So pissed off with child's swimming lessons

[Mammytothreelo]

My dc2 age 9 has been in group swimming lessons 18 months & has been on level 2 over a year. He has been at 88% progress only needing to pass one more stage to move up. He's been at tbis percentage for the oast 3 montgs! I went today to watch & ususl teacher missing. The group lessons are 12 pounds for 30 mins, the instructor started 5 minutes late. The area my son needs to pass wasn't covered. I am blue in the face from asking them to asses him to go to level 3. I said to the receptionist before class & she said oh can't be assessed today as usual teacher will only do assessments... New teacher had no interest just stood on side watching. I sent a very pissed off email demanding to know why we are paying 120 quid for a 10 week term & my child hasn't been assessed since sept 1st! Aibu to be ripping?!!! Today's lesson was a complete waste of time & money, teacher was hopeless.. Other teacher is misding more than is there. Dc1 age 10 progressing nicely in level 4 in same pool... The manager is going to call me tomorrow, any advice appreciated!

The post Covid backlog is still causing problems.

My problem was I Stage 5. They never did butterfly. It was all DD needed. I complained weekly. She was swimming width after width in the other strokes while other children couldn't swim a width. Meanwhile her sister was having a similar problem in Level 4. A new teacher immediately moved DD2 up a group... she completed stage 5 in 7 weeks. Meanwhile DD1 had finished stage 5, and was waiting for Stage 6 lessons. At which point I withdrew both as it was all so pointless. The manager said they had asked for more stage 5-7 groups to be created instead of starting more in Stage 1, but they had been refused....

Are you sure there’s nowhere near you offering 1:1 or small group? Often these are in people’s private houses or schools at the weekend so you wouldn’t necessarily know that they exist if you’re just thinking in terms of where you know there’s a swimming pool locally.

I was annoyed with the swimming lessons at our leisure centre - my oldest son is very tall and they had him in a stage where he was swimming a distance that was only about 3 times his body length. He wasn’t able to progress or build stamina.

My youngest was totally dependent on floats & was absolutely hysterical at the idea of not having them.

Both kids have had lessons since then were tiny minus the pandemic & minimal progress.

In the end DH and I committed to a minimum of once weekly family swimming with more in the hols and basically taught them ourselves.

DS2 went from clutching onto me, to swimming underwater in the deep end with no aids in about a month of summer holidays twice weekly swims with a week of being on holiday and daily swimming in the middle of that.

Our public pool was really recommended for lessons, so we enrolled immediately after lockdown. Teachers changed weekly, progress wasn’t recorded, limited times when moving up to the next stage and then 12 in a lesson - they couldn’t actually all get in as the lane too narrow.

pulled her out and going to a private pool with half the kids - done half a term and she is doing so much better and enjoys it.

try and find a private pool, they are out there but you have to look (private schools often have them!)

I dont understand the point of formal swimming lessons tbh. I have taught all mine myself. They all learnt fast (about 3 hours from no clue to half a length) and are all extremely strong swimmers and super confident in the water. Then you hear all these stories like op just seems like a bit of a con to squeeze money out of parents, makes 0 sense why it takes so long.

The point is not just to learn to stay afloat and swim, but also diving in, butterfly stroke, breast stroke and back stroke as well as front crawl, which is what your kids probably know.

My kids do group council pool lessons and the progress can be torturously slow. My dd was waiting 6 months for a space to be available in the next group after she was assessed ready to move up. I think part of the problem is that a lot of kids started at once after covid and there was no progression for the whole time the pool was closed so some classes are a lot fuller than they would have been.

Ah, feel your pain with this one, OP. DS5 has been stuck in Level 3 for this whole year. He's on 98% and has been for months. He can swim 25m backstroke reliably, maybe just shy of that front crawl. Breast stroke he's just starting out. He's used every week as an example to show the other kids how to do things, but he just doesn't get moved up. Can only assume it's a matter of space. I get him a few 1 to 1 lessons at a private pool during half terms (couldn't afford it every week) and the teacher there said he absolutely should be in the next stage up. Hopefully soon!

@Reluctantadult About 9 or 10.

She wasn't mad about the water so because we were so busy with so many other sports I didn't push it. She was playing intensive tennis and hockey and soccer, so the weeks were full on.

I knew loads of people doing lessons for years and some friends told me that they felt they started their children far too early and it dragged on.

Husband had brought the older children to a private lesson.

I just wanted her to be able to swim competently.

She really enjoyed the one on one.
At that age she took instruction well and just motored through them.

I was delighted when we had them finished and it was a really positive experience for her.

Again IMO there was too much standing around in the group lessons.

Yeah, they know all of those as well, not just front crawl lol.

Look at your local competitive swimming club, they may not advertise very publicly, they often have a Learn 2 Swim category to help raise funds for the competitive squad but are substantially cheaper than a leisure centre and teach better technique as they are proper swimming coaches.

My kids did some lessons but it was such a faff I decided to just take them to the pool a lot. They are all really confident swimmers. They did a few lessons when they were quite a bit older so their techniques are ok.

I feel your pain. In the end, we finished the group sessions and went 1 to 1. She completed all levels and is now a great swimmer in 9 months.

The 1 to 1 was £20 per session. I couldn't afford the £80 per month so took on extra hours to cover it. However, that included Christmas and when the instructor had covid- so we paid 8 months (8 x £80) £640 all finished. She also did the training for falling in water, diving, the lot.

The group sessions were £12 each and she was making little to no progress. I am not a good enough swimmer to teach her myself but I could see the group sessions were not helping either.

It's a private pool, part of a gym, privately owned. No council pool near us unfortunately...

4 minutes or less for £12, and all the bloody faff of getting there.

Definitely worth checking out private sessions if you can.

DD10, was stuck on her 50 meter badge for a year (we don’t do levels). I put her in an intensive summer course for a week where she did both her 100 and 200 meter badges and afterwards was moved into an higher level class. She now gets to swim lengths instead of widths and is finally building some stamina. I do think they can be slow to progress in group lessons. But then when it clicks they progress quickly.

I found group lessons to be less than useless. My son was stuck in the same group for more than 2 years. I kept taking him because he seemed to enjoy them and he had no other after school activities. However, I was quite concerned that he wasn’t really progressing at all and like you, had raised this with the teacher in charge.

The lessons stopped because of Covid and instead of returning to the group sessions, I found an Instructor who offered private 1:1 sessions by word of mouth. I paid for 6 x 45 minute sessions and by the end, DS was swimming really well for both front crawl and back stroke with a good technique. In the summer, we were visiting family in London and he had a lovely session swimming in the 50 metre Olympic pool.

Also, I noticed a massive improvement in his swimming ability just after 2 lessons, so I’d strongly recommend booking with a swimming teacher who has been recommended to you.

I've ended up shelling out for 2-1 lessons (although the other slot was not filled) as group lessons would not have suited my dd as she is easily distracted and prone to messing about which wouldn't be safe. We started a bit late due to pandemic etc but she's gone up a level in 6 weeks. Hoping this continues as it is fairly pricy (we are in SE).

HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime

Look at your local competitive swimming club, they may not advertise very publicly, they often have a Learn 2 Swim category to help raise funds for the competitive squad but are substantially cheaper than a leisure centre and teach better technique as they are proper swimming coaches

Amateurs clubs aren't remotely better than swimming teachers many of the coaches volunteer some only have level 1. You can have a crap swimming coach and crap swimming teacher. Clubs tend to manage two different groups at the same time totally different to learn to swim where most are at the same stage.My dd is a club swimmer however she is at the standard is she because she's done swimming lessons, because she is in larger groups her techinque doesn't always get corrected and I pick up on it straight away when I take her swimming.

A good teacher tends to be a swimmer, who recognises good technique and when a swimmers body position is at its strongest or weakness. I teach alot of high stages refining technique, lots of drills working on perfecting stroke technique. It's always important as a teacher to give pointers and areas of work so a child can improve. If we are working on front crawl I'd give feedback on what they did well and what they can do to improve their stroke. Can I ask op what skill for stage 2 they require to pass. If it was something simple like a tuck rotation it's so rarely used I'd pass them if everything else was OK and they could do log roll and float.

I am not British so the levels things is a mystery to me. I have two 10 year old who both club swim. They never passed a single level (they had private 1:2) lessons from age 3-8 then joined a
swimming club. They are good strong swimmers and no one has ever asked what level they are. What am I missing here?

Levels are just a way of measuring progress really. So not moving up a level could mean not progressing, not getting better (not always the case).

Beware of this! We joined a swim club for the same reason and now have swim club kids with an expectation of 5am starts and swimming 6 times a week!!! It's been great but a massive committment and not a cheap hobby once you've paid for expensive costumes and lots of swim competitions

Oh my goodness, I wonder if you go same place as my son lol!!! He was in level 1 for two YEARS and had one stupid thing to complete to pass and they never practised it!!!!! In the end I asked how was he ever supposed to progress to level 2 if they never practice this one thing?? So next lesson she asked him to do it which he could easily and then he went to level 2 and was practically top of the class already. He was only at that level for a few weeks and quickly through level 3 too, but we've been stuck on level 4 for ages... New teacher who has not ticked one thing off. The next level is the final level, it's odd how different swim schools have different number of levels.

@Quornflakegirl - a lot of clubs now no longer teach kids to swim, they take them once they have met a certain standard.
The pools around me all run their own swim schools and there was quite a problem between pool and clubs as pools felt clubs were treading on their toes so to speak.
I was taught to swim by my first swim club when I was young, as we all were in that area. I find the current situation weird.

Thanks everyone for the replies... I felt like a cukoo, pushy mum after sending the email but today pushed me right over the edge! Dh usually brings them, never watches as he brings his book🙄