Swimming lessons... is this "normal" now?

[Aroundtheworldin80moves]

Trying to gauge if the local 'Council' lessons are just a bit crap, or this is standard post-Covid

Long waiting lists
Lessons frequently cancelled as no teacher
Inconsistent grading
Not being able to move up due to lack of space despite completing a level (and a good chunk of the level above by my reckoning...)

I am cancelling. These lessons aren't cheap, but cheaper than Private swim schools(£6 for 30 mins. Private is £12) (group lessons).

Not everyone can, some adults can’t swim themselves, family swim times can be limited and it can be very expensive compared to lessons. Also it’s a huge test of patience even if you do have the swimming skills.

artisanbread · Today 19:44
It's difficult to find swimming teachers. It's not that well paid and has non-standard hours.

depends who you work for as a swimming teacher as to the pay, it’s not standard 9-5 hours but outside of school hrs

perhaphs the council pools don’t pay well so staff don’t stay

private lessons are around the £9/10 mark where we are and £6 is cheap

My experience with my DC's pool (attached to a state school) has been good - yes, it took maybe a month for my eldest to move up a stage but after that they and their sibling have progressed at the right time. Plus the pool added an extra class where there was a bottleneck (stage 3).

In response to the PP who asked why we don't teach our own kids...my kids respond to a teacher teaching them a skill (whether that be swimming, bikeability, school etc) very differently to how they respond to me teaching them. Homeschooling springs to mind.... 🙄.Equally they would probably not respond well to the opposite scenario! Adults' roles in their world are fixed, no blurring of boundaries there 😀

Because (1) most people do not swim that well and (2) even if they are a good swimmer, they probably do not k ow how to teach a complete beginner.

I’m not that happy with DD’s lessons. She’s been going for nearly a year and her group is on its fourth teacher. She was doing more challenging activities with the third teacher than she is now.

The current teacher seems to be focusing on the younger/newer children and helping them catch up with the older ones. But they won’t - another new starter joined only last week.

Yup we found this too with LA lessons. Have taken the financial hit and moved to private lessons (£15per half hr vs £4.50) and the progress he's made in such a short period of time makes me think it will be financially worth it in the long run.

DS is 5 and spent 6 months sitting at the side of the council pool in armbands being ignored by the teacher and absolutely terrified of going in. 4 months of private lessons and he jumped in tonight and swam half a length with just a woggle for support.

Not in my experience, lessons at the local pool for my DC have been great so far and the teachers are fab, really kind and lesson focused. Never had a cancelled or rearranged class.

My dc have had lots of lessons cancelled in the last few months because of sickness or annual leave and not enough staff to cover. The teachers are great though when they are there.

That's sad about your yr6 dc missing out OP. Mine has done Bikeability and just come back from her school residential.

Wow. Ours is fine. Same teacher, zero wait time and ds is progressing faster than he did in the private lessons. Must just be some areas.

We do council lessons.

Pay £25 per month, lesson cancelled once in 2 years due to multiple illnesses. Otherwise, always the same teacher.

Teacher isn't the greatest, but does an OK job. Class sizes vary, but are not a block to moving up.

Pool is in good order.

I can't really fault it for the money!

There is quite a lot of variation in the teachers at our pool. There is one that is absolutely amazing but everyone knows that so her lessons are always full and people will book around her. Neither of mine have her at the moment and I can tell the difference. We had her covering my youngest lessons for 3 weeks and she made more progress in that 3 weeks than she had in the 3 months before. My eldest has stalled and has been in stage 3 since last October despite the fact I’m pretty sure she could do the next level up. I’d be quite keen to switch teachers but the timings don’t quite work. Im hoping we get to return to the super teacher for the next levels.

Our council lessons are cheap though and continue all through the year. It’s the only activity that does and it’s nice in the holidays as class sizes tend to be small.

I’d also say so much depends on the individual teacher and not the provider. I tried a private provider and I thought they were really rubbish and wasn’t prepared to pay £18 for it. We also had a phenomenal waterbabies teacher when mine were little. I was gutted when she left. I was absolutely prepared to pay the premium for her classes over the leisure centre for my 3yo but she got a better paying job in a completely different sector and left.

I think group lessons are a waste of time. Mine learnt to swim with private ones in a quarter of the time.

Mine has been stuck on 0% for 6 lessons despite
-getting to 40% in a crash course
-just going on holiday and swimming like a fish!

He is just not updating any kid.
It doesnt matter as when they move up is generally unpredictable but
I would like to help focus on any issues! Plus what does it say about this teacher if the child does more lessons than the crash course and still ends up further behind.
I know they hold kids back in stage 3 and make 4 more like competitive swimming - 4 lengths warm up etc.
But the kid can do the lengths.
My other kid was the same and got to.96% but they still woukdnt move her up. I moved her and she got to 76% in 5 lessons on stage 4.
Basically there is something going on. But i dont get why because they have loads of kids there.
Seems like being scammed and forcing you to pay 12m+ for stage 3.
But dc1 already had done a year precovid!!

My DC are competitive swimmers so looking back, my experience of council lessons where teachers stand at the side of pool - complete waste of time.

My preference is an intensive crash course over the summer if child can't swim at all, followed by swim schools run by competitive clubs.

Swim schools run by competitive clubs will by their nature feed into the club so they will not want to hold onto your child any longer than they have to especially if competent in 4 strokes and ability to swim a few lengths.

My local swim school uses former competitive swimmers as young teachers, alongside more experienced swim teachers and they are all in the pool instructing the children.

Our council pool lessons are £9 for 30 mins but are well run, consistent and only been cancelled once in 4 years.
I guess you get what you pay for.

£7.50 for council lessons here with 10 in a class, my DC are in the same levels they were in pre covid. It's crap, it's supposed to be a 30 min class but they are only in the pool for 20 min as they still have the covid bubble type changeover. No teachers in the water so they shout instructions from the side, my DC can't hear as there are 7 classes at once plus a swim team thrashing up and down with their music on.

Our local swimming pool lifted its COVID rules some time ago, so the teacher is allowed in the water. However, they’ve recently made swimming caps compulsory, and DD really hates wearing hers.

I’ve just had an email informing me of a price increase from next month. Time to look for an alternative, I reckon. I might just take DD swimming myself.

I'm in Manchester and ours are OK. Grading is done on ipads so is consistent. I've noticed dc tend to hang around in a class because they haven't been assessed yet or because they need to wait for a place on the next course but it's never been a major problem.

Ds (11) is now onto lifeguard classes but youngest is still ploughing through the stages. Lessons are almost never cancelled. In 7 years I can remember one or two cancellations!!!

Our council lessons are the same - cancelled a lot, no longer have any lessons for under 3s. I would just take him at the weekend but they have very few family swimming slots and I don't think he would have liked the noise and busy vibe.

The only private lessons I could find that worked for our schedule (we both work so not available every day) are 2:1 lessons which are extortionate (£30 a lesson!!) but he has come on really well so I will stick with it until we can get him into some cheaper group lessons

I was going to suggest looking at a local swimming club learn to swim programme.

For a start they nearly always have a better pool of teachers to help because many of the older swimmers become swim teachers.