Asked to leave poolside during 3-yr olds swimming lesson

You're being OTT.

They don't want parents like you hovering and gasping in fright with each splash.

The children are learning a skill and gaining confidence in themselves.

Asking why the change in policy seems reasonable, though I am surprised it was not the policy to begin with.

Mine went to swimming classes at age 3. There was a no parent policy. We hd to leave and couldnt really watch at all. There was a cafe with a window, but it only showed the deep end of the pool.

Over protective and over involved parents that won't not interfere are probably the reason they won't let parents sit poolside.

If you feel that you need to be in arms reach to keep your child safe then there is something massively wrong with the swimming teacher and swimming pool safety!

I suspect you are completely overreacting though and looking for reasons to stress because you found it hard to be distanced during the lesson.

This is standard practice though, it would be impossible to teach children to be water safe and confident and trust their teacher with 'stressy' parents waterside, getting themselves involved.

Parents on the balcony is normal at the pool we go to, however when my DC were 3 I was still in the water with them, this seems very early for parents to be on poolside. I definitely wouldn't have felt comfortable with that.

We’ve never been poolside for our kids lessons (even when they’ve had private 2 to 1 lessons, we were in a waiting room).
Currently lessons at the local leisure centre, my youngest is still a non swimmer but he is in the training pool so never out of depth but we do have 1 instructor to about 6 kids. I don’t worry about him at all but I guess I would if he was in the big pool and could wander out of depth. If that was the scenario I’d probably move him tbh.

Teach them how to swim yourself, or at least teach some water safety to your child. Then retry when you feel more confident leaving them with a teacher and 4 other kiddos.

The life guard is trained to oversee the children in the lesson and their safety is managed along with the instructor.
You're able to raise the alarm if something is amiss but being away from the poolside is normal in my experience of swim lessons.

DD learning to swim and that's standard. Parents leave poolside. There should be lifeguard in charge. I take DD to poolside sit with her till teacher arrives then leave her. Every single parent does the same . Teacher can't teach if parents are there. Yabu

Three seems young for lessons like that

I’ve never used a swim school where parents were allowed to sit poolside at that age. My experience has been parents must be in the water for the 0-3 lessons but then they are independent. I asked one of my kids who was a swimming instructor (and lifeguard quals) while going through uni and they said the standard here is 5x 3yo for lessons with supervisor watching all lanes (had lessons in 8 concurrent lanes in their case but not all 3yo, a mix of age/ability over the 8 lanes). I’ve personally never seen a set up that has relied on parents to stop kids drowning and used several swim schools over my kids childhoods.

I am mystified at those who say why take a 3yo to lessons, don’t take them until they are 6-8yo. Here, by 6yo you swim proficiently and from there it’s a case of long lap swimming increasing stamina and speed, bettering technique and introducing additional strokes and perfecting those also, then squads for those who choose to go on but at that point the kids can swim a good kilometre, good technique, low effort, decent time. You need these skills to stop you from drowning if you get caught in rips etc so you can’t start at 6/8yo, you need to be a good way there by then.

My dd went to lessons in private pools. More expensive but the children were safe due to low ratios. Additionally the parent were just beside the pool.

You are lifeguard trained. You know this isn’t terribly safe. Trust your instincts. I would complain. My dc would not go back if management won’t back down. It is worth losing the few pounds you’ve paid for the lessons. Sunk costs.

www.sta.co.uk/news/2015/06/03/information-on-teaching-in-the-water/

Information about ratio of instructor to learners.

I can not disagree strongly enough with this.

That's normal where I live...

When DD was 3 our town had an old pool with a big balcony around it and everyone sat upstairs on that. DD loved going underwater and I'd be trying to communicate telepathically to the teacher to make her stop. I think there were about 6-7 in the class, plus the lifeguard obviously.
Then a new pool opened with poolside benches and entire families would sit and watch and get up and ask the teacher this that and the other during the lessons.

If you're not happy with the group lesson (which will have been health & safetied and risk assessed to the maximum) then stop the lessons (which sound absolutely fine) rather than complain. You could also try telling your child not to "wander off" when the teacher is talking to someone else.

You need to take over teaching him to swim rather than leaving it to people you don't trust.

When DD2 had lessons at that age there were only two, maximum three with the instructor. Sounds like the ratio is all wrong and pretty irresponsible.

I had no idea there were pools where you could be pool side with the children?!

All pools around my way you are either on a balcony or in another room watching from a window.

We had private lessons for ds2, as he developed a fear of water.

At ours there was an assistant in the pool with the kids as well as the teacher and life guards

Maybe you should speak to someone there about ensuring that a lifeguard concentrates on the kids during the duration of their lesson.

Yes I have a pool at my house and the teacher tells me to go inside when she’s there, my son is 3 and not verbal…
It’s one to one though, if it was a large lesson where the teacher had multiple toddlers to attend to I probably wouldn’t leave or go out of sight.