To think I'm being ripped off?

Take him swimming with a fin. Get the arms and legs moving together ( doggy paddle is fab!) take the fin off in the last 10 mins and practice ( aided to start with) floating on his back and ducking under the water to pick up toys on the bottom in the shallow end etc that builds confidence and breathing techniques once he masters rolling onto his back and floating you can take him deeper to stop him putting his feet down and get him to doggy paddle for a metre to the side and build up on that . Won't take long! The lessons you are paying for are teaching stroke technique and not water safe moving around.

My fil took our son aged 4 to swim while we were at work.
It took 8 weeks and son could swim unaided.
Ok he wasn't left unattended.
Daughter was taught the same way and it was nearly 6 months before she could swim unaided.
Different children have different approaches.
If you don't feel positive then change the swimming lessons.

I'd expect at least 5m by then. You'd be better in council led lessons or lessons affiliated to a proper club than paying ridiculous amounts for some weird programme someone dreamt up.

No they aren’t if they are using armbands xx

Just seen this post
I’m a qualified swim teacher
after a year, unless the child is EXTREMELY nervous, maybe ND, then no, you’d expect some sort of swimming unaided by now
is if a brand or a council run pool? Sometiems expensive ‘brands’ follow very strict lesson plans which is what is sounds like the teacher is implying. General council run pools can have children who can move up at any time. 1-1 lessons you would for certain have them be attempting unaided well before a year xx

When my sons were 4 and 5, they did a week long swimming course. One hour a day for 5 days. By the end of the week, they could both swim unaided. Not very far at that stage, admittedly, but definitely unaided.

Not really, just focused on kicking and using arms, and gradually removed the swim discs as his confidence increased. We played games and made it fun.

Find a pool which follows the Swim England stages (assuming you are in England!) www.swimming.org/learntoswim/learn-to-swim-stage-2-award/By the end of stage 2 he should be able to swim 5 metres unaided.

How often do you take him swimming outside of lessons? It's taken my seven year old two years to swim independently without an aid with weekly swimming lessons of 30 minutes long. We saw the most progress when we went on holiday and had access to a pool for ten days. I know he'd progress more quickly if I took him swimming more frequently to practice, but we struggle to make time for that so it doesn't happen.

I'm like a broken record on swimming threads - look for someone Halliwick trained. They don't use floats at all and focus initially on being safe and comfortable with movement in water. Your child will be able to float unaided on their back after the first session, and will quickly learn to roll in all directions, and have breath control in water. As you can imagine, learning the strokes is much easier from this point.

Floats mess with the way the body behaves in water, and create dependency. They're great once you can swim - for strengthening and training purposes. But terrible for learners.

I agree with Mikunia My DS is autistic and wouldn't put his face in the water or take one foot off the bottom. His instructor allowed him to wear goggles and he was zooming about, even underwater, within an hour.

Are the following swim Emgland learning to swim stage? How long did it take them to complete stage 1?

I put my son in 121 because it seemed the only way to actually learn

I would definitely change classes as he's not making any progress.

My dd is almost 5 and has been swimming since she was 2, she started swimming with my DH in the pool, then just with instructors and noodles, then a shark fin and now unaided.

We also take her to our local pool throughout school holidays to keep on top of the progress she's making

My daughter is 5 and swims unaided in the normal swimming pool (Not kids one) at the local leisure centre in her swimming lessons..I think it's time to move you DS!

This is the problem with swimming lessons now. They insist on olympic technique instead of just teaching them to be able to move around and be safe in water.
I took my kids out for similar reasons. Mine are autistic and will not put their faces in water voluntarily and they couldn't progress because they didn't want to swim with their face in the water, but they had to in order to move up.
Yet you don't actually need to put your face in the water to be able to swim!
I taught both of mine on holiday with daily access to a pool. It takes less than a week.

We taught a grandchild to swim in three days on holiday.
Yes you're being ripped off.

Whatever they are doing isn’t really working for your son. I would try a different class.

After a year I think he should be able to swim at least a very short distance.

Ds3 has never been a 'natural' swimmer and also started lessons at 5. After a year his form still wasn't great but he could at least doggy paddle for a couple of meters and tread water for 20 seconds...enough to get by on holiday for the pools and slides if one of us hovered at the edge.

I'd move him. Sometimes very small groups aren't the best imo, there's no natural 'peer pressure' of watching x kid swimming a width and trying to do it too iyswim. Ds3 is 7 now and in a group of about 6 - when I watch him I can see him watching the other kids and trying to swim as fast as they do which definitely gives him a bit of a kick to put the effort in.

It sounds weird. Move him.

There is no reason for the instructors to be touching him after all this time, especially if he has buoyancy aids.

I would expect them to do a lot of work with floats to get good technique, but they should also be doing non aided swimming so a combination of both.

I can't remember where DS2 was after a year, but I think he could swim 5-10m unaided (local council pool lessons).

Dd was scared of water. We tried to take her and she cling onto us and it was very stressful. Took her 1 1/2 to move stages in her swimming lessons but she now happy and confident in the water and loves swimming under water and diving. This from a child who refused to get her face wet. However her teacher was amazing and it wasn't 1:1, although as they knew she struggled although I wasn't paying for 1:1 she had a lot of 1:1 with the center manager to give her confidence. Move swimming teachers if you not happy.