining your concerns?
Or talk to him at the end of the lesson. All children are different but you know him best. Is it possible to observe the lesson or not? So frustrating. Is this the only swim school in the area or not? How many teachers are there?

[WidowTwonky]

Took my son 5 months to pass stage 3

[4point2fleet]

There is not going to be a standard time I don't think. My 8yo DS swims 6hrs a week with competitive club and passed his Stage 3 at just turned 5. However, I know other children who have just never really managed to get passed stage 3/4ish. It's horses for courses like anything.

If I took my DS to gymnastics he'd still be in the toddler class trying fruitlessly to perform a log roll.

[oreoxoreo]

Thank you for the replies. Our teacher has now reduced our progress from 83% to 78% !!!! I didn't know it could work backwards??

[onemouseplace]

I remember Stages 3 and 4 seemed to take forever for DD to pass, then she moved up quite quickly once she got through those, presumably because they'd worked on technique.

She started progressing much faster when she was old enough to swim in the pool on her own before a lesson, which also massively improved her stamina.

[Whynotnowbaby]

Can you ask to speak to the teacher and ask for some feedback? What could you be doing when you go to the pool together to improve? Why has the percentage dropped etc. You will hopefully be able to gauge what’s going on a bit then. I live abroad now but dd was never a natural swimmer and really struggled to progress at all - council run lessons were overcrowded and there was pretty much 0 individual attention- I got fed up of watching her stroll up and down the pool chatting to her friends - and then she moved to a more attentive swimschool where there was a lot of criticism and insistence on perfection so she just felt useless. Swimming lessons here are an eye opener, virtually no interest in teaching strokes or technique but loads of water confidence, jumping, diving, underwater swimming etc. I don’t know much about the system but judging by the perfect butterfly racing up and down the pool in the older kids class in the big pool, it clearly works!