Best way/time to learn to swim

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I’ve got a 4 year old, just started in reception. June birthday so younger end. I want him to learn to swim but wondering about how best to go about it.

Options I’m considering are:

• after school/weekend lessons in a class
• after school/weekend 1-1 lessons
• ”intensive” sessions in school holidays

Does anyone have any thoughts on pros and cons? I was thinking if he started weekly lessons to begin next term or the summer term to let school bed in, though he is doing really well and enjoying it. He does sport and music at the weekend already.

He is confident in the water (fine with putting head under) but can’t swim at all.

after school/weekend lessons in a class

This is what most people do. It can take ages. How the classes are delivered can vary enormously - some teacher in pool, some two teachers, some one teacher on poolside, some have the kids in the baby pool, some don’t have a baby pool so they’re just in the shallow end (where they can’t stand).

Personally, I’d prioritise having the teacher in the pool at the beginning stages. 2 teachers even better really. The kids don’t know how they’re supposed to be moving or how it should actually feel when they do ‘frog legs’ or whatever. And a teacher they can’t really hear sort of miming it from the poolside is more confusing rather than useful.

after school/weekend 1-1 lessons

This is much more expensive but they will learn much faster. As above, I’d want the teacher in the water with them.

”intensive” sessions in school holidays

Can be great - and could be group or one on one - as a starting point. But you really need consistency to properly learn swimming, so sporadic, intensive bursts aren’t ideal. You could book one and get stage 1 done in half term and then move into a stage 2 lesson weekend/after school.

We did the half-term crash courses to start with. DD tried, but to start with didn't really understand the instructions well enough to make significant progress, so I don't think there would have been much point in more regular lessons. Once that changed, I booked her in for weekly lessons.

We had various options for weekly lessons, and you got what you paid for - the price was inversely proportional to the number in the class. We paid out for a ratio of 1:6 or 7, and there was usually a teenage helper as well; it was well worth it. I'm not sure whether 1:1 might not have been too tiring - there's something to be said for a bit of turn-taking.

We moved to a different pool with larger classes later on, when she'd learned the strokes and it was more about stamina.

Swimming is one of those things the more you do the better you get.

My dd started at 4, the same week as she started school (that was bad planning - she was knackered!) I started her in the afterschool class once a week. Once she had the idea of being in the water I used the intensive weeks to up her level / give her more practice. These don't have to be expensive - mine have both done 'guinea pigs for the trainee teacher' sessions where they swam every day for a week. This make excellent progress even if not immediately apparent. It's key I think particuarly earlier on to get them in the water more than one a week if you can - family swim at the weekend etc is great for this.

Mine were both confident and happy in 'the big pool' by 7/8yrs old and are now both "fish" and love being in the water (preferably at the bottom). (But that isn't the same for every child - some take to it some don't!)

We went swimming every weekend with the children so they were already water confident, ie Ds2 learned to "swim" under water. He would jump in off the side of the pool, move his body under water in a sort of breaststroke/crawl combination, pop his head above the surface and expect me to be there to hold him. We did the intense 1 week course in the summer school holidays just after he turned 4 to learn technique.

After that no lessons, just swimming with us every week sometimes twice a week and we were lucky we had 1:1 swimming lessons taking place in the pool alongside us (private gym) and so I just asked the instructor on how to teach him front crawl with his face in the water. He really didn't want lessons. Our main goal was stamina, can they do lengths? I didn't care about perfecting their stroke or learning butterfly. They did go with school once a week to "learn" to swim when they started year 3.

It isn't just about the lessons but also going to practise what they learn in the lessons. Because we went swimming every week this improved their skill and stamina. From seeing group lessons, 1:1 and school swimming I think 1:1 is the best, no distractions, no competing with other children, just you and an instructor.

If you can afford weekly 1:1, go with that - we did some extra sessions in the holidays and DS improved in leaps and bounds (he was already doing weekly group classes).

The group classes are useful for getting them to listen and do what they are told, but at 4 they aren’t really able to turn instructions into actions IYSWIM?

DS’s teacher would say “DS! Look up at the ceiling!” when he was doing backstroke, and he would stop, stand up and look at the ceiling. In 1:1 classes, with a teacher in the pool, the teacher could just tilt his head where it needed to be.

Taking them for “fun swimming” at the weekend is also definitely helpful.

Ok thank you, this is really helpful.

id had the same thoughts re group swimming. He already does football so is getting practice following instructions as part of a group (plus school obviously) and plenty of socialisation so for me it’s really about what’s the most efficient way of teaching him how to swim.

I’ll investigate the 1-1 lessons and hopefully they’ll be affordable.

1:1 at my local pool are around £20 a 30 minute lesson I think. It was £16 when DS did them but that was several years ago.

I think a lot depends on the teacher rather than the class type. My 6yo did really well in group lessons until she hit a class with a less effective teacher. She’s now stalled and has picked up some bad habits. I’m hoping to find some private lessons to try and reverse her weird technique and get her out of her current stage. The best teachers have total control, can differentiate and have the kids properly listening. The less effective classes just feel like the kids are going up and down with minimal correction and are messing around/not listening.

It is quite easy for the youngest ones to get lost in the group classes. I think it is much harder for them to concentrate in swimming as there is so much going on and it’s v easy to mess about with floats, sink underwater etc and not have a clue what is going on. I moved my eldest 3 times in stage 1 to get the better teachers.

I think small groups is worth paying for; 1:1 could potentially progress them faster, but what for? Unless they actually want to join a swimming club which mine don't, we are quite happy for them to potter through stages and get some exercise once a week.

I'd vote in favour of a swim school that has a large pool even if they don't teach beginners in it. There seems to be a thing where whenever you switch swim schools they want to put them back a level or two to learn to do things their way. Happened to us several times with house moves and stuff. If you grow out of a small pool and want to swim proper lengths, you don't want to then have to change schools and get put back to a level where you are on widths.

It took about 3 years for my three kids, differing ages, to be taught to swim. I thought they were never going to learn. They had small group lessons with a teacher. But they did learn to be relaxed around water and not to fear putting their head under and they were taught breathing skills, so it wasn’t money wasted.

In the 3rd year, in summer, I invested in one on one swimming lessons for all of my three kids, daily monetary costs were eye watering but in two weeks time (Monday to Friday, half an hour each) she taught the oldest two to swim. This was a big ocean pool. Then she taught the 3 year old to swim in the next 2 weeks. I was able to take them swimming for the rest of the summer holidays which helped build up strength, their swimming ability. A couple of years later I took them to stroke correction classes where they learned proper freestyle, backstroke etc. Also we had the benefit of Sunday ‘nippers’ , taught by life- savers where they learned about Ocean safety, tides, rips etc.

our schools are no longer teaching resuscitation techniques, I’m told. But I was taught when at school, all kids were. My kids were taught, and it’s a very valuable life saving skill to have. Something to thing about after they have learned how to swim.

My little brother came close to drowning in a backyard pool. Luckily I saw (didn’t hear )him, he was face down in the water but I pulled him out before anything bad happened. What stayed with me is how quietly kids could/can drown.

it’s a journey for sure but such fun (and relief) when they get there.

Thanks for the replies!

Do you think they learn quicker if they are older (so better for me to wait until maybe next year or year after) or once they are 4ish does it not make much of a difference?

My 2 grandchildren , aged 5 and 4 started swimming lessons last year. Once a week. The 5 year old is now swimming enough that he can get halfway across a pool to the side. He’s not far from being able to get all the way across. The four year old can jump off this floating thing in the middle of the pool and kick back up to the surface and find the side of the float thing and hang on. (The ‘float thing’ is like a rubber pontoon. But smaller than a pontoon of course. I just don’t know what they are called)

So they were 4 and 3 when they started. It’s worked out well.

Not after school - mine were both too tired to concentrate on more learning after school at that age, especially in a situation (swimming pool), previously associated with fun.
1:1 will be quickest but most expensive.

For 1:1 I don’t think it makes any difference. There are some things they won’t have the coordination to do until they are older (no three year old is doing proper crawl with side breathing for example), but a four year old can do backstroke and kick on their front with or without a float.

Group lessons depend on the child - DS definitely struggled with no messing about/following instructions with no teacher in the pool at that age, and definitely took a step backwards from what he had been doing in our mum and toddler class before. But he got used to it and can jump into the deep end and do a length on his front and back now.

Whatever lessons you decide to go for, get them in the water now. Go every week or fortnight. Take toys and play.