Swimming: at roughly what age do children reach Stage 7 Swim for England

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Genuinely curious (and slightly obsessed with planning ahead!), but what should I expect as average?
My DS is 5 and Stage 1, strong swimmer.
What age were your children when they reached level 7?

Depends on the chid. My 8 year old started when she was 2 is stage 5 but had lockdowns, an oparation and 2 broken limbs. All unexpected and kept her out of the pool. My 5 year old has been doing it for just over a year and is half was through stage 3.

The first 2 stages aren’t very demanding but as a general rule the more swimming they do for fun the better.

Depends on the student, depends on the teacher too. Both in teaching quality/fit with your child, and in how strictly they take the criteria.

Some schools are a lot more perfectionist than others. When DD moved on from the baby pool maybe a year after passing stage 4, we tried two options, one wanted to put her back to stage 3 swimming in the shallow end - which would have rather defeated the purpose of moving to a bigger pool - the other put her in stage 5 swimming 25m lengths, and passed her through that stage in a couple of months.

The club local to us starts from min age 8 and min stage 7 to give you an idea where some of the stronger ones may be. Whether that's perfectionist stage 7 or rough and ready stage 7 I don't know!

My eldest dgs has just finished level 7 and he's just turned 9. Younger dgs has just turned 7 and is on top of level 5 and told he will move to level 6 in the next couple of weeks. How quickly they progress depends on several factor's. It depends on their age when they first learned to swim, how confident they are in the water, how many lessons they have, and how often they go swimming to practice.

Most swimming clubs like DC to be level 7 swimmers as they will be expected to keep up and 8/9 year olds will be expected to swim often 40 lengths in a 45 minutes - 1 hour session.

My child is almost 11. She will probably finish stage 7 when she's just turned 11.
There are children who are older and younger than her in her class I think.
I'm not sure really

DD started swimming lessons in stage 4 at 7 and was stage 10 by 11 years old, did rookies, synchro, diving 7-10 too.

There were some younger swimmers who had been going for years in her stage 4 and 5 class but they seemed to struggle with the stamina needed for the higher grades as they were still quite dinky. Average age of stage 7 was about 9-10. 10-13 for the later stages 7-10.

If he's a strong swimmer he probably shouldn't be in stage one. We had this issue with stage one and then checked and ds hadn't been assessed for more than six months, he was assessed and we were told he can go into stage two but they will assess quickly as he seems to have the skills for stage 3. He was only in stage 2 for a month. If he's swimming confidently independently he is ready for the next stage. As they go up it becomes more about distance and technique. The stronger swimmers at age 5 are usually in stage 3+

Both my older two passed stage 7 at 8. My youngest is 8 and in stage 5, but had a lot of disruption in his earlier swimming lessons with lockdowns etc. How fast they get through stages can really vary, and stage 5 often seems to be a sticking point as they have to swim all strokes correctly. It took one of mine nearly 2 years just on that stage, but he then flew through the other stages and joined a club within a couple of months

Thanks all, great to see that your feedback and experience matches what I had in mind. Yes, of course my DS might take longer or compete it in a shorter time, but I just wanted to have a vague idea if we were talking 7 year old or 15 year old, to reach level 7!

You really made me think, and I have googled and watched some video.... I now believe my son should actually be level 2 if not 3! But I understand every swimming instructors have their own way of assessing? Also, he's quite tiny for his age so they might think he's younger than he is?

DS is perfectly comfortable swimming to the bottom of the pool to pick up objects, push and glide completely submerged, jump in the water from the deep end of the pool, swim for 10m (all of this completely unaided, no floats, no noodles) front and back, blow bubbles rhythmically and star/mushroom float. He struggles a little with push and glide as he wants to kick, and his kicking is strong but inconsistent re:style. His instructors has never shown him how to log roll from front to back when pushing and gliding.

My 15 year old daughter completed Stage 7 by the age of 7 while her twin sister wasn't finished till she was around 11 but she has never been one for sports so it definitely depends on the child's ability. Then my son was also done by the age of 7. My 9 year old daughter just finished Stage 7 a couple of weeks ago. My 5 year old daughter is in Stage 3.

My eldest (possible autism and dyspraxia) is nearly 11 and is about halfway through stage 6. My youngest is nearly 8 and has recently started stage 5. She's definitely slowed down for the last stage and this one so think she will probably be around 10 when she finishes stage 7

Eight year old but started late due to covid. Others reached it at the age of seven at the school but I know from the Y4 swimming that some couldn’t swim.

Who told u they were a strong swimmer if they were they wouldn’t be in stage 1?

Never ime 😂 My nearly 10yo is in stage 6. My 7yo is in stage 3. It's very technical, butterfly etc. I'll probably let DD stop at Christmas. She can swim linked lengths of front crawl and back stroke.

My almost 9 year old is stage 5 but none of his brothers were there at a similar age. In my son's class he is the 2nd youngest in a group of 8, the kids in higher up stages seem to be closer to age 11/ 12.

In my experience of 5 kids in lessons, progress isn't linear, they'll hang around in stage 2 for 6 months and then go up 2 groups in a month or variations on that.

I’m not convinced a stage 1 swimmer can be a strong swimmer. It’s only really from level 4 upwards that the child is even really swimming any distance and they need the technique to be strong.

Mine were 10 & 12 (they lost a year with Covid).
DS1 is dyspraxic and DS2 caught up with him into the same swimming class.

There's a lot of variation of size/ age by that end of stages. DS1 is smallish for his age and looks younger than he is but not particularly out of place.

I've kept them swimming as regular exercise and to build their stamina up. They are decent functional swimmers now.

DS2 did a sporting event at school and his swimming ability has passed classmates who were stronger in y4 who stopped around stage 5.

Mine are 7&6 and both are in stage 8. They've been swimming since they were 3. They swim 30 min a week at a swim academy and 30 min a week at local swimming baths in lessons.
Most of the kids in stage 8 are around 10/11

My DD8 has just moved into stage 7. She started lessons as soon as pools reopened after covid lockdowns but had done some preschool swimming before that so she was comfortable in the water. There is definitely quite a big variation in the way different centres assess the criteria and DD got stuck in stage 5 for ages as butterfly kick was so difficult for her. She now swims at a club and loves it more than the lessons.

I don't think there is a stage 8? Isn't 7 the last stage in swim England?

Sorry, I am probably misusing the words 'strong' swimmer. I meant relatively to his level. Most children in his group are reluctant to enter the water, leave the noodle and struggle to swim few meters. He's very confident, dives with ease and can swim a relatively long distance blowing bubbles or completely submerged. They are only starting now to teach him techniques.

I agree. To me a strong swimmer would be someone in stage 7 tbh!

@Monvelo Swim England extends into grades 8-10 for (competitive) swimming skills, diving, synchro and water polo to introduce other pool based sports.

Oh it's all taking years imo. My child has moved up 3 stages in 2.5 years. Im exhausted by it.
Seems very much to depend on the child's natural ability. Some of them fly though, others don't.