Swimming lessons - does every child do it?

[middleagedandinarage]

How important does everyone think child swimming lessons are? Does everyone put their children? DD's 6 and 4, both currently go to council run lessons, half an hour once a week. They both hate it, have done since day one, don't hold a carry on when actually in the pool and do as they're asked but it's a fight getting them to go every week and the fight is draining! I've always said it's none negotiable, swimming lessons are a must but are they? Is it worth the fight?

For my kids, it was non negotiable until they got to level 5. Started age 3 and a half.
2 hated it, but it's so important and can save their life.
They now all love swimming and are glad they had lessons, as they can go in deep enough with most of their friends can't.

I think swimming is a very important thing to learn.
I only had swimming lessons at school.
But i did learn in the river.

DS had lessons when he was little and I just took DD myself. We always make sure to go swimming as a family fairly regularly to ensure they maintain their skills and confidence as it is important for safety. That can be more fun than swimming lessons as we play games like piggy in the middle or bulldog and play with those pool rings they have to dive underwater to get. Both are quite good swimmers and in the top group in school swimming lessons.

Edited to add: i think it is also important that they learn about swimming outside, in the sea or a lake - that you should never dive in when you don't know what is underneath your feet/how deep the water is. Not to get out of their depth. Dangers of cold water etc.

I think it’s a important life skill
we kept it up until ours were pretty competent but not experts

if in England they will have to go with school when a bit older. They don’t want to be that one child who can’t swim (there is always one or two). Once that one child was dh who hated being taken aside and forcibly taught to swim when all his classmates already could. He’s totally hated being anywhere near water ever since.

Non negotiable but if the current lessons aren't working, better to find something else.
Our council owned pool does those intensive courses for a week every school holidays which can be good to crack it.

Non-negotiable.

Every single heat wave we have, a teenager seems to die in an open water accident.

I am a lone voice in saying that swimming lessons for most small children are a massive scam. And instils a false sense of security. I might feel different if the lessons were about water safety-floating, climbing out, maybe swimming a width of the pool. No more-no different strokes and stuff. Unless they love doing that of course, in which case it becomes a hobby, not a “life skill”

Not being able to swim at 11 is still a huge indicator of deprivation.
Couldn't afford to pay for lessons or pay to take them ourselves. School lessons are rubbish only get 5 lessons in year 5 and 6 that's a waste of time.
If that important they should be free

Non negotiable for me. They do a lot of water safety at my kids' lessons. Not just perfecting various swimming strokes. But even just being able to swim properly for reasons other than personal safety is important. I'm always a bit envious of people who can do all the strokes at the lane swimming. It's such good exercise.

Non negotiable imo. It’s the one thing I did as an extra curricular in childhood that stands to me today.

My DC started once a week at 4 and a half, started doing diplomas at 6 and had all 3 by just just more than 7. This including COVID delays. It takes time for them to build up muscle strength and to really repeat all of the exercises enough so that it will stay with them as a life long skill and awareness. Not to mention confidence! They will happily partake in competitive swimming now with next to no practice as we don’t go regularly anymore.

The difference is especially noticeable in the summer holidays too, I really find it a pity when both parents and children have irrational fears about water poolside etc when you’re away. I say irrational because that’s another thing that the lessons teach, awareness of the dangers and how to avoid and overcome risks.

I'm a school swimmer teacher. It's a life skill. Scary how many kids can't swim or stop lessons too early. It's on the national curriculum for a reason but it's a stepping stone often we see kids processing but if they come back a year later and not been in the pool they go back over. It would be good if parents got lessons to continue the progression. Like a pp stated it affected their ability to go swimming with friends due to lack of confidence.

Swimming in a pool is very different to messing around in open water. Cold water shock, injuries, currents etc. In a way, non swimmers are safer as they are less likely to go into the water in the first place.

I completely agree. I knew of a very strong swimmer who jumped into the sea to save someone who was drowning. He drowned himself. It doesn't matter how good a swimmer you are in certain conditions.

I tried to teach my kids myself when lessons weren’t available during Covid but it didn’t work at all. Check that they engage and learn with you before taking them out of lessons.

It is very different, yes. But better than not being able to swim at all. I can think of three examples of children (national news stories in recent years) who drowned messing about in open water when they could not swim, so clearly that is not enough of a deterrent to foolhardy teenagers messing around with their mates on a hot day.

Yes. All 3 have had svimming classes.

My guess is 50/50 in their school.

Interesting. What do they hate about it? My kid's 7 and loves swimming, but she's always had lessons in a slot with one other little girl. A friend of mine with a similarly aged kid started him in a class of 10 and then moved to where my little girl learns because he was so bored and miserable waiting for his turn to swim (apparently there was a lot of sitting on the side watching). Another friend of mine gives her kid one to one classes because she doesn't focus if there's another in the class. So it might be worth trying a different setup.

Absolutely agree. I do a lot of wild swimming and my kid comes with me as soon as temps are high enough that she won't just go blue in the water (or in the air afterwards). She really enjoys it, but we're very careful about when and where we go.

For me it's non negotiable. DD has been having lessons since 6 months (!). She's 2 now and can swim on her front with a float. We live fairly near the sea and it's a safety thing for me. Plus DH and I love swimming.

Mine both had some lessons in primary school - not many.

I took the DC swimming lots when they were little and they leant how to swim from mucking around in the water as a family.

Swimming is an essential life skill in my opinion but a bigger importance is to build confidence in water. Continuing lessons where they are hating every minute is going to have a bigger negative impact that not having lessons. If it's has been more than 4-6 months of truly hating and not engaging with the lessons I would look to have a break. Take a step back work on being comfortable in the water and then revisit the lessons.

My daughter is coming up to 5 and has had lessons since 3. Our first goal was to get her confident enough to swim with a noodle and arm bands fairly continuously for half an hour. This allowed us the book a holiday last year with a pool knowing she would have the strength and ability to enjoy the pool with us around her.
Our most recent goal has been for her to be comfortable with her ears and head under the water. She started lessons without me in the water in September flat out refusing to have her head and ears in the water but in the last probably 6 weeks she has made huge progress in this.
Our next goal will be to be able to swim without her arm bands. This would open up the options of water parks once she gets a bit bigger.

I had a real shock a few years ago about how the brain can panic in water situations. I'd call myself a confident swimmer, when going regularly I can comfortably do 1km+ distances in breaststroke, front or back crawl. But we went wild rapids whilst on holiday. We were given instructions on how far to go and when to stand up and walk to the side of the river. Only I'm only 5ft2 and couldn't stand up. I started to panic about how i would get to the side when my partner reminded me I knew how to swim!

Ideally by secondary school I think children should be confident swimming on their front or back for a useable distance, be comfortable on water and under water, be strong enough to swim in clothing and potentially supporting another person. In the meantime I would look at some much smaller more achievable goals and that builds water confidence that will in time get them to the goal of being swimmers.

My youngest was a bit reluctant to go under the water at first.
Those toys that sink to the bottom of the pool got her to go under all by herself as she wanted to retrieve them in a game.

I've always felt it was important for my kids and I took them since they were babies, but they've both enjoyed the lessons and family swim sessions. Not sure how much I'd push it if they were reluctant tbh. All the families we know do them - it feels like a must-do for middle class parents.

My dcs do 2:1 lessons which I felt was much better than group council lessons, and I'd recommend those if you have them nearby. But I appreciate it's prohibitively expensive for some.

For me it was mostly important because of leisure and holiday opportunities - going snorkelling when they are older, kayaking and sailing trips etc. I'm not interested in encouraging them to do competitive swimming - too many practice sessions!
I think the risk of needing it as a survival skill is a bit overblown tbh - my own parents can't swim and they've never been in danger as they don't put themselves in a situation where they'll fall into a river etc. It's quite hard to fall into the Thames where we are as theres a huge wall in the way! On holiday they just paddle in the sea, they will go in a pool but only as far as they can stand, and that's been fine.

The only children I know who haven't had swimming lessons are both now competitive swimmers. But their parents made sure to take them swimming once or twice every week. My kids have lessons as I know I wouldn't be disciplined enough to take them weekly myself.

IME not all swimming lessons are equal.

We tried with eldest at 4 - actually put her off - then did few crash course hoilday ones but it wasn't till me move at start of Y6 that we again did weekly swimming lessons - with all three kids - they all progressed quickly and we also did the extra swim lessons in hoidlay they ran here and fun events.

DD1 stopped end of y7 start Y8 but did it occaionally at school in PE - was actaully one of the better swimmers in her year - but not everyone can afford lesson here. Younger two carried on a bit - again better swimmer than their peers- they all stopped mid way though level 6 or end of level 5- there were really minor things like rolls ect they weren't passed on more because of there weren't places in next class. They kep the hoilday events - games or driving lessons up for a few years more.

I think as they were older they kept more of the skills - they seemed to swim better than one who did higher levels at younger ages.

I'd stop for a bit - there likely be more interest if swim lesson are coming up at school - but also ask around there may be better lessons out there. There were in first area - local swim group rather than council ones but I couldn't get them there that time of night with no car and DH working away in week but other parenst said they were miles better than the council ones.