What age to go swimming alone?

[Dontstoprunning]

Was just booking swimming for tomorrow for me and my 2 children and I saw the rule that children under 8 must be accompanied by an adult.

Mine are 11 and 8 and did think ooh they can go in the water whilst I sit in the viewing area. (Or have I misinterpreted the under 8 rule?)
Just wondered if anyone did this or is 8 a bit young although seems ok going by the leisure center.
Happy to go in with them but was just wanting opinions and experiences from others

Yes it's usually 8 they're allowed in alone. But my 8 year old would have drowned had I allowed it. So use your common sense and decide on the basis of how sensible your child is and how well they can swim!

I don't think that's too young as long as you're confident in their abilities. I used to walk to the local leisure centre and go swimming with friends most weekends from year 4 onwards.

Depends how good swimmers they are. I don't think mine are ready yet at 9&11, they need more stamina first.

If they are 8 they are not under 8 so fine to go in alone per the rules but its up to you if you are happy that they are confident enough to do so.

I think 8 is the normal age.

My parents used to take my best friend and I to Center Parcs and it was around that age we'd go off by ourselves while they supervised from the café.

At our local 'fun' pool it is/was 8, but although DD was a good swimmer no way would I have let her go alone because she wasn't in her depth, the pool got very crowded, there was a 'current' section which was quite strong. Our local David Lloyd pool I was much happier to have her in without me in with her.

By 8 both my DCs were stronger swimmers that I’ll ever be so I was comfortable leaving them in a regular swimming pool. They are 12 and 9 now and I still feel nervous and want to grab onto them at wave pools even though they are much better swimmers than me!

So much depends on both the pool and on the child. Our local pools are complicated leisure pools with no chance of any supervision from the side, so I wouldn’t want my only-just-swimming 8 year old alone. When I was a child, I had my 2 mile badge by that age and we had a standard 25m pool - so we were always just left to get on with it, while my mum sat at the side studying.
I was in a hotel pool at the weekend that had a sign saying all children under 16 had to be within 5m of a supervising adult, which seemed a little extreme.

Thanks all.
I definitely feel confident in their swimming abilities but there were some good points made about the actual pool and we haven't actually been to this particular pool before as we usually use a different one.
I will go in with them tomorrow and suss it out so I will know whether or not I could let them go in without me another time.