AIBU to question school swimming progress when DD still can’t swim a width?

I often see school swimming lessons and I wouldn't expect them to learn much from a term of those. Today there were 30 lids all in the training pool and 2 teachers. So much going on, they just don't have much of a chance to learn a lot.

Private swimming lessons worked well for my daughter to get all the technique down and then I took her regular to practice and build stamina. She's stopped lessons a year ago but because she had the good grounding in the technique she's doing really well with building stamina with me. I bough the badges online and award them to her myself for the distances. I think it's a much better way of doing it. I never learned good technique as a kid. I can swim good distances but can't do front crawl properly..my daughter is already much better than me.

For us, we ended up saving money on 1 to 1- like you, we went every week for 2 years with little progress. Changed to a 1-1 (more expensive lesson) and she finished all of the 'levels' in 9 months and was a very confident swimmer- so we stopped paying for them. She's an adult now and still swims for a stretch out etc. She learnt the techniques and went from there.

My children went to a primary school with its own pool - large classes - no chance the children, particularly the ones who lacked confidence were going to swim more than a width.
We live near the coast so prioritised swimming and water confidence. Lessons at the leisure centre stage 1-7 and going as a family (it was fun and we went weekly).
If you want her to swim you either need to teach her yourself and go weekly or put some money behind it with structured lessons.

Swimming teacher here and whilst frustrating after a year of lessons, some kids just need more practice. The child also needs to want to swim. The kids that fly through the stages are often the kids that swim regularly with the families.

Learning the right techniques has such an important place in swimming. Not just to be club swimmers but also if you want to swim for fitness/health. I agree butterfly isn’t of any real importance for leisure centre lessons and it’s never my focus, more a fun activity at the end of pretending to be dolphins or mermaids!

1-1 lessons should really help especially if supported by you taking them once or twice a week (in an ideal world!)

Badges are still a thing at group or private lessons. My son goes and is currently in year 2/age 7. Hes been going since he was 3.5, used to kick off, maybe until he was 5. Hes now doing stage 3. I've also questioned why butterfly wiggle when he can't get breaststroke or front crawl right. He can however swim okish backstroke. I won't take him out of out of school lessons until hes done all his badges (up to 7) whatever is happening at school. My husband learnt at 30 due to only having school swimming.

When I was at primary school in the 90s I don’t recall learning much at all. It was the standard situation of it you could already swim your swim, not sure what the others did 😂 they never taught me anything though and we didn’t work towards badges. You’d have to be in a swimming club or lesson out of school to do that.

I learnt to swim from my mum and regularly going to the pool at weekends or in the holidays.

Just take her yourself on a weekly basis if you are not bothered by technique.

It's practice that is required, week in week out. To build confidence and then techniques and stamina.

By learning the strokes correctly eventually leads to faster and strong techniques. Being able to swim further for longer and in a life saving situation that's what you want.

If you just want water confidence and one length you can teach that. Get her dong handstands and summersaults to get used to her face in the water - she won't panic then if she ever falls in. Teach her to roll onto her back and float like a star fish -they teach float to life and then finally treading water so she can stay in one place if needed.

I think school organised swimming lessons are extremely inconsistent.

I have two very competent swimmers, one who is swimming competitively, one who recently joined the club. Neither made progress with the school lessons.

Exactly this. You wouldn’t expect a child to learn to read if they only had a block of once a week lessons for ten weeks! Same with swimming, it’s about building on basic skills - which she has as she can swim 6 m , and gaining confidence and stamina. Concentrate on breast stroke and front crawl and work on the breathing as it is different for both.

I don’t think YABU. I would be shocked too!! My three all had weekly swimming lessons in infant school (put on by the school) for 3 years (reception to y2). All the kids in that school, even the ones who refused to go in the water in Reception, leave by Y2 being able to swim an entire length of the big pool. I know because every other week I’m one of the parent volunteers who goes to the leisure centre with them. My eldest and 5 others in his class who were strong swimmers got their 800m badges age 7. He is particularly sporty, but even my current 6 year old who is not that sporty can swim a length of the big pool. I didn’t take any of them swimming regularly myself, or pay for lessons outside of school. We do go on holiday once or twice a year to places that have swimming pools and they do a LOT of swimming while on holiday. This is where I saw the big leaps in progression, but the swimming lessons built on that in between. Are other children in your daughters class progressing?

The thing that progressed all my kids most noticeably was goggles and learning to swim underwater. Suddenly they can get in the correct position to power themselves forward if they aren’t trying to keep their head above the water. They would come up for gulps of air then go back down again. Gradually they learnt to stay above the water. If you are on holiday this yr with a pool make sure you have a few different pairs of goggles (some work better than others) and practice this with your daughter, it might help her progress

Dear heavens. Pay for swimming lessons pronto weekly and get this sorted.

In your shoes I'd be taking her weekly and googling advice for parents on how to teach kids to swim, and also getting her some private 1-1 lessons. Both mine made quite slow progress until swimming clicked for them so aim towards consistent practice.

I would agree with this.

I honestly don't think butterfly should be introduced until a much higher stage - I think it's currently stage 4 but IMO should be more like stage 6 or even 7. Realistically most people are only going to swim fly if they go into competitive swimming.

I’m a bit confused. Are the school swimming lessons organised by the primary school? Or are they swim school lessons?

Don’t rely on school to do something you are capable of doing. How many in a school class compared to 1-2-1 you can provide!

She went from stage 1 to. Stage 3. That is progress. But you can’t just stop there that’s the problem in my mind. The longer distanve and stamina comes in the later stages.

I say this as a "Swim Club" parent....

School swimming lessons are absolutely useless for teaching children how actually swim.

If you want her to actually be able to confidently and competently swim, you're going to need to do lessons elsewhere. I would look at a private company rather than local authority/leisure centre lessons. They are more expensive, however you tend to have a better ratio - more like 1:4 or 1:6 as opposed to 1:12 - so she will most likely improve massively with better, more focused sessions. If you can afford it, some 1:1 sessions would be even better

You need to get her 1 to 1 swimming lessons. I wouldn’t use group lessons because the kids in the group she’s in will be age 4/5. My daughter is 7, and just gone into stage 5. She’s can swim a whole length. She started at 4.

I wouldn’t rely on school to teach child to swim. Too many children and I feel it’s just an activity to fill the timetable/national curriculum requirements. Definitely get her some lessons outside of school.

This isn’t on the school. If you’re concerned she can’t swim you take her for swimming lessons. Mine have both been to weekly lessons at our leisure centre since they were 4. It’s non negotiable if the want to or not as one day it could save their life. They also did a term at school but that’s all school did as they have other things to be teaching. Taking 30 children to a pool must be a logistical nightmare. No way would it be enough to enable a child to be a competent swimmer.

I’m really surprised she didn't learn more from a year of private lessons! Was she going once a week?

My 4 year old has just started private lessons and the other children his age who have been going for a year/18 months can swim a width unaided.

She’s not going to learn this way.

you need to get her back in lessons and take her regularly (weekly) yourself

School swimming lessons aren't enough to teach a non swimmer to swim.
Some leisure centre lessons are hopeless as well. My son did 18 months at the leisure centre from being 3.5 years. He made very little progress in that time.

I found a swim school that did 1 to 1 or 1 to 2 lessons. He learnt more in the first half hour than he had in 18 months at the leisure centre.
Absolutely fell in love with swimming and now, at 12, has been a club level swimmer for 2 years.

I would suggest looking for another swim school - ours wasn't cheap but worth every penny.

My son started swimming lessons at the local pool at the end of reception. It has taken until now (mid way through yr 5) to get to stage 7. He goes once a week for lessons plus had some lessons with school (at the same pool) in yr 4.
Learning to swim takes time and consistency. If you can afford it i would sign your daughter up for regular lessons again seperate from school and do regular practice as a family.