To think £29 for a 30min swimming lesson is daylight robbery?

[GoingRogue]

Enquired into some 1-2-1 swimming lessons for my two young children. Nearly cried when they emailed back the cost.

I don't know what I was expecting, probably half that. They do get slightly cheaper the more you book.

Is this normal? If both kids take the maximum of 20hrs then it will cost us £1800

Thinking I'm going to have to bite the bullet and teach them myself (our local pool is a freezing, dirty hole of a place).

Ooh. Lots of info - thanks.

Do we think it's best to just focus on 6yo for now then? How many hours does it take to get the basics (I realise this is like asking how long a piece of string is).

Swimming will never be fun for me! Hate it. But realise it's such an important life skill.

Yes please to the pp who is willing to pimp out her newly qualified son!

We're in the sticks in South West but will do some research into other pools.

YANBU.

Ours is £6 for 30 mins or £56 for 10 lessons.

My 2 had a week's intensive course last week. £22.50 each for 5 X 30mins. They were already fairly confident in the water but couldn't do any proper strokes, and it really helped. Plus the lessons were at 9am and they always stayed in the pool for a bit afterwards (twice until 1pm!) so it filled in that week of the holidays nicely!

That's for group though it's £18 for 1 to 1.

I did group lessons with mine for years, also the intensive one week lessons during the holidays but the lessons where they made most progress was during 1;1. Hugely valuable, do them in blocks of 4 or 6 or share with another parent?

Our local 1-2-1 lessons are very cheap in comparison £58 for a set of 5 x 20 mins (Scotland, local pool). 20 mins doesn't sound long but when they are learning and constantly moving it is long enough.

If you can find a good teacher at a reasonable cost 1-2-1 lessons are much better to learn a good technique, they learn quicker and a year of 1-2-1 can be much cheaper than the total cost of 7 years of group lessons which some of ds's friends had.

6 year old into group lessons and waiting a little bit longer with the 3.5 year old until ready for group lessons?

unless there is anything that prevents them from accessing group lessons, I would not pay that.

fwiw, my DD (with complex SN) has 1:1 lessons and we pay £13/30 mins

That's about standard in central London we we live. My youngest has ASD and we did private 1:1 for 3 terms because he was very nervous in the water, although for children with SEN they offered the 2:1 price which was lower. It still cost an arm and a leg though! We're switching to group sessions at the local leisure centre now.

Look around, there will be all sorts of private companies etc that do lessons in different pools.

When I pay for 1-2-1 lessons it's £16 for 30 mins with exclusive use of a lane. We're in the south. Mine had a few private lessons in additional to group swimming lessons, it was worth it as they came on in leaps and bounds.

When you think that includes the cost of the facility it's not in the least extortionate. Private tutors in other subjects generally charge £35-40 per hour.

My son did a year of group lessons, worked out about £5ish for half an hour. If you have a good teacher, they learn well with their peers.

He's a confident swimmer now.

I think thats really reasonable. I pay £8 a lesson for one child. If you can get two plus the teacher to yourself I don't think thats bad at all.

I agree that formal lessons are unnecessary when children are very young, that is unless the parent is a non swimmer or nervous of the water. Just take them often, to a pool with nice warm water.
Both mine were like little tadpoles in the water by about 2 1/2, but they didn't have formal lessons till around 6, when they learnt 'proper' strokes very quickly.
However lessons can be fine for little ones - as long as they're fun, in warm enough water, and the kids enjoy them. The main thing when they're very little is to get them confident, enjoying it, and not afraid of having their faces in the water.

Ah, sadly not near enough for it to work GoingRogue

My dd2 was booked in for a week's worth of swimming lessons one half term (sounds similar to kitsandkids ). It was great. There was only her and one other girl there the first day, and then the other girl never showed up again, so she got 1:1 all week, for around £3 a lesson (this was some time ago, but council lessons are still about £4 - £4.50 I think ?) and then, like K&K, she was able to come into the big pool with me, ds, and dd1 afterwards for further play / practice. It made the world of difference, just 5 x 30min lessons though.

1-2-1 is worth it. Ds had swimming lessons start of this holiday on 1-2-1.
I took him just before. As soon as he thought I might possibly let go of him he put his feet down.
By the second lesson he was swimming alone. By the end of the week he was doing nearly a length.

He didn't get anywhere in group lessons because they didn't have time to spend on getting his confidence up, then letting go.

He enjoyed them so much he's asked if he can have more lessons next holiday. I think they cost me £90 for 5 days of half hour, but there were others in the pool at the same time with their own 1-2-1 lessons.

That sounds very reasonable.
I've heard 19 quoted for a 30 min group lesson. That is daylight robbery.

We did some of those, all our DS got out of it was ringworm. Can't it wait until school? Most prep schools offer swimming lessons as far as I'm aware. Alternatively a lot of gyms with pool facilities will do group lessons and you can get your work out done at the same time so win win.

We are south west , group lesson cost me £4 a week and my now 6 year olds been going since Easter 2016 he was able to swim alone within 8 lessons, but is still learning different stroke and skills he can now swim underwater, on his back, using the two common strokes .
My 3 year old joined him beginning of July and she is only just gaining confidence, she was nervous of water ( would never let me wash her hair with out a struggle, now will stand in the shower).

Thanks for sharing all your thoughts and experiences. We really can't afford £58 per half an hour lesson for the two children, so will focus on eldest first.

Have asked a friend and the 5-day half-term intensive course costs £22 here (5 x half an hour lessons). She put her 5yo ds on it and it hasn't helped him at all. But for £22 I'm happy to try it.

Think I'll have to keep my thoughts about the local council pool to myself and hope the 6yo doesn't notice the state of it!

Prep school? He goes to the local state infants. Also, neither myself nor my husband are members of gyms, so that's not an option

Anyone know when normal state schools start offering swimming lessons? Or will it vary between councils?

I paid £30 per half hour for a 121 intensive course. Group lessons were £7.50

1-2-1 at my local leisure centre is £120 for 6 1hr lessons, they also offer 1-2-2 lessons at £180 for 6 1hr lessons. If you don't want to do group lessons see if you can get 1-2-2 somewhere as they may give you a reduced rate for teaching the 2 of them together.

We managed to drop on with our council ones and there is only 2 kids on the lesson so it's pretty good ratio wise, £5 odd a week and free swimming for the child and a designated adult when ever you want