To not know how combined stages at swimming will work?

[SwimmingStage3with4and5]

DD is 9. Goes swimming on Friday at 6pm. Stage 3.

She was in Stage 2 for over 2 years so I deliberately chose a quieter time for Stage 3, she’s one of only 5 in her class which is really good for her. She’s still slow to progress but is loving it and gets a bit of 1-1 with her teacher. In Stage 2 she was in a class of 12.

DD has SN – we tried the SN classes, but she found them to noisy and busy (up to 60 in the pool from different stages at a time) so she used to refuse to swim and I was paying for her to sit on the side and watch so switched to mainstream.

Had an email last week from the leisure last week to say they’re raising the caps on lessons from 12 to 15 in Stages 3-6 (they’re raising the cap in all stages but they have different caps) and any class with 5 or less learners in would be combined with another stage or possibly multiple stages to make numbers up to over 10.

Our stage 3 is being combined with the 4 and 5 classes at the same time as ours, so there will now be 13 in her class. This will happen from 1st September, so she has 1 more lesson after this week in Stage 3 on it's own.

I can’t see how it’ll work, or how my DD has any chance of making any progress at all.

I get the need to combine or close classes that aren’t financially viable, and us combining with 4 and 5 makes room for a Stage 1/2 combo to run at the same time as us thus getting another 14-20 parents paying for lessons and clearing or reducing the waiting list for those stages. It will just be 1 teacher the current stage 5 teacher. Our Stage 3 is moving to the 1/2 class and the Stage 4 teacher will be a TA across all stages (but more likely just with the 1/2) so I assume if take up isn't enough for the lower stages they'll save money by not paying the teacher(s).

But I don’t get how they can teach 3 stages in one class at this level. How can you teach 13 children from 3 different stages in 1 45 minute lesson per week?

Plus I wasn’t even given the chance to move DD to another class or increase the costs to me to keep that stage open on it’s own.

Does anyone teach swimming and do combined stages explain how it’ll work? And whether DD has any chance of passing Stage 3?

There is no other pool within a reasonable distance that’s affordable - £8 per half hour lesson with no commitment you sign a contract and pay for 2 weeks at a time but do not have to use them or sign up beyond that, next nearest pool is £21 per lesson and minimum commitment is 12 lessons at a time so I get theres a waiting list but I do worry about DD being in this stage for ages like she was in 2. Towards the end of S2 she was crying saying she didn’t know what she needed to do and I ended up having to pay for 2 1-1 lessons during Easter to get her through it – I’d happily pay for 1-1 lessons again but I wasn’t given the option.

Bump in case someone can help

Can you not just take her swimming yourself so she can practice? Sounds like a crazy idea combining all the lessons together!

I don't feel able to teach her myself and she's missed out on school swimming as they go in Years 1 and 2 and couldn't go due to Covid.

Mine have done combined classes for Stage 8, 9 and 10 - always been the case rather than in response to increasing costs. All pretty good swimmers by then so working on speed, stamina and continuing to improve technique, combined with competitive swimming skills - starts, turns and relays. This worked fine, however I would not have been happy with combining earlier stages if only one teacher. Maybe watch one or two lessons to see how they manage it but to be honest I think I would explore other options. Maybe post on Facebook to see what's out there. There are a few private swimming schools and independent swimming teachers using hotel pools popping up near us, they seem to offer much smaller classes and one to one too.

If you are not seeing progress then it's not worth £8 a lesson. And as you were seeing very little progress previously, surely there is only one way it can go with the classes getting bigger. I don't think combining stages is necessarily a disaster, but these lesson don't sound well run and it doesn't sound like a good use of time or money to continue.

I would be looking for a different swim school or private teacher. I used to be a lifeguard and we had various one to one teachers in during public swimming sessions, arranged privately not through the pool. There are also small private swim schools in hotel pools and even a couple in a private pool in someone's house. We spent years taking our kids to a not great swim school. If I had my time over I'd have spared them years of it in favour of a much shorter stint of one to one lessons or one of these small private set ups - which back then I just didn't know existed. The ones round here just don't need to advertise though, so finding them is tricky.

Given how long it's taking her to progress and how the lessons don't sound as they are well suited to her, I would stop throwing good money after bad and instead look for private, individual or much smaller group lessons. Yes, they will be more expensive per lesson but she will progress so much faster that you won't spend more money over the longer term.

This pool only run 1-1/private lessons in Half Terms, Easter Holidays and the first 2 weeks of summer, otherwise it's only group lessons.

Will ask around on local Facebook to see if there's a private teacher or other options.

Round here, the costs at the different swimming pools are pretty much inversely proportional to the class size - so a class of 6 costs twice as much as a class of 12. It makes absolute sense, as the teacher costs are presumably roughly the same either way. People vote with their feet on what they're prepared to pay for. It sounds as if you've been lucky in getting a smaller class size at larger class size rates. However it doesn't sound like you have very much choice around you, so perhaps give it a few weeks and see how it goes, whilst looking around for other classes/one-to-one.

(Our first swimming school was great - run in a school pool, with 1:7, plus the beginners had a teenaged helper as well. They re-did the timetable each term to fit the kids, making sure to keep siblings in classes at the same or consecutive times. It must have taken them ages, but it did mean they could keep the classes mostly full.)

*This pool only run 1-1/private lessons in Half Terms, Easter Holidays and the first 2 weeks of summer, otherwise it's only group lessons.

Will ask around on local Facebook to see if there's a private teacher or other options."

That's how mine learnt. I couldn't be doing with the ridiculous faff that was swimming lessons after the first term, so signed them up for a couple of intensive week courses (mornings) over a couple of holidays, which got them to be good, safe swimmers, which was the important thing - I wasn't bothered about perfect technique for all 4 strokes or anything. I wanted them to be fine falling in the port from Granddads' boat!

I've seen some of the so called swimming lessons at my local pool and can't see how any of the kids are making much progress. They do adult lessons as well but I paid privately for a few lessons and it's really improved my strokes. I'd definitely pay the extra if you can afford it.

My Ds has sn and I just paid for 1-1, it was more expensive per lesson but I think it worked out cheaper in long run as he progressed much more quickly

@lanthanum I don't think I do have many options, I've posted on Facebook and just got a couple of people saying "Following" or "Also want to know" as replies but no actual reply

Update:

There's been enough complaints about the mixing of stages that it'll now be a combined 3/4 and a 5/6 which seems more doable from me from looking at the pass criteria on Swim England website.

3 and 4 seem similar and about strokes! So they'll be 7 in DDs class which should work I think, and then 6 in the stage 5/6 with spaces in both if needed