Queueing for swimming lessons?

Surfbabe

type in "swimming lessons in Kettering" to google or another search engine and you will get at least 5 options to try

poppyolivia

last I heard there is a 27 month waiting list at ours, my daughter has been going for about 2 years now and Super Pooper better get his name on it soon!

pinkpig08

My DS goes to a private swim school. When we enrolled him we had to phone up on a certain day and it was first come first served. I pay £55 for 10 weeks, and there are about 5 in his class. But they have 2 teachers in the pool running 2 classes at the same time.

Spendless

conradmum wrote: »

I've just been talking with my older son and neither of us can think of a local school with a swimming pool.

We have 2 special needs schools with pools, that hire out their pools at the w/end for swimming lessons to all children. Anything like that near you?

conradmum

Well, ds3 finished his intensive swimming course and I wasn't very happy and even less keen to queue for the not-so-great weekly lessons. Four days of the course were fine, but on the fourth day the teacher asked us to let her know what certificates our child had already done. Well, ds3 had only just turned 5 so he hadn't had lessons before and so no certificates, but he can actually swim nearly a width unaided because I'd been teaching him myself.

On the final lesson the teacher gave most of the children something to occupy them while she concentrated for most of the lesson on 3 or 4 children who were attempting different challenges. At the end ds3 was given the basic certificate, as were most of the other children in the class. It was clear that those that hadn't got any certificate yet were just given the basic one and there was no scope for anything else.

I can't really blame the teacher because with 11 children and 1/2 an hour what else could she really do? Still, it was disappointing that I knew how much he could do but their system had just put him on the production line.

In the end I found a local health club that gave private lessons. I signed him up, thinking that I would try it for a term and then if I didn't like it, at least there would be less of a scrum for the local council lessons after Christmas. We just had our second lesson today and I'm really pleased. The first lesson there were only four children in the class and today there was just ds3 and another boy.

Not only is he now working at the limit of what he can do, he simply does loads more every lesson. In the intensive classes half the time was spent waiting for this that or the other. He really, really loves it too (now I have a handy threat to keep him in line - no swimming!) :rotfl:

It works out at £7 for half an hour which is twice as expensive as the council lessons, but with just a few children in a class compared to 12 children in the council lessons, the private lessons work out less expensive in the long run, because ds3 will progress to being a proficient swimmer so much quicker this way.

Many thanks to all who gave their advice.

elektra-2007

Derbyshire seems fine for swimming lessons, I put my sons name down and a place came up first term of school, our baths follow the ASA Kelloggs swimming plan. Hes now 7 and is on level 7. They keep the numbers down to 10 per lesson for half an hour, it cost around £50 a term (12 lessons) but if you get any benefits or on a low income its halved.

blue_monkey_2

I had my DD at swimming lessons in the council pool and then we moved. The council lessons were not worth the money IMHO, there were 9 kids in the lessons and 6 months on ste was not out of armbands (aged 5) because the kids were in the deep end and they were having to wait for each child to cross the pool before another to go. They probably got in 4 widths each lesson. Horrendous waste of money.

We moved and I tried to get into the local pool here. I had to tell them what lever, day and time I needed - and pay a £10 deposit. There was a 4 month waiting list. If we got to the front of the queue and she had improved we would have to start all over again looking for a different time and leverl. nightmare.

I tried at 3 different pools to get 1:1 and no-one ever bothered calling me back so I gave up on that.

2 weeks ago I joined David Lloyd. it costs me £40 a month and the kids get free unlimited swimming unti the age of 6 - then I pay £11 a month for them. DD started swimming lessons last weekend but I had to get in with her. The result of this meant that there was always someone in the pool and within one lesson she was armband free and swam almost a length of their pool - and this was in a half an hour lesson. Including her there are 3 children in her class. In todays lesson I saw there was just one child in the lesson. I enquired on Tuesday and she started on Sunday - no waiting list.

Plus it means when they are at school i get to use the pool, gym and get all the classes free (and there are quite a few to choose from). The kids also get free swimming as well as after school activity sessions that last an hour a time. we go 2 times a week and that would usually be costing me £10 a week per child. So for me I am saving money by joining the club. And I have already made a friend with children the same age who's children go to the same after school class.

If you have a David Lloyd near you I would enquire, the joining fee was £20 and it costs £40 a month, for swimming lessons it costs around £6 a lesson but you book 15 weeks or so at a time and there are different stages.

Hope that helps.

Sagaris

Don't know if anyone else has mentioned it, but when mine had lessons at the local council swimming baths, I signed them up to the local swimming club when they were old enough (around 7 - 8 IIRC).
The training was much better, and cheaper, and they both ended up representing the club and borough in swimming galas when they were old enough.
After a few months they stopped going to the usual lessons and just went to the club - very handy as it was a Friday evening and the sports centre had a bar! :rotfl:

thatgirlsam

im lucky that we live near an RAF base and they have a saturday morning swimming club that costs £3.50 a lesson...
dd is 8 and has just done her 600m badge (proud mummy)

i don't know if you would have anything like this near you?

learning to swim is very important

blue_monkey_2

Oh yes, I forgot that. DD is on the waiting list for the local swimming club who also do lessons, once she gets into their swimming lesson programme she can then get into the swimming club once she gets better at swimming. The swimming club is much, much year - an annual fee - plsu she will become stronger at swimming.

Glad all worked out for you OP, I never read what you did but your son sounds just like my DD and I found just once lesson saw her come on so well. We had 9 in our council lesson too and it was just waiting for all the other kids to get across.