To think DD should get swim badges more often?

[Tiredtoday22]

DD6 started swim lessons 2 years ago. In the first 6 months the badges were frequent. However in the last 18 months she's only received 2 and it's nearly a year since her last one (5m). She can competently swim 10m and the lessons advertise that they work through skills badges alongside distance awards. AIBU to think a 6 year old needs badges more often to keep motivated? She's rapidly loosing interest in her lessons despite making good progress. I know if she felt she was working towards a badge she would be more enthusiastic.

Be grateful you are in a swim school that's focuses on technique and not distance.

If you get into trouble in water being able to hold your technique is far less tiring.

Oh and ignore those who say 10m after 2 years is disappointing as if your DD is under achieving. Swimming correctly takes time.

My ds was the same at a young age and learned slowly but surely and has just competed for GB in the European swimming champs and came 4th.

I completely agree, I was explaining what the lessons entail in response to others suggesting they should be swimming far further. I'm not particularly bothered about distance, it's about recognising progress and working through the awards. She was given STA Octopus 1 last March and there is no reason why she couldn't have achieved Octopus 2 & 3 - she can meet the requirements but her teacher has not given any indication that she can get the badges. Perhaps she has just forgotten.
My child lacks confidence and doesn't feel they're as good as others at school, which is one reason why badges are important to a 6 year old.

I think people are saying 10m is not great after that amount of time, not saying that the DD is not achieving well, but rather that maybe the lessons are not well tailored.

But tbh I x-posted with the OP's update and I agree that the basics of strokes are really crucial; it does sound as tho she needs to stick at it a bit longer but by all means have a chat with the teacher about how she is progressing.

Btw I assume that the OP is paying for private lessons. I don't know anywhere where swimming lessons are provided by the state for free, apart from in school in year 4, when it was pretty much no use at all.

Plenty of state schools have their own swimming pools so children learn from primary upwards.

I interpreted the private lessons comment to be 1:1 lessons so it’s just the child and instructor rather than a group lesson.

I think my daughters lessons are in the business of selling badges! Seems to be loads! Luckily she's over it (10) so I've been able to avoid buying them. Because otherwise I think I'd be spending almost as much on badges as the lessons themselves!

DC's swimming school used to give them a badge every term (or thereabouts - there was a regular badge day). If they didn't qualify for any of the level or distance badges, they used to get an effort or a participation badge (to be honest, I never bothered with buying those, so maybe if that's the view of most parents that's why OP's swim school doesn't do them).

Ah I see 1-1 lessons makes sense.

Not sure I would say that "plenty" of state schools have their own pool. I know one in my county that does - it's a secondary school and the pool is typically used by local primaries who take their year 4 students there once a week. I mean that's better than nothing but it won't IME teach a child to swim.

Plenty of state schools have their own swimming pools so children learn from primary upwards.

Ha Ha
Can you explain how you are interpreting "plenty" ?
That's funny.

I interpreted the private lessons comment to be 1:1 lessons so it’s just the child and instructor rather than a group lesson.

I would interpret Private as being 'non-council' lessons. You do of course pay for council lessons.

Back to the OP, I do agree that lots of small children like getting badges and certificates, but, OTOH, badges / certificates do need to be for actual achievements, or the dc soon see through them and aren't interested any long.

She's got her 5m, so really, until she is confidently swimming 10m, there isn't really an in between badge. If she can confidently swim 10m whenever she is asked, then a quick word with the teacher to ask if she can have her 10m badge now would be fine.

My 5 year old GD is swimming lengths in all strokes…..not great technique mind….she’s been swimming at lessons a year

I interpret plenty based on where I am in Surrey. It’s not uncommon here and some schools that don’t have the pools will travel to those schools that do rather than just rely on the Y4 curriculum (which was what my original response was to).

I had no idea the council provide swimming lessons, unless you mean Leisure Centres? Private pools or lessons at independent schools are much more normal here. Many health clubs that are privately run also provide lessons locally.

Depends where you are and the swim programme they follow. Some offer badges at different points to others. Ours didn't offer distance badges, but you could purchase badge and certificate for each level when they passed.

Dd started swimming shortly after her 4th birthday. The first sessions were called ducklings and there were 3 levels. They covered lots of things around just being in the water, putting your face in, being safe etc, as well as the start of strokes etc. Badges for those were gained much quicker.

The other levels dd took much longer to progress through. Took ages to pass level 1. Not anything being done wrongly, but was stuck on one specific skill for a long time. However she carried on and worked her way up.

Whilst thrh only had badges when thry passed a level, we could see on the app each time she progressed in or passed a new skill, so that was motivating to her. She could see she was getting closer to passing the level.

Others progressed through levels (especially lower ones) much quicker, but dropped out before completing all the levels. Her progress was slower, but she kept at it, and ended up in a swim club doing competitions.

Is there an spp or anything you can check her progress on, so she can see if she is getting closer to a badge.

Do they offer lessons in the school holidays. We paid gor 30 minute sessions each day for a week in the school holidays. They were great for progress because there often ended up being a few less children than a normal lesson. She had some weeks where there were only 2 or 3 in the session, and at least 2 weeks where she had one to one (those weeks she passed levels because the instructor could focus on only the skills she needed to pass).

I would talk to the instructor and see what they say.

This is reassuring! My dd is nearly 8 and can only swim for 15m (I think that was her latest badge) but it feels like she's been going to lessons for years (if I had to guess I'd say 2 plus some pre covid). She enjoys it though, so it's not bothered me until I read this thread and thought oh shit! I think/hope progress from now on will be a bit quicker. We're a bit crap at taking her for fun swims, and I'm sure that must be a big factor.

10 miles? Are you for real? Olympic Marathon swimmers only swim 6 miles!

It took DC about 4 years to swim well, and pass through all the 7 stages of his swim school. He had a weekly 30 minute lesson. I also did fast track lessons during half-term, and regular fun swims. He stalled at about level 4 for awhile, and I asked his instructor to hold him back for awhile at one of the levels because his technique was sloppy even though she was happy to move him up. Learning to swim well takes time.

YANBU swimming lessons in the UK at the moment are crap and the stages pointless. My kids have spent 5 years each on lessons at a variety of swim schools and I don't think ever completed anything, maybe two badges in that time. They don't even let them swim lengths until some fictional swim stage in the future. They didn't learn breaststroke for 4 of those years. One of them spent 6 months where they were only taught arms and not legs. It's been a nightmare although COVID hasn't helped. Now they can both swim very well and could be competitive with the skills they have but I couldn't tell you what level they are or what their maximum distance they can swim because...see my first line! Basically if you find a good teacher they will learn to swim and probably only after the age of 7 to be any good at it, otherwise you may as well throw tenners in the pool.

We never focused on the badges, but on the increase in skills.

Are you for real? The 2024 Olympic Marathon swimmers swim 26.2 miles.

My daughter took part in a 22 miles in 12 weeks swim competition when she was nine (so she did almost two miles per week). She’d been having lessons for almost three years at that point (with covid disrupting things) so I stand by the OP’s child not being taught properly (unless unmentioned reasons behind it) to only reach 10metres in two years.

Ten miles is 643 lengths of a 25m pool. I don’t think there’s a 10 mile badge…

The 2024 Olympic Marathon swimmers swim 26.2 miles.

@TheSnowyOwl Olympic marathon swimmers actually swim 10k so about 6miles, as @Littletreefrog said. The runners run 26.2 miles. Most of us can run further than we can swim after all. At my best fitness I could run 13 miles but the longest swim I would take on in one attempt would be two miles and that would be a challenge.

10 miles would be an astonishing swim. Two miles a week over several weeks is a great achievement but 10 miles in one go would be way beyond most swimmers.

The world record for swimming 1 mile is 14mins.12s. Even at this pace, 10 miles would take 142.5mins. Nearly 2.5hrs.

So do you really think even the best6yo could swim 10 miles? Its obviously metres...

The OPs daughter is currently learning strokes not distance. Its an average progress really.
I'm sure she could get from the end of the pool to the other multiple times of she had to!

My two DC love their swimming lessons, despite only getting a badge once they've completed a stage (and there's only 7 main stages overall).

They're doing the Swim England Learn to Swim programme - DC1 has been doing it for two years and has completed the first two stages (red and orange) so has two badges. She has nearly finished the third (yellow stage).

DC2 has been swimming for 10 months and recently got their stage 1 badge.

Talking to friends, this is quite standard.

We can track how much progress they've made each week, which they find motivating.

I think this is a huge generalisation.

My DCs' swimming teachers and lesson structure are great. They don't move them up until they've mastered each skill for the stage, but they still make steady progress; they don't keep them down unnecessarily.

DC1 has had swimming lessons for two years and has nearly completed the third (out of 7) stage. She is pretty competent using back stroke and front crawl to swim >10m and is starting to learn breaststroke.

She is probably average among friends; some have made faster progress and some slower.

Partly because of Covid waiting lists, she didn't start lessons until six, but I wouldn't have started her before five anyway because I don't think they have the coordination/motor skills to learn properly before then.

DC2 has just turned six and been swimming for 10 months. Has just completed the first stage. Still needs to master the proper techniques (which is done in stages 2-3), but can more or less swim 5m and is getting very confident, including swimming under water.

Same here.