Swimming lessons should be essential!

I actually think the early years of swimming lessons for our children were a complete waste of money. We could have saved money by just taking them swimming ourselves, getting them used to the water, getting their heads wet, teaching them to tread water etc. Once they could listen - maybe around 5 - lessons started to become worth it.

I am not well enough to teach them now and lessons are non-negotiable as I want to have strong swimmers (and they are) but I think more people could just teach their children the basics.

I just don't think the assumption that they need formal lessons (rather than being taught by family and friends) is that helpful and may well have led to less children being able to swim as parents are disempowered (as they are in other ways).

I pay £40 a month for DS to have 1 hour lessons a week in a 50m pool. Definitely nowhere near some of the prices mentioned here. As he has lessons at the pool he also gets free "fun swims" with me (I have to pay for me) as part of his membership.

I think it’s the same for most places @FloatinguptheLagan

I started my baby with puddleducks (extortionate!) when the Covid restrictions came down and carried on when I went back to work. I then had another baby last year and she started with puddleducks and I am considering stopping her lessons as I just can’t afford them, but worried I’ll never get her in anywhere else!

In my area, since Covid, it is virtually impossible to get new starters into the cheaper council swimming lessons. My DS was 4 at that time and we were just about to enrol him in swimming lessons. Due to availability and his SEN, the lessons he eventually started at age 6 are with a small, private swim school and cost us £208 a term. He’s just moving to Stage 2, as due to his sensory needs he refused to put his face in the water, so didn’t meet the criteria to complete Stage 1 for over a year.

We have a DD6 who we can’t start with swimming lessons yet, as we simply can’t afford almost £400 a term (there’s just a 10% discount for siblings). We’re still trying to get her into leisure centre lessons and we swim as a family when we can. Which also costs over £30 a time.

It probably is two under 8s but it’s certainly one adult to one child for under 5s for everyone active

It’s two under 8s for some of the bigger chains like Everyone Active.

Gosh I hadn't realised it had got so expensive
Are you really only allowed 1 under 8 per adult now? That's really bad. Maybe the councils need to lighten up on this to give kids a chance to swim.
Many single parents have 2/3 kids and would never be able to take their kids swimming

Swimming lessons around here are about £120 per month and take place at times like 4pm on a Tuesday, when working parents can't make it. I was a keen swimmer, and DD would love swimming lessons, but there just aren't any at times for working parents. Our council is on the brink of bankruptcy closed down all but ones of the swimming pools, which is a hour away, so we wouldn't get to the evening classes on time.

We have taken them ourselves, but it takes over an hour each way, the car park costs £6.50 for an hour, the pool itself is £12 each for me and DH and £8 each for the kids, (assuming we can actually book a slot, which you almost never can), and you only get 45 minutes in the pool. It's not something we can afford to do very often!

As I said, they've been taught water safety (both at the pool and at the beach) since they were tiny, and we did the basics with them when we could, but actual lessons were completely out of our reach. 45 minutes on the rare occasion we can get them to a pool was never going to create strong swimmers, and the consensus on this thread (along with many, many others) is that parents who don't send their kids to swimming lessons are lazy/useless/disinterested/ignorant, and are wilfully depriving their children of a vital life skill. I was just trying to point out that in many cases, the parents are desperately trying to do their best with very limited resources.

You are right, swimming lessons.

My two eldest learned absolutely nothing from swimming with the school
This they had 30mins 1 day a week 3 or 4 weeks year 5 and 6 didn't learn anything.
Saying if you can't afford lessons take them yourself what if you can't afford to take them either.
When I was at primary school in the 70s we had swimming lessons every week at he local pool and you got badges as you swam further and further.

why can’t you take them yourself

I can’t speak for that poster but a trip to our pool sets us back £40, and I cannot take two children solo hence paying for two adults.

Why can't you take them yourself
Why always 'lessons'. My dad taught me to swim. I only ever got lessons for technique (to get into a swimming club).

Absolutely agree. I organised a kayaking session for my Cub/Scout group. I asked the parents to tell me of their child was a swimmer by the Scouts' definition - can swim 50m in a buoyancy aid and float for 5 minutes. 5 of the Cubs (8-10.5 years old) were non-swimmers. Very very worrying.

I go to waterparks in Spain often and it has got so bad they won't let british kids down slides without armbands regardless of whether they can swim. Local kids the same age are allowed to go armband free. It is very sad that we have ended viewed this way.

I don't think baby swimming is in any way essential. We did it for ours but it was fun but until they are old enough to go alone it is not really a life skill. I agree that for age 5/6 it is pretty essential that age they can actually learn and then it sticks with them for life - it should certainly be considered as just part of the cost of raising a child. School swimming was a bit pointless in our experience.

Unfortunately, swimming lessons are behind a huge paywall (especially if you have multiple children, or if one is disabled and needs specialist teachers). Even if you can afford the classes, you may not live near the pool and have to factor in big transport costs. Things are more complicated again if you work shifts or have unsecured working hours, how can you be sure you'll always be free at 5pm on Wednesdays, then 7:30 on Thursdays for child number 2?

That's why they're on the national curriculum.

By 5 and a half and a term of swimming lessons, both of mine had caught up with their peers who'd been having weekly swimming lessons since babyhood. We had friends who were spending their Saturdays at the pool with a two year old at 11am and the 4 year old at 2pm due to class availability. I'm glad I saved my time and money to be honest! I know of only one child in Y1 who is what I'd consider an exceptional swimmer and that's because her dad loves surfing. I'm not at all convinced lessons before about age 4 are that much use long term.

I don’t think they need formal lessons until around 3 or 4. Until then their arms are proportional short in comparison to their body so they can’t learn to swim. Regular fun trips to the pool are important before they start swimming lessons.

The whole process might be a lot more accessible if the national scheme was based on Water Safety and essential swimming, and left the fancy stuff like diving and Butterfly stroke to an advanced course...

I have this issue. I've been taking DC10 to the pool from 3 months and he's a strong, confident swimmer. But he can't ride a bike. I feel very bad about this, and ashamed for not teaching him? but he's been so incredibly resistant that I haven't wanted to push it in case it put him off for life. Its's recently transpired that he has dyspraxia, sensory processing issues, poor balance and very bad coordination. No wonder he's so avoidant given these issues must make these things so difficult. But I despair that he'll ever learn.

Glad we started the swimming so young. If I hadn't, I'd have had the very devil's time trying to persuade him into the water!

I thought baby swimming lessons were worth it because my child would reliably have an amazing nap afterwards 😂 but I appreciate this isn’t everyone’s experience. I also love swimming and enjoyed being in the water with him. I think there is value in starting lessons at an age when you go in the water with them - it seems to have really helped my son’s confidence compared to kids in his current class who didn’t do that. He doesn’t really think he “can’t swim” but he is very aware of water safety (as far as a 5yo can be!) and knows the difference between places where it is “too deep” and a paddle up to his ankles.

Well I agree with you but BIL’s argument when I ask him why he doesn’t intend to teach his own kids to swim is “we never go anywhere near any water”.

Perhaps that’s a valid argument to an extent (they are not beach people) but a bit of a stretch to think that his kids will NEVER want to go near water

That’s why many lessons do swimming in clothes - weighing you down with stuff etc. I mean you’ve got a lot more chance than if you can’t swim at all.