Lessons
From a twelve-week-old in the warm pool to a seventy-four-year-old learning breaststroke, with the Swim Wales stages in between. Each page says who it is for, how big the group is, who teaches it and what it costs. The level finder tells you where to start.
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.
Starting
Two questions on the level finder (age, and what they can do now) give the suggested stage and its classes with spaces. Pick a day and time.
The form takes two minutes. Carys in the office confirms within the working day, sends the term\'s invoice for the lessons left and the record card, and tells you which door.
The teacher spends the start of the first lesson seeing what your child can do. If the stage is wrong, they move them that day, to a class at the same time if there is one.
The outcomes for the stage are ticked lesson by lesson. When they are all ticked, the badge and certificate come home that day and the move up follows within a fortnight.
Swimmers who need more
Three of our teachers hold the Swim Wales qualification for teaching swimmers with disabilities, and we teach autistic children, children with sensory differences, and children who are simply terrified, one-to-one in the quietest slots until they are ready for a group. Teenagers who never learned get a group of their own age, never a lane of six-year-olds.
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.
