Swimming is an activity that is accessible for everyone, regardless of age.
Babies can feel at ease in the water, as long as they feel safe.
Our baby swim lessons give you and your baby the opportunity to explore the fun and joy of being in water.
Our class sizes are a maximum of 10 babies in a class. Our experienced Swim England Adult and Child Swimming Teachers help you learn how to handle your baby and introduce them to safe movements in the water.
We teach through songs, games and other bonding activities to help you and your baby.
We offer classes at Ashby and Tamworth
Encouraging your child to swim has so many health and well-being benefits. We encourage starting swimming as a baby – the earlier children get into the water to build their confidence, the better.
We offer swimming lessons to pre-school children, for those that have very little or no water experience.
Our pre-school stage encourages children to move independently in the water, under close supervision by our qualified Swim England teachers. We teach safe entry, introduce water being showered over the head, floating, push and glides and independent movement. We help children with underwater confidence and teach them basic aquatic breathing techniques.
Through games and play, we teach movement literacy skills: agility, balance, coordination, speed, running, jumping, throwing, kinaesthetics, gliding, buoyancy, striking with the body, catching, passing, kicking and striking with an implement.
Children can join the preschool class from 3 years of age.
There will always be a teacher in the water with the children in our pre-School classes.
We believe in continual assessment, placing no stress on award weeks and not putting pressure on children to perform.
In pre-school swimming lessons, swimmers will aim to achieve their:
Stage 1 lessons are for children with very little or no water experience.
Whilst closely supervising swimmers, our Stage 1 teachers encourage independent movement. We teach safe entry, introduce water being showered over the head, floating, push and glides and movement skills.
We help children develop underwater confidence and basic breathing techniques. Through games and play we teach movement literacy skills: agility, balance, coordination, speed, running, jumping, throwing, kinaesthetics, gliding, buoyancy, striking with the body, catching, passing, kicking and striking with an implement.
Children can join this class from 3 years of age.
There will always be a teacher in the water with Stage 1 children.
We believe in continual assessment, placing no stress on award weeks and not putting pressure on children to perform.
In Stage 1 swimming lessons, swimmers will aim to achieve their:
Our Stage 2 swimmers should have progressed from Stage 1 or have basic water confidence skills and be able to move forwards and backwards in the water. In Stage 2 lessons, swimmers learn how to jump into the pool safely and continue to build on skills learned in Stage 1.
They will be able to submerge completely and blow bubbles under the water, they will gain more independence travelling in the pool, learn basic horizontal and vertical rotations and work on their push and glides.
There will always be a teacher in the water with Stage 2 children.
We believe in continual assessment, placing no stress on award weeks and not putting pressure on children to perform.
In Stage 2 lessons, swimmers will achieve their:
Our Stage 3 swimmers should either have progressed from Stage 2 or can swim a minimum distance of 5m on their front or back without any buoyancy aids. In this stage, children will be taught how to improve their technique to swim further in the water.
Swimmers will continue to develop their push and glides in this stage by being taught the importance of streamlining and log rolling.
Swimmers will be able to fully submerge to pick up an object and answer three questions on the Water Safety Code.
There will always be a teacher in the water with Stage 3 children.
We believe in continual assessment, placing no stress on award weeks and not putting pressure on children to perform.
In Stage 3 lessons, swimmers will achieve their:
Our Stage 4 swimmers should have either progressed from Stage 3 or can swim a minimum distance of 10 m on their front and back, without buoyancy aids and be able to swim in deep water. Your child should be able to demonstrate good front crawl and backstroke technique and have been introduced to the butterfly and breaststroke strokes. At this stage, swimmers will feel confident swimming in all pool depths and be able to demonstrate an understanding of buoyancy.
In Stage 4 classes, your child will learn the importance and correct technique for fundamental shapes in the water and will master push and glides from the wall to the pool floor. Swimmers will start to develop their butterfly and breaststroke stroke techniques: by the end of the stage, they will be competent enough to kick for 10 m using both butterfly and breaststroke kick techniques. Your child will be taught the importance of sculling as a key concept for further stroke development, and will be reminded about the significance of safety in the water.
Our swim instructors teach from the side of the pool, to oversee all pupils and be able to correct and improve strokes from a different angle.
We believe in continual assessment, placing no stress on award weeks and not putting pressure on children to perform.
In Stage 4 lessons, swimmers will achieve their:
Our Stage 5 swimmers should have progressed from Stage 4 or can swim a minimum distance of 25 m front crawl and 25 m backstroke. Swimmers need to be able to demonstrate that they can kick for 10 m using breaststroke kick and using butterfly kick. Swimmers should be able to demonstrate the ability to maintain a basic stroke technique in all depths of the pool.
In our Stage 5 classes, the teacher will work with swimmers to improve stroke technique in all four strokes. Your child’s water skills will be developed as they learn to tread water, swim through hoops and perform a stationary scull, head first and feet first scull. Your child will learn how to execute a handstand and forward somersault in the water, and they will be able to demonstrate an action for getting help.
Our swim instructors teach from the side of the pool, to oversee all pupils and be able to correct and improve strokes from a different angle.
We believe in continual assessment, placing no stress on award weeks and not putting pressure on children to perform.
In Stage 5 lessons, swimmers will achieve their:
Our Stage 6 swimmers should have progressed from Stage 5 or can swim a minimum distance of 100 m front crawl and backstroke, 25 m breaststroke and have basic stroke technique of butterfly. They should be able to demonstrate the above strokes and distances in all depths of the pool.
Our Stage 6 teachers will introduce a variety of stroke drills for all four strokes into lessons to improve technique and stamina in the water. Swimmers will learn transferable skills about the preparation for exercise and practice swimming with clothes on. In this stage, teachers will look more closely at personal survival skills and go into more detail about situations in which they might be used.
Our swim instructors teach from the side of the pool, to oversee all pupils and be able to correct and improve strokes from a different angle.
We believe in continual assessment, placing no stress on award weeks and not putting pressure on children to perform.
In Stage 6 lessons, swimmers will achieve their:
Our Stage 7 swimmers should have progressed from Stage 6 or be able to swim a minimum distance of 100 m front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke and swim at least 50 m butterfly with basic technique.
In our Stage 7 classes, swimmers will build upon their previous stroke knowledge and improve technique, stamina, and strength; speed will be increased and there will be an emphasis on learning to dive. Swimmers will learn more about personal survival skills and how to look out for others.
Our swim instructors teach from the side of the pool, to oversee all pupils and be able to correct and improve strokes from a different angle.
We believe in continual assessment, placing no stress on award weeks and not putting pressure on children to perform.
In Stage 7 lessons, swimmers will achieve their:
Once swimmers have completed all seven stages of the Swim England's National Plan for Swimming, they can progress and expand their swimming journey by enrolling onto one of the advised exit routes, which include Rookie Lifegaurd, Pre Competitive Swimming, Diving, Artistic Swimming or Water Polo.
For those swimmers who fancy something a little different and exciting, or want to be the next Tom Daley, we recommend City of Sheffield Diving for taster sessions into High Board Diving.