unhappy about swimming lessons

[angel69]

Can anyone give me any advice about whether or how I should complain about my childs swimming lessons at a council run leisure centre.

My other child has successfully learnt to swim at the same leisure centre and now swims in competitions. So have never had an issue before.

My child is 5 and started swimming over a year ago, progress was slow at the start but I was happy with the progress made by the summer. However since September he appears to have made little progress and having observed other classes I am also concerned about the teaching too.

I have tried to get the teacher to call me and have also asked the swimming coordinator to call me but nobody has bothered to call me back.

I dont want to make a big fuss as I swim there myself.

any help or advice needed

What is it you are concerned about exactly?

If the child is not swimming as such, then maybe have a break and start him in another class next year. You can still take him swimming yourself in the meantime. Water safety and confidence is more important at that age.

My dd swims at the local pool when we are in the UK for 3 mths every summer. She has been for the past 3 years, last year was very meh, and it was the teacher- he was a youngish bloke, and he just couldn't handle his little group of boisterous 6 yr olds. They also spent a lot of time hanging around- swimming one at a time etc, and the lesson, only lasting 30 mins was over in a flash.

I didn't complain- but had I been there all year round, I would definitely have moved her into another group of the same level with a different teacher. Speaking to some parents this summer, seemingly almost everyone was of the same view.

As in all sorts of things, the teacher is very important. I'd go in and have a word with the manager. Try changing groups and see if that helps. Dd had a woman teacher this year who never let them be still for a second. She was really dynamic and dd got much more out of it.

I think progress depends on three things.

1. the coach. Can they retain the attention of the children? This is a real art and unless they can get it right the children will not concentrate long enough to learn anything.

2. the class size. Dd1 (also 5) is usually in a class of between 6 and 10 children. However from time to time during holiday periods or when it rains the class size goes down to 2 or 3 of them and she suddenly zips ahead. She learnt crawl in about two weeks during such a period.

3. the child. Just like at school, some will have a better attention span than others. Some will be keen to learn, others just to have fun.

not sure if this helps but I would defintiely have a word if you are not happy. You don't have to complain but you can say you don't think your child is progressing and try to get to the bottom of why. Perhaps he is in the wrong class?

My child is very confident in the water and becoming aware of safety. I am paying for someone to teach them to swim too, last lesson they only managed to swim 2 and a half widths in 15 minutes, my child was spending around four minutes watching other swim or listening to instructions. The teacher spends far to much time talking about the technique than actually letting them swim and try it out. If the teacher is not explaining what to do they are shouting at them for not listening. Its very frustrating watching them, am I wasting my time and money? would I be better teaching my child myself.

As the previous poster said, the teacher makes a huge difference. I was not impressed with the teaching at our local pool - ds1 didn't make any progress at all in an entire term. I now take him to private lessons which are relatively expensive, but they make an incredible amount of progress in a short space of time and we get lots of feedback from the teachers. If I were you I'd just vote with my feet - they don't sound as though they're really bothered.

In a 25 minute lesson my DD managed maybe 3 widths swimming, and the rest watching others swim. This was in a class of Level 3's and they were all around 5-7 yrs old.

The lessons were very expensive (worked out at £8 a lesson) and were no way worth the money.

In the end I paid a local instructor friend to teach her one to one over a period of 2 weeks (1 hour every day) in the summer holidays. She is now a brilliant swimmer, super confident, has great technique etc. Can now swim a length of the main pool (50m) on her front and back - before the one-on-one she couldnt manage a 5m width (despite swimming 25m next to me in a holiday pool

I took her swimming the other evening as she had pulled a muscle in her leg and I thought the water would help - While we were there we saw the mother of one of her old swim class mates - she was astounded by DD and said her DD was still in the same class, hadn't improved at all - that means she has paid £8 a lesson once a week for almost a year with NO improvement.

I would say either teach you child yourself, or find a one on one instructor to teach them the basics and carry it on yourself. Classes are a waste of time.

I found group lessons useless for my DCs. There was so much waiting around while everyone had a turn doing something. Then a child started to cry in a "can't do it/won't do it" sort of way and the whole lesson ground to a halt while the teacher and the helper tried to cajole her into carrying on. I was furious - and it was my DD!! God knows what the other parents thought.

We gave up and went to have lessons with a private teacher who has got great results. She teaches the two eldest ones so it's not really one-to-one but more or less so. Trouble is she had a waiting list a mile long

I have been trying to find a private teacher but getting nowhere. How do you fine them?

I put both mine in for group swimming lessons (ds was 4, dd was 7). Ds was in a group of 10 who all swam at the same time and crashed into each other. Ds was in a group of up to 10 who swam one or two at a time and so she was waiting around a lot, and when she got a go the teacher just pulled her along with the float for quickness. Absolutely no improvement after 2 terms each, and lots of people who had been going far longer said the same thing. Total waste of time and money. They now have a private instructor which is hideously expensive but definitely better on a one-to-one basis. Yes, I would complain, not only about the lessons but the sheer rudeness of not responding!

We found our private teacher by word of mouth; a friend was already using her. I had rung the local pool twice asking them to get one of their instructors to call me, with no joy.

Thanks. It's had at the moment as we are not back in the UK - moving home in a month, will start asking around then. I am going to try them in the lessons at the local pool but I fear more of the same.

I had this same problem and have found a much smaller class, with the possibility of one to one if needed. You could try private gyms and health clubs as they sometimes run classes or know instructors. There are also some in the yellow pages. Hope that helps.

I am about to stop group swimming lessons for my DC. I think they've been useful for building confidence, but now that my DC can actually swim, I think they would be better off just getting lots of practise and one-to-one attention from me or DH.

In the past the council run swimming lessons were very good, but now I feel that the classes are too big, and there are too many classes taking place at the same time. This means that the children only have a small section of the pool and they are squashed together. They spend a lot of time watching others and very little time actually swimming or getting individual help.

It costs me about £100 for the 2 boys per term and I think I could do a better job myself now.

swimming clubs offer swimming lessons and I found them to be excellent - my son was stuck at level 1 for 3 years in council run scheme!

I moved him into the club group - they moved him to level 2 the first week, level 3 the following week, and 2 weeks later, level 4. In one year he has moved to level 6. The lessons are more expensive than council based lessons, but the class sizes are smaller and/or have higher ratios of staff. ALso there is a vested interest in getting them in to club standard early!

Can't you change to another group/instructor?

There's such variability in the quality of swimming lessons! Both my DDs went through our local council run scheme and I can't fault them - both basically went through 1 level per term so excellent progress. Partly it's ebcause DH and I have taken them swimming from when they were babies, we're both very strong swimmers, but the teaching was excellent too. Even in the beginners' groups the children were always swimming - yes, they'd be split into two groups but the second group would set off once first group was halfway across so very little waiting. Teacher would get in the pool and demonstrate if needed. People from outside our area would put themselves on the waiting list just to get into these classes. In the more advanced lessons the groups were much smaller, also very little waiting and excellent clear teaching - I finally learned how to do front crawl properly from watching the teacher explain the timing of the breathing. All that for relatively little money, and DD1 flew effortlessly through school swimming lessons last term, achieving the standard for KS2 at age 9 without breaking a sweat all thanks to our local council. Wish everyone was that lucky, private lessons cost a fortune!

Thanks for all your ideas, they are certainly worth a go, I like the idea of going to a local swimming club instead if I don't get a good response from the teacher and swimming coordinator tomorrow. cheers! I will keep you posted.

I have done every type of swimming lesson with both my DDs. Private, council, local club, county club, various private swim schools. By far the best teacher for my child is me! Well, actually myself and the club. If I don't take them swimming they never seem to hone their skills and make any meaningful progress.

What I do now is lessons with the county club and then swimming with mum once a week. Then I can correct properly the mistakes they are still doing in the lessons. Also I find just letting them swim for 20/30 lengths with very little instruction just lets them get into the swing.