Learn to swim 1-7 How long!

It took my son a while to progress, but he's an excellent swimmer now.

The only thing I can recommend is plenty of practice between lessons.
We went on holiday, where the deep end was out of his comfort zone, and his swimming was fantastic by the time we got home.

Yes kicking at the knee will def delay things. Try making him practice his kicks via backstroke. Incentivise knees staying in the water. But it’s tricky because every time he has a growth spurt he’ll need to relearn how to kick from his ankles.

Are there private 1-2-1 lessons available either in your area or outside? Might help to get all the niggling bits sorted so he can move up.

DS is 4. He began parent and baby classes at 1, then preschool classes at 3 and is only now progressing to the equivalent of stage 3 despite being at a stage 2 capability level (ie able to swim unaided for 2-5m) since he was a baby.

The reasons we were given were:

1. Stage 3 is about more than capability. They focus on behaviour and safe swimming too. As DS has ADHD he really struggles with both. He’s only moving up because the other kids at stage 2 are so far behind the teacher thinks they’re teaching him bad habits.
2. Height is important. Taller children are often more confident in the water as they can comfortably touch the floor.
3. muscle development - if you can’t move your arms and kick from the ankle (which many kids can’t do) you won’t be able to swim safely at stage 3.
4. Independance. At our sessions stage 2 has helpers. Stage 3 doesn’t. So if your child needs help or reminders to turn in the water when they reach the rope, it won’t be safe for them to move up.

Swim England posts a clear set of activities children need to achieve at each stage. Maybe print it out and review them yourself during lessons so you have data to back a complaint.

My youngest has done 1-6 in 2.5 years

My older ones I let leave at stage 5 as they had enough going on and they could swim but younger has no other sport she enjoys.

Think the teaching is better where my younger dc does as her style is beautiful.
They obviously spend time perfecting strokes. She seems pretty good at it

Both my older two took 3.5-4 years to do stages 1-7, having started at just 5 and just 4 respectively, so I guess an average of around 6 months a stage, though in practice some they whizzed through and some they spent a long time on, the longest being two years for stage 5 for one of them. Generally from what I have seen most seem to get stuck on stages 5 or 6, often because of breaststroke. Both still swim now with a club.

My youngest is on the verge of passing stage 4 after over 4 years, although there were gaps in that due to Covid.

Having checked over my kids' records, they've taken between six months and a year for each stage, averaging a bit over 2 terms. Earlier stages generally took longer (perhaps due to COVID disruption, younger kids generally taking longer to get coordinated, and in one case the swim school just having not updated records for about 4 months....). Overall, I'm happy with the progress, some coaches have suited them better than others, yes, but each has helped them develop good technique and water safety skills. I do feel it's a bit pricy for half an hour's activity, but the regular, committed activity helps build good habits, increases their strength and endurance, and they are happy and confident in and around the water and secure in their bodies. One child is looking forward to being able to do some lane swimming before school a couple of times a week, and I'm happy that this is something which is accessible to them, and which they're able to do and want to do. It has taken a while to get to that stage, but I feel on balance it has been worth the time and money for them to be able to swim well.

DS is finishing swimming lessons at the end of year 7, age 12, and will have finished stage 7 by then.

I think a grade a year on average if you do it till the end. It’s quicker for the lower grades. Obviously kids learn at different speeds. It also depends if they practice between lessons. Also many quit by stage 4 or 5. DC2 is at stage 4 and she swims lengths the whole 30min lesson and even a bad butterfly stroke. If your aim is to just learn to swim, that level is more than enough.

About 1 grade a year, on average, if they swim once a week and are taught properly.

Some dcs pick it up faster than others, have more of an aptitude.

Remember you don't have to stick with it until the end. I'd like my daughter to have made more progress but we are calling it quits this summer. I feel she knows enough to be relatively safe and I'm sick of shelling out for weekly lessons.

There's a timescale here: How long will it take for my child to learn to swim? — Big Blue Swim School. That said, from the evidence of my local swim providers (one club, one local authority), most kids are taking a good deal longer. We do see a difference between the club and the LA provision, with people who teach at both saying that the LA is more thorough, e.g. the kids who've just started stage 7 under LA provision are generally better swimmers than the kids at the club starting stage 7. Our LA provision seems to undertake more assessment activity when they need to find places in particular classes for new swimmers, so to some extent their rate of progress seems to be influenced by replacement rate / maintenance of revenue.

Both my children have been slow and steady to progress - both started age 3 and ds age 9 (nearly 10) is at stage 6 and dd age 8 is at stage 4. They have friends who started lessons later who are at same stage or ahead. (They both obviously had gap for covid) there are times when they were making little progress and then something clicks and they accelerate. They’ve had excellent teachers and some not so great ones- dd especially they have all been very good but she’s been stubborn! It’s expensive /long but worth it and feel like we are finally getting there!