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

For many children Swimming lessons with school is their introduction to water safety and swimming. Your dd has had some experience but possibly not given her the confidence to progress yet. Maybe try an intensive course, many private schools host them during school holidays if not leisure centres. Does she enjoy going, might the echoey environment, temperature of the water, changing facilities put her off.

It's quite literally on the curriculum. Like many things, without parental involvement the school will be less effective. But it bloody well is their job.

It’s not the schools job to teach your child to swim- you need to get lessons like everyone else does!

I don't think there's anything wrong with the Swim England approach in theory, but it's a bit inflexible for those who don't respond well to it and there seems to be no quality control over swim teachers, so I think a lot of parents are paying out too much for too little.

But it also sounds like your DD isn't really engaging a huge amount in lessons (may be because they've been pretty poor - poor quality teaching can really affect attitude). So I would focus on taking her yourself. Sounds like stamina might be an issue, so do some swimming but spend plenty of time just playing with toys in the shallow end, getting her to dive down for things and come back up, kick a few feet to something, somersault int he water, etc. When it's fun, it's easier to keep going and that builds stamina. If you can afford it, a 2 week summer holiday in a villa with a pool often seems to be effective for kids who just don't progress in weekly lessons (but then you need to maintain it with weekly sessions).

Learning to swim needs lots of practice, not just lessons. The lessons are the foundation, but that needs to be built upon with lots of time in the water. Take her swimming at the weekend, and spend good time in the pool.

Haven’t read everything but saw your comments. My kids had years of weekly swim lessons plus the two months at school but that’s not how they learned to swim really. Best thing we did was go on a couple holidays with pools and go swimming every day. You need to supplement loads at home, once a week for 20 minutes isn’t going to do much.

The problem there is your expectation too.

I don't know anyone who has competent swimmers who hasn't either spent years (much more than 1.5 years) taking them to weekly lessons or very regularly taking them to family swim session. Bear in mind that of those 53 lessons a huge amount of time is spent waiting for your turn and watching others.

Most swim schools wouldn't expect you to pass stages any quicker than once per term and even then that's ambitious.

My dc are all club swimmers now but they have all had weekly lessons from age 3 ish (covid gaps unavoidable) and they have all had a range of tuition including holiday intensives and small groups too. I have always been clear that they need to have swimming lessons until the end of primary as a minimum and all have opted to continue into teens.

Having 1.5 years of sporadic lessons in large groups from age 7 will not a safe swimmer make.

A year of lessons age 7 is not nearly enough and only taking her every few months is pretty remiss of you personally - just beginning stage 3 is only working on technique on very small lengths - stage 4 upwards tends to be full lengths of the pool. You need to be taking her yourself - you can’t expect school to do something you aren’t prepared to do yourself and it only tends to be a 1/2 a term of lessons which is nothing

the I’m not a fan of swim england swimming lessons either.
My child is currently stuck at stage 4 because he bends his legs while kicking. he can easily swim 50m in 3 strokes etc.
There are kids at stage 5 and even in early stage 6 lessons who can’t swim a length!
We’ll be stopping lessons next month as its just so frustrating.

I found swimming lessons with the stages pretty frustrating with the focus on techniques rather than swimming. My youngest couldn't get to grips with butterfly so was stuck on whatever level for forever. Who needs butterfly. But in the end it was worth it. I personally hate swimming in indoor pools so taking my kids to teach them myself was not an option. I happily would do it in a lake or the sea but pools not for me. School swimming though, you definitely won't learn how to swim

Completely agree. I loved swimming when I was younger, despite the crap technique, and went loads especially when j was old enough to go myself. But my daughter doesn't like it and wouldn't go herself, mainly because she never mastered the technique well. Plus always had sore/ snotty nose from it being underwater throughout.

This is it. Most parents are happy if their kids can do a couple of lengths of breaststroke, head above water. No it's not good technique, but it will help them not to drown and mean they can enjoy themselves in a swimming pool.

What you get with swimming lessons now is literally years of schooling in proper technique, which some kids find it really hard to master. These kids often cannot swim a width without putting their feet down even after years of lessons.

The way they teach swimming has completely changed. It focuses much more on getting the right techniques rather than just getting on and swimming a few lengths. Like you, I took my child for years of lessons including some 1:1 but she never really mastered it.

The way we were taught means that we could swim lengths and had the badges, but not the right technique. E.g. breaststroke with head always above water.

For some children, getting the correct technique matters, especially if they want to swim competitively. But for my child, I'd rather she was able to swim a few lengths but unfortunately that's not the way they wre taught now.

School swim lessons are there to learn the basic skills needed to prevent drowning. If you want to work on her technique you need to pay for private lessons and need to be taking her swimming yourself more frequently.

Does she like swimming and want to swim?

Check out swimming clubs in your area. They generally have lessons on some type of academy etc they will swim more, and have focus on technique. If she can't currently swim a length in yr4, they may not take her- but worth looking into. They might also be able to suggest instructor for 1-2-1 or small group.

Good luck.

DC’s are at private school where they swim permanently once a week, but even that’s not enough. They had to have years of proper lessons at a swim school (not a teen standing shouting at the edge of the local leisure centre)

Or teach them yourself.

A term of primary school PE lessons are never going to be enough to get up to standard in any sport.
I'd try finding a 1:1 teacher for half a term or an intensive week in the school holidays - that's how you will see the most progress.

You need to take her swimming more frequently. Once every couple of months just isn't enough. You can't rely on school lessons.

Very oddly, it seems, I never had swimming lessons at school and neither did my children. We can all swim though because my older brothers taught me, and I taught my children by swimming regularly.

Swim England focus on good technique across the strokes which I think is the right approach. I do have some issues that they don’t push them out of their depth enough to know if they can actually swim without touching the bottom but 100% get why they need to do this given the child to teacher ratio, especially in school swim classes.

Sounds like your child is in the bottom group for a mixture of ability and confidence reasons.

And of course no one wants to hear this but the best way to swim is in the sea, the waves keep you buoyant but its cold so no one wants to do that, but we were taking down to the coast a lot for this.

I didnt know this until some years ago but not everyone can be taught to swim. Some people just cant

However, in order to really test that, you do need to take her regularly yourself if its osmething you feel you want her to progress with. Or get private lessons

I’m 49

my parents took me and my brother swimming most weekends when we were young as they hadn’t learnt to swim until adults and wanted us to learn. The school swimming lessons are not generally enough

How is your swimming ? If you only go every few months or on hols it sounds a bit sporadic .I would also stop being worried about her being at the "bottom" group ,it's not a maths test! Children will take your lead ,book some private lessons for her and maybe on a Sunday morning you could go as a family.If she doesnt enjoy it then maybe shes not a natural swimmer .As long as she can swim a bit that is enough .Recent figures from 2025 show 1 in 3 children cannot swim when they leave primary .