Swimming lessons a waste of money?

[NJ21]

Hi my 4 year old has been having swimming lessons for a year now and he has made no progress.
It's at the local swimming baths with Swim England. He's at level 1.
They have the same routine every week
Climb in walk around and collect toys
The instructor tows them up and down in turn
Then they climb out and take it in turns to jump in with the instructor catching them.
I thought after a year he'd be kicking along with a float. Not doing the exact same thing as day 1.
I'm annoyed at him being towed. It looks like it's done for speed so they can quickly move onto the next child.

Is this normal?

How many years will each level take?

Everyone that works there looks bored. They don't have an interest in him, they do their routine and then get the next lot of kids in pool.
I thought paying for lessons would be the most efficient way for him to learn. But I'm going to try and do this myself.

Anyone else experienced this?

Is it just Swim England training that's poor?
Are there better training providers?

There are many many swimming providers some are really expensive but you will have options locally. Ask about, or even a Google might help.

I think you started young and whilst some children do swim from younger still, many make huge advances when they are older so they are on a par with those who have been swimming for much longer.

Have you asked the instructor? Normally they have a series of items to tick off against each stage. Have you seen that / aware of that. Perhaps there is something your child hasn't accomplished yet. You are making a lot of assumptions on what skill they are trying to teach, the towing is not about speed it's about getting them used to moving with their head and body in that position.

Progress in my experience varies not all stages are equal, some take longer than others and some children take longer than others.

Our younger daughters were faster than the oldest purely peer pressure. It isn't a race to the end but if you arenf happy with the instructors change th3 day or the provider.

I think you see much better progress in private not local authority/Better swimming lessons. Ask around on local Facebook groups or think about other local private hire pools. it is also worth seeing if there is a local swimming club as they often provide their own learn to swim lessons which should be a better quality of teaching.

I used smaller pools and private instructors and put my son back in the Better lessons when he could swim well and had outgrown the pool, I wanted him to be swimming lengths in a 25m pool.

My daughter is 4 and on stage 2. They vary it each week, concentrating on a different stroke or skill. This is at a council leisure centre so nowhere particularly fancy. It doesn't sound like what they are doing even meets the criteria for stage 1, I think it says they have to move independently 5m with or without a float? She's never been towed along even when I used to go in with her when she was younger. I'd either try yourself or go somewhere else.

The instructor approached me and told me a few weeks ago that he's not progressing and she didn't know what to do. She's very young. But he has had other instructors there and they tow him around as well. Trouble is he really enjoys being towed! He absolutely loves the water. He enjoys every minute there, jumping around and playing with the other kids.
There is an app and my account should be linked to the little ones so I can see his progress but for some reason they can't link my account to his. I've not been able to get them to fix this.
Trying to speak to the instructors has been difficult they are keen to get the next group of kids in. They don't want to talk because I'm holding up the next group.
I have cancelled the "lessons".
I just wondered if this is normal or if ppl have had more success with a particular club or system of training?
But for now I'll take him myself. No more towing! He'll have to propel himself across the pool.

By 4 yo my DD could do 25m lengths, get another class.

Yeah, they are absolutely crap. I plan to take my daughter on holiday somewhere which includes a "learn to swim in one week" at the hotel.

Swim instructors are crap

My daughter did a parent and child type swim class aged 3/4 that sounds similar - towing, blowing bubbles, catching toys - but once she moved in to stage 1 aged 4.5 she was in that class for about 9-10 months before moving to stage 2.
Stage 2 was no arm bands and a lot quicker, maybe 5-6 months.
Stage 3 was about 10 months and now she is almost 7 and swimming pretty proficiently in Stage 4.

It may partly be age, generally children seem to get the hang of swimming aged about 5/6 regardless of whether they had baby lessons or started aged 3 or 5.

No progress after a year though - I'd be looking at moving class or doing some 1:1 lessons or just taking him out and waiting a year to try again.

DD1 finished level 7 at 8 years old and DD2 has just done level 5 and she's 7. They move more quickly as they get older. Both started in the pool at 6 weeks old.