WWYD about swimming lessons, 8yo seemingly making no progress

[SwimmingGoingBadly]

DC is 8. School do swimming lessons in summer term of year 2 so DC and their classmates have missed out as they’re no Year 4 (3 form entry school, with several other 2-3 form entry schools around the leisure centre theres absolutely no way they can fit an extra 120-200 childrens lessons in I knew before school even said that DC would miss out).

They where in Stage 1 for almost 2 years but I thought that was due to covid. They moved to Stage 2 in November 2021 so coming up to a year now.
According to the online progress thing (each child has an online account where progress can be checked ready for the next Stage) they’re 51% of the way through stage 2 and that only went up after 2 months stuck on 48%, so given that I reckon it’ll be another 12-18 months in Stage 2.

DC is losing heart with it, keeps going because they want the Learn to Swim Badge for their Camp Blanket (they’re also a Scout), but is finding it very frustrating. They’re now the oldest in their group by almost a year. Their friends at school are Stage 4 and above so they’re finding it even more frustrating.

I’ve changed classes as we were at a very awkward time before but it’s made little to no difference in terms of progress.

It’s costing me £30 a month for a 45 minute lesson once a week and access to the pool at two other times a week which we do use so they are practising. Which I can afford but would be good to have the extra money.

The only reason I haven’t given up with it yet is because they have a muscle condition that is really helped by swimming. But they keep trying to get out of going by saying their ill or their muscles hurt (we’re supposed to push through depending on the pain level and whether it’s managed with calpol or not – DC is under orthopedics and physio for their condition) and it's horrible to have to force them. They do enjoy the actual lessons though, they're just finding it hard to keep at it.

There are no other options for pools locally so it’s give it up or not.

So WWYD? Stick at it or give it up knowing they’ll get no other chances with school?

My child went to swimming lessons for nearly two years, 6-8yrs old, with no progress, it was way too shallow. I swopped to a lesson on a pool where he couldn't touch the bottom and within 5 minutes he swam a width. I reckon he could swim all along but who can swim properly when your feet keep hitting the bottom? - I know I can't.

sagalooshoe As a swimming teacher this comment is so frustrating. It doesn't matter what depth it is they should be able to swim the full width when learning. I can swim 10 metres in a pool of 0.80metres with ease, I'm 5ft1. As a school swimming teacher we test kids in the activity pool at this depth if they don't make ten metres they stay in that pool for a safety reasons.

itsgettingweird glad he's enjoying it, it's great as teacher that swimming is accessible for all. I'm such a firm believer in every child having access to lessons, as a teacher we should strive to be exclusive of everyone. We should be constantly learning and adapting our teaching.

Op 12 kids in stage 2 is madness I have 8, only have 12 in stage 4 in the big pool. He needs support which is not getting in a such a large group. I'd look for other classes? Which area are you based in?

Personally I’d stick with lessons but maybe try a few different classes. Maybe a class with smaller numbers or some holiday only intensive swim lessons. I wouldn’t simply give up on swimming because I think it’s an important safety skill.

I'm loving how inclusive sport is becoming across the board and especially swim England.

Ds was one of the trial para swimmers at national event camp last year and this year is the first year of integrated programmes and he's on the youth one.

His coach is a massive advocate for how AB swimmers can learn from para swimmers too.

I wonder whether you need to be able to tick off all these things. As a child, I went swimming with my grandparents who taught me how to float on my back and swim breaststroke. That is all I have needed throughout my life! Swimming is an essential life skill but I would expect water confidence and the ability to actually swim a length without touching the floor would be the important stuff.

My mum can't swim due to lack of confidence in the water but she gets the logistics. She taught me to swim in two afternoons on holiday when I was six instead of the year of lessons I had been having. I was barely listening in the lessons because I was such a shy child, with my mum I could relax and actually learn. Could this be it?

I absolutely agree with spending your money on 1:1 lessons. We did that for DD and DS2. They made fantastic progress after non-progress in group lessons. We did 1:1 lessons every day during a half-term.

Definitely don't give up on swimming (unless you get medical advice to that effect). It's such a great skill and has so many benefits!

@Bananarama21 We're in the midlands, this is the only pool for 15 miles, covers lots of schools as well. Only offers lessons after school and weekends and the last class DC was in had a similar number of learners, I'm told weekends are even worse 15-20 per class.

To people suggesting 1-1 I can't afford it, it's £30 for 1 lesson 1-1 whereas I pay that for 4 45 minute lessons in a group, it's just too much plus they're very late at night like 8-8.45 or 8.45-10pm because they're after group lessons or in holidays when I need actual childcare.

I'm a single parent, ExH pays a bit in maintenance but not enough to cover 1-1 lessons without DC giving up their scouts and other activities (they do Gardening, Choir and Lego at school they're £15 per term each).

Does he get dla? Could you claim that towards the cost? Tbh the sizes of the classes and the lack of progress you'd be better going 1 to 1 I the long run. You can claim help towards one to one lessons from the local council if your in receipt of disability benefits.

DS1 learn't easily to swim in group lessons, DS2 just got nowhere, so we switched to a 2:1 class and it made so much difference, and he really progressed.

I guess the question to ask is, can he actually swim? Whether he can do a tuck roll, or a log roll, is - in the grand scheme of things - fairly irrelevant.
If he can propel himself, however unstylishly, from one side of the pool to the other, then he's probably good enough for now.
If he can swim well enough to save his own life, then that'll do. If he wants to become a more confident, stylish swimmer in the future, then that's something he can do when he's older.

@zingally They still have the rings on their arms when swimming in both lessons and when I take them myself.

I think sometimes the teachers just don't bother to update progress and don't realise what child needs to do to pass next level. My child was in stage 1 for two YEARS, totally outperforming everyone in the class and only needed to do the 5 metres to pass... BUT THEY NEVER PRACTICED IT!!! In end I asked how child was supposed to pass? Next lesson, child was asked to do 5 metres which was EASY! And up to level 2, but was very overdue and ended up only being in level 2 for about 5 months, already top of level straight away.

I think some swim schools are quite slow at progressing. My daughter does two different classes. Class 2 is a swim club but has v short terms so don’t want to ditch the first one yet.

class 1: she’s been stuck on stage 3 for what feels like forever. I’m sure she can tick everything off and I’m going slowly insane as many of the things are ‘needs practice’ and not even fair.

class 2: doing things that seem to be stage 4 and 5 like forward rolls, butterfly, getting them to do full lengths.

I have two kids who swim competitively. I never see this advice being given, but what helped both of my kids was spending a lot of unstructured play time in the water before learning formal strokes. Many many weekends of playing at the local pool during the school year and many summer days outside. We encouraged them to jump from the side, but didn’t try to teach strokes since I had no idea on those. This helped develop not only a love for the water, but also their sense of buoyancy and body position. Both kids really enjoyed diving to the bottom to retrieve toys and swimming through hoops under water, etc. When they started formal lessons, the teacher commented on how relaxed they were in the water and how well they could dive and they progressed fairly quickly.

It was similar to how they learned how to ride a bike. Both of them used balance bikes to get comfortable with balancing and coasting, and when they were big enough for pedal bikes, they felt relaxed and could ride them straight away.

I have a child that swimming doesn't come naturally too. I tried changing to smaller swim classes etc to no avail. In the end I put him back in the council pool and thought you know what, I'm not fussed anymore. As long as he enjoys it it's a great form of weekly excercise. He's now been in stage 3 for quite a while (he's 8) if it takes him another 6 months to go to stage 4 then so be it. Just see it as a weekly excercise class and he'll get there at his own pace.

My DS1 was similar, he's 10. I but the bullet and paid £12 per 30 min for private lessons (3-4 children in the group) and his progress has been amazing, he's come on more in the last 6 weeks than in the previous 2 years.

My DC was similar - the group classes just seemed to go no where and she didn't make any progress. Do your pool do holiday lessons? I booked a weeks intensive one to one course during a school holiday week in the end. It was more expensive but she literally learnt to swim properly with one to one attention.

Although the one to one classes look expensive, they learn much quicker so you would maybe only need a few lessons.

My middle child is 10 and has only just moved up to stage 3. She had a real anxiety in the water and took a long time to build her confidence, then had a break in lessons thanks to the pandemic. She eventually moved to stage 2 then was put up to stage 3 before she was really ready and she had a panic attack in the big pool and was moved back down to stage 2 again.

My local pool where she had lessons offered a week's intensive course over the summer for £20 and after a couple of days she was swimming happily in the big pool and they moved her up again to stage 3 (there were only a few others in her group for the intensive course), it really made a huge difference to her swimming skills and confidence. Unfortunately now she is back in normal lessons the groups are huge and she is panicking again and refusing to swim on her back without a float. I'm sticking with it for now as it is such an important life skill but I feel like I am just throwing money away each month on lessons at the moment.