Lessons at the Llanishen Leisure Centre pool since 2012: babies with a parent, pre-schoolers four to a class, Swim Wales stages 1 to 7, adults, one-to-one and holiday crash courses, with the teacher in the water for the little ones.
Autumn term 2026: 7 lessons left, so joining now costs from £66.50 at Stages 1 to 4.
Lessons
01
Thirty minutes in the 30°C teaching pool with your baby, from twelve weeks old to three years, in groups of eight parents with a teacher in the water: songs, floating, holding the wall, the first underwater swim if your baby is ready for it, and a lot of splashing. £9 a lesson, charged by the term.
£9 a lesson, charged by the term for the lessons left.
02
The first class without a parent in the water: three and four-year-olds in groups of four with the teacher in the 30°C teaching pool, building the water confidence that every stroke depends on. Faces in, blowing bubbles, floating on front and back, jumping in, getting out, and the first kicks on a float. £9.50 a lesson.
£9.
03
The heart of the school: the Swim Wales Learn to Swim stages 1 to 7, from a four-year-old who can float with help to a twelve-year-old swimming 400 metres in four strokes. Stages 1 to 4 are thirty minutes in groups of six (£9.50); 5 to 7 are forty-five minutes in groups of eight (£11). The level finder suggests the stage.
Stages 1 to 4 £9.
04
Lessons for adults and teenagers from twelve in groups of four: complete beginners who never learned, nervous swimmers who can get across but hate it, and improvers who want proper front crawl for a triathlon or the sea. Thirty minutes on weekday evenings in a quiet lane of the main pool, £13 a lesson.
£13 a lesson for thirty minutes, four to a class, charged by the term.
05
Thirty minutes with one teacher for one swimmer: the very nervous child, the child with additional needs, the teenager who does not want to learn with eight-year-olds, the adult preparing for a triathlon, or anyone who wants to move faster than a group allows. £28 a lesson, booked as a block or as you go.
£28 for thirty minutes; a block of six £150.
06
Five lessons on five consecutive days in the school holidays, thirty minutes a day in groups of six, for children at every stage from pre-school to Stage 6. Daily practice moves a child faster than a weekly lesson: most move up a stage, or most of one, in the week. £60 for the five days.
£60 for five days, thirty minutes a day.
The stages
12 weeks to 3 years
Start here if: no experience needed.
Holds, floating, songs, the first underwater swim when ready.
30 minutes · £9 a lesson
3 to 4 years
Start here if: happy to be in the water without a parent.
Faces in, bubbles, floating with an aid, jumping in, getting out.
30 minutes · £9.50 a lesson
4 years and over
Start here if: cannot yet travel through the water unaided.
Getting in and out unaided, floating, five metres with an aid.
30 minutes · £9.50 a lesson
5 years and over
Start here if: confident with the face in, floats with an aid.
The first unaided five metres, kicking on front and back.
30 minutes · £9.50 a lesson
5 years and over
Start here if: can swim five metres unaided.
Ten metres on front and back, the first arm action, treading water.
30 minutes · £9.50 a lesson
6 years and over
Start here if: can swim ten metres on front and back.
Twenty-five metres in one stroke, sculling, the other strokes begun.
30 minutes · £9.50 a lesson
7 years and over
Start here if: can swim twenty-five metres in one stroke.
Twenty-five metres in three strokes, turns, the main pool.
45 minutes · £11 a lesson
8 years and over
Start here if: can swim twenty-five metres in three strokes.
One hundred metres continuously, dives, the start of tumble turns.
45 minutes · £11 a lesson
9 years and over
Start here if: can swim one hundred metres.
Four hundred metres, all four strokes, the full water-safety award.
45 minutes · £11 a lesson
12 and over
Start here if: anything from never to front crawl.
Beginners, nervous swimmers or improvers, four to a class.
30 minutes · £13 a lesson
How we teach
A child who is frightened of the water cannot learn to swim in it, so the first stages are about faces in, floating, getting out and getting back in. The strokes come quickly once the fear has gone; rushed, they never come at all.
Every stage includes the water-safety outcomes: getting out unaided, treading water, floating to rest, what to do if you fall in. A child who finishes Stage 7 can swim 400 metres and can look after themselves in deep water.
Teachers assess every lesson against the stage outcomes and move a child up mid-term as soon as they have them. Nobody waits a term in the wrong group, and nobody is pushed into the next one before they are ready.
Your child has the same teacher at the same time every week, all term. The office emails you if anything changes, and cover is always by a teacher who has read the notes.
Babies
Thirty minutes with your baby in the 30°C teaching pool, eight parents and a teacher in the water: holds, floating, songs and, when your baby is ready and you want it, the first underwater swim. At three they move into pre-school without you in the pool, which is the moment the whole thing has been preparing for.
This term
Lessons are charged by the term for the lessons still to come, so joining in week six costs less than joining in week one. There are 7 lessons left in the autumn term 2026. The term dates page has the half terms, the crash courses and the figure for every class.
Parents and swimmers
We started at fourteen weeks in the warm pool and Evie has never once been frightened of water. Gemma taught me how to hold her more than she taught Evie anything, which is exactly right. At three she went into pre-school without me in the pool and didn't look back at the gallery once. I did a little.
The level finder put Finn in Stage 3 and the teacher agreed after the first ten minutes. What I like most is that they move up mid-term the moment they've got it; Cerys did Stage 4 in nine weeks and was in Stage 5 the next fortnight. The record card comes home and gets read more than her reading book.
Forty-six, never learned, terrified of putting my face in. Four of us in the teaching pool on a Monday night, all equally useless, and Owen in the water with us. I swam a width in week six and cried. Two terms later I swam twenty lengths for a charity and my kids came to watch.
The pool
A 25-metre main pool and a separate warm teaching pool, a viewing gallery with a café counter, family changing, free parking for two hours, buses 21 and 23 outside and Ty Glas station four minutes away. Come in through the main entrance and tell reception you are with Splash.
Parent and baby £9 a lesson, pre-school and stages 1 to 4 £9.50, stages 5 to 7 £11 for forty-five minutes, adults £13, one-to-one £28, all charged by the term for the lessons left. Registration £15 once. A sibling 10% off.
Use the level finder on this page: their age and what they can do now give the suggested stage and its classes with spaces. The first ten minutes of the first lesson are an assessment, and if the stage is wrong the teacher moves them that day.
Yes. You pay only for the lessons left in the term, which the term dates page works out from today. Most classes have a space or two; full ones have a waiting list that moves as children move up.
Four for pre-school and adults, six for stages 1 to 4, eight for stages 5 to 7 and parent and baby. The teacher is in the water with every child below Stage 3.
As soon as they have every outcome for their stage, ticked lesson by lesson on their record card. They get the badge and certificate that day, and the office moves them up within a fortnight. No waiting for the end of term.
The Llanishen Leisure Centre pool on Ty Glas Avenue, Cardiff CF14 5DX, with free parking, buses 21 and 23 outside and Ty Glas station four minutes away.
Tell us the swimmer's age and what they can do now, and we offer a class at the right stage with a space, usually within the week. The first ten minutes are an assessment and the teacher moves them that day if the stage is wrong. Or ring Carys in the office.
