Learn to swim 1-7 How long!

My son and daughter didn’t start swimming till they were age 6 and 8, so roughly around 18 months ago. Daughter is at stage 4 in one swim school and stage 6 in another, son is at stage 6 in both, although when I read the swim England guidelines, he has quite clearly completed stage 7 🤷‍♀️. It’s so crazy the swim school that’s holding my daughter back has my son doing about 400 metres in half an hour, I have no idea why because the swim England only asks for 100metres at stage 7. But considering how late they were to start, I think there doing amazing 🤩 as long as they enjoy it we will keep going.

I didn't start the lessons until they were 5 years old because it looked torturously slow in the younger years where they are limited by their size rather than ability. Had the bonus that they were both fairly confident and happy in water from us taking them swimming.

DC1 is 7, has done exactly 2 years of lessons (currently in 7th term) plus a few holiday crash courses. They are working towards stage 6
DC2 is 6, has done 1 year of lessons (currently in 5th term) plus a couple of holiday crash courses and are working towards stage 3.
Both are on track to get the next stage badges by Easter I have been told - they will get a distance badge this term

My eldest had swimming lessons at 3 but became scared of the instructor so stopped for a while started again at around age 5 and completed stages and moved to club swimming at around 9. My second daughter had a similar experience at starting around 3 but then withdrawing and going back around age 5. She didn't complete all levels but instead moved to the teaching section of the club and continued from there into club swimming.

One swim school we were at they completed everything for a stage, then you'd get a notification they could move up and you'd end up on a waiting list for the next class up which took at least 3-4 weeks. I'd ask at
the reception and they'd be able to say that x number of children were almost at 100% complete in the stage above which at least gave some idea of when there would be movement. Or they'd offer a different time slot.

Yes this is my suspicion - no movement or regular assessment so you just get stuck in stage purgatory until you have a moan and suddenly get moved up. They seem to move up the stage 2/3s as they need room for the new stage 1s but no-one seems to actually ever leave at the top end.

My DC is not level 7 yet but I had a feeling that our previous school had a goal to keep the group at the same stage (3) for the whole year, and then just switch everyone to the next level in the summer.
Because no one was leaving they couldn't move your child to the next stage and group randomly mid-year - there was no place for extra children after groups were formed.
Also it doesn't make financial sense for them to let the child progress faster.

Maybe in swim schools attached to swim clubs there's more movement between groups.

@Bunnycat101 stage 6 and 7 are very different from stage 2 which @LadyTinHat is talking about though. I have one who finished stage 7 and another who is nearly done with stage 5. I think at some point around stage 5 they become competent for water parks and sports. It is up to you to decide if you think you should continue. No one needs to have those swimming certificates. It’s not GCSE.

@Bunnycat101 could they be short of places in the next class up so artificially keeping them down a stage (whilst still on monthly direct debit, obviously!).

Yes I absolutely agree. I just want my kids to swim well enough to be safe and be able to go to water parks and so on when they’re older. All this focus on dolphin kick (beginnings of butterfly) and so on is a waste.

It drives me mad that there is so much variation across centres. Some add in loads of extra stuff so lessons bare little resemblance to the actual stage they’re in. My 8yo seems stuck on stage 6. There is nothing on any of the competencies she can’t do so I really need to speak to her teacher to see what she actually needs to still tick off and basically whether it’s all a bit random now. There are a few in her class at a similar level so she’s not the only one but I’m getting the feeling it’s all a bit of a con at this point to keep kids in stages longer so they don’t tick off stage 7 and stop. I went to watch a stage 7 class afterwards to see if I was missing anything and it looked like most of the stage 6 swimmers were better than the stage 7 ones so now I’m totally baffled by the whole thing. It’s actually demoralising for the kids though as they want to know how they’re doing and what to work on but the competencies just seem to be meaningless.

Yes, I think water survival/safety lessons would be much better - learn to swim one or two strokes for 50 metres, stay afloat etc for water safety near rivers, lakes and the sea.

Rather than trying to perfect techniques in four for kids who are never going to want to swim as a sport.

I think there should be 2 pathways - a fast track for those who just want to be able to swim enough for fun and holidays and the other for those who want to learn all types of strokes as a sport.

I persevered with lessons for my DC for 2 and a half years, even when we couldn’t afford it when my DH lost his job due to ill health.

DC didn’t enjoy them at all and would moan about going. They also had 6 months of school lessons. We then gave it up.

They can only swim at a basic level which I think isn’t enough but they’re not interested in learning anymore. I have offered 1-2-1 lessons to them which they’ve both refused. They are teens now so it’s up to them. They can’t say I didn’t offer the opportunity.

I think they may have been at stage 2.

A lot of families can’t commit to years of lessons so there should be an option of fast track. School lessons are free but not enough.

DD is about halfway through stage 3 after 18 months of lessons, but didn't start these until she was 7. We've had to change lesson provider as the first didn't really seem to have a clue how to engage and inspire children, she wasn't progressing and was hating the lessons. The second provider is so much better!

Starting older seems to have helped - we didn't do baby/preschool lessons, just took her swimming ourselves a couple of times a month. She has more ability to listen and follow instructions than if we'd started earlier.

The style of swimming teaching in the stages seems very different to when I learnt to swim though. There is much more of a focus on perfecting techniques in four(?) different strokes which seems excessive, whereas when I learnt the focus was on stamina and distance and we only did breast stroke and back crawl.

Just found this because I’m always amazed at my kid in swimming and am clearly convinced of their ability :D . But wondered if parental pride was skewing my view so looked for some comparisons. It would appear that my kid has aptitude but isn’t unusual! He started in stage 1 age 4 (he’s tall) and is now in stage 4 age 6 almost 7. He took average of 6 months per stage, apart from stage 3 which took him a year. Absolutely loved his teacher for that stage who recognised he needed a bit more time and let him stay for ages before ruling that it really was time to go up. He’s 2/3 through the competencies for stage 4 so possibly 8 months in total for that. So could be stage 7 by year 4, depending on if he stalls at any point. We have local authority lessons and gosh but the teaching is so much better than when I learnt. In fact I went and enrolled in adult lessons because I’ve never really had front crawl as a stroke and wanted to improve.

Imo fooooooreeeeever, both started stage 1 at age 4, DS is just turned 7 and in stage 3. Dd is 9 and in stage 6. So roughly a year per stage. I've heard that stage 6 & 7 CAN be a bit quicker. Plenty of friends kids have finished the whole lot already by 9. Mine are a bit slower.

Depends how young they start, my dd was older (house moves and lack of suitable local pool when younger) and only needed 2 lots of 8 lessons to be able to confidently swim lengths. She was in a group of 4 over 8's and they progressed them quickly rather than sticking to precise curriculum. Dd2 did the standard lessons and got nowhere in 16 weeks and begged to quit - we taught her ourselves instead. I swear the standard lessons are about extracting as much cash as possible from parents, they move them along so slowly

@Ozanj what's the source of the information that 'children who start staged swimming classes later are more likely to give it up before they can swim competently, but of the minority that remain they do end up being stronger swimmers than those who begin these classes younger' please?

Do you mean in a stage 4 class or have completed stage 4? DS is in a stage 3 class but hasn't completed stage 3 IYSWIM.

The truth of the matter is that children who start staged swimming classes later are more likely to give it up before they can swim competently, but of the minority that remain they do end up being stronger swimmers than those who begin these classes younger.

Parent and baby and preschool swimming classes are just there to build water confidence and don’t count as ‘staged’. You can do that yourself if you have access to a pool.

Having said that I progressed early with my son because I want him in the technique building classes by 6/7 which is when his school will begin to filter swimmers for competitions. As he loves swimming I want to give him the best possible chance.

I also think baby and toddler swimming lessons are a waste of money. DD1 has been going to lessons since age 2. She is now 10 and about to finish all the stages. DD1 was stuck at levels for long periods. DD2 started at age 7 and progressed quickly. She is one class behind DD1.

Finding this really interesting. My daughter is just 5 but has been attending lessons weekly (bar Covid lockdowns) since she was 6 weeks old. I think she is on level 2 and has been since November. I feel like it’s slow progress. She doesn’t like going and wants to stop. Given the cost I’m keen to let her stop but I really thought after 5 years she would be able to swim a bit unaided, but she can’t.

wont be starting so young with my second as it was clearly a waste of money!! When she was little she liked going so I didn’t mind but with hindsight I’m not sure what benefit all those years had for her actual swimming ability.

I'm not convinced baby and pre-school classes make much difference. Children catch up very quickly when they start. My not particularly sporty 5.5 year old was terrified of water in her face but passed Stage 1 in about 8 weeks after making really fast progress. There were little ones in the group who frankly held up the whole class and who just aren't ready for group lessons without a parent even if they can get across the pool with a noodle. Getting to Stage 7 in about Y4 is definitely achievable based on the children I teach.

I think they plateau at different points. My 5yo has been in stage 2 since September (skipped stage 1 as she’d done pre-school and baby swimming) and I think she’ll be in there for a while longer despite the fact she can do all the asa stage 2 criteria. She’s tiny and is obviously less powerful in her strokes than some of the older children and has dubious listening skills so good chance she’d be a total liability in the big pool. But she is still progressing and doesn’t need a hat colour change for her to still be learning so I’m not too bothered. It’ll be listening skills for her rather than swimming that will be the cue for the change.

But…My eldest has got stuck at various points and I have got a bit narked though as it’s not been clear why and it’s felt like a bit of a con. First point of annoyance was her being stuck in stage 3 and not getting her 10m ticked off despite the fact she was doing lengths by that point in class. I then got narked at the stage 5 point when she was doing 400m sets and hadn’t got 10m ticked off. Her stage 5 certificate says ‘now you can try 25m’ and she thought it was ridiculous and really took away from getting the badge when she’d been doing that for so long.

We did levels 4-10 in 2 years.
I taught DD the basics first and she started at age 8 to perfect her technique starting in level 4 swimming recreationally as well as during the lessons.