To expect some swimming at swimming lessons?

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I’m not sure if I’m just wildly expecting to much, but how long did your average swimmers take to complete stages 1 and 2 from starting Reception kind of age?

These are council lessons and are 30 minutes once a week. How long were your kids actually being taught for the 30 minute lesson?

Swimming lessons are hardly "new", though. They were the norm when I grew up thirty years ago.

Mine originally learnt abroad so missed stages 1-3, but every area seems to interpretation the stages differently.

The first UK area mine had lessons in the early stages were in the children's pool and all the children could stand in it so were never sitting on the side waiting their turn like I've seen described. Second area it was deeper, but they could still stand.

In the country mine learnt in the parents were in the water until 5yo and the aim was 25m of propelling themselves, treading water etc and it was tiring for the parents let alone the kids!

Why not just teach them yourself? Speaking as a granny who taught her own children 45+ years ago, just do it.

Both my children were good swimmers by age 6 or so, and our 6 year old son taught himself to dive, just watching others.

Just do it! Why waste money on expensive lessons when your own kids hardly get a look in.

No wonder you mums have no money!

We moved from council lessons to private lessons. Ds was only 3 at the time but there were 8 kids in the class. Spent more time getting dressed after the lesson than he did doing any swimming.

I want my children to be a strong confident swimmer. I want them to finish the set lessons, and if they want then start life saving courses.

Where I live that’s level 9. Technically 7-9 are junior lifeguarding courses Swimmers are challenged with 600 m workouts, 300 m timed swims and a 25 m object carry. Strokes are refined over 100 m swims. First aid focuses on treatment of bone or joint injuries and respiratory emergencies including asthma and allergic reactions. Lifesaving skills include defence methods, victim removals and rolling over and supporting a victim face up in shallow water.

My 9 year old is about to start swimmer 6. We had a few bumpy years of lessons through covid, but she did two levels this past summer. We live in a community with lots of swimming activities. Pools, boats, rivers/lakes/ocean. Being a passable swimmer is not enough for me.

This is an unpopular opinion, but I think the ability to swim is not very helpful.
It's fine to be a good swimmer in a heated indoor pool, but it wouldn't help if someone got into difficulties in a cold sea or a river.

https://www.thewirh.com/blog/dpw2022#:~:text=Ensure%20your%20child%20knows%20the,but%20it%20is%20not%20sufficient.

I couldn't agree less, we are an island nation, if your child cannot swim there is a huge range of activities and sports they are automatically excluded from ( sailing, surfing, canoeing, paddle boarding) also do you never go to the beach ? Being able to swim is absolutely a life skill.

You will notice a difference quite quickly, now that he is doing 1-2-1 lessons. We had the same problem with our son, even in a rather small 6 children group setting with a private swim school. He wasn't enjoying it anymore.

He had 1-2-1 sessions for 2 months now (working on stage 5). He is progressing so quickly. His teacher is great, they concentrate on one stroke per session, very technique oriented, with corrections as they go along. Best decision ever.

I did say it would be an unpopular opinion. In my experience, most people don't go sailing, etc. Not everyone enjoys water sports.
As for the beach, yes I went when my children were small but all they did was paddle and an adult was with them.

My DS2 has done council lessons. He started at the age of 4 and at 8, he is swimming 400m. His progress has definitely been related to his teachers and whether we went on holiday where there was a pool (this seems to really help with progress). He has got stuck at a couple of stages and then skipped through a stage in a month. He's in the final stage now, but he got stuck in the previous stage because he was the youngest and smallest which meant he struggled to keep up.

His older brother has 1 to 1 lessons as he has ASD and would struggle otherwise. He's done so well from where he started. He also seems to come on loads after holidays, even though he is very resistant to swimming in strange pools.

Hope the private lessons go well. They have been brilliant for our son.

Our council pool lessons are great. In the pool swimming the whole time, and the instructors have an app so you can see what skills they're working on and their attainment.

And cheap as chips, with free swimming at all other times for the kids. Win win.

In my fifties and we did swimming lessons, not till secondary tho, mum and dad took us at primary

I've had arguments on here about swimming being a life skill. It's a life enhancing skill, in that it's a good leisure activity, you can get work as a lifeguard or swimming teacher, do watersports etc.

But it is not a lifesaving skill, as you rightly point out (although some people do personal survival awards, which are probably more useful than the actual swimming bit).

As for teaching kids yourself, there is a reason we have professionally qualified swimming teachers, because they know what they are doing. Most parents don't, and would like their kids to learn properly.

Get in the pool after and do another 30 minutes practicing/playing. 30 minutes a week is such a short time especially when half of it is wasted as you say

Based on your background, I would have expected much faster progression. DC1 achieved stage 1 in their first term of swim lessons (end of reception), stage 2 the following term (start of Y1) and stage 3 by end of Y1 with a range of distance badges. They could comfortably swim 25m at the time of getting stage 3 badge. DC1 is water confident as you describe yours to be, always been happy with face getting wet/jumping in and the body positions when swimming seem to come naturally to them.

All group lessons with private swim school, I think you've done the right thing switching them. DC spend no time outside the pool and practically no time waiting once they got their stage 2 as they send 2 or 3 at a time

Teacher matters hugely. I picked swimming up in a day because mine was so good. And scarily persistent.

So we have had our private lesson tonight and jumped from 64% to 86%. She has said he is ready to move up, just needs to go into the deeper end of the pool first.
I wonder how long it would I’ve taken to get to this point with his group lessons.

anyway, he loved all the attention and I am happy!