Children’s swimming at JAGS

[Ldnmum]

Hi! 
Our just 4 year old is currently taking swimming classes with Cindy’s swim school and we’re finding them a bit too easy and hands on. On holiday recently she swam (albeit without much style!) at least 8m on her own.  
 

We’re thinking of signing her up to the improvers lessons at JAGS.  I believe there are up to 10 children per class and two teachers in the water.  Has anyone had any experience of these classes? Do they encourage independent swimming?

thank you 🙏 

[bonaome]

The teaching at JAGS is very good.

Is this one to ones she’s having? Or classes?

if it’s classes ….

With classes bear in mind that they all follow the same Swim England 7 stage curriculum.

Your child might find weeks 1 to 4 of any given term easy, or get there a bit faster than the rest of the class. Then when the class moves on to weeks 5 to 8 (for example) she will find she is back in line with the others because they”ve all got to the same level again. She might then actually find the next stage more challenging than some of the others and take a bit longer to get there. We”re all good at different things. But again, the teacher will get the whole class to a point where they can do all the specific things listed out in the curriculum before they can move onto the next stage, as a class. Swim progress isn’t just a linear progression.

Meanwhile, with classes as well as learning to swim, she’s also getting routine, consistency and, hopefully, developing some swim friendships. You might move her out of Cindy”s only to find that you’re back where you started a term or two later, just in a different pool.

If you think the teaching at Cindy”s has been good (and I don’t know, but I hear it is) then I’d recommend you stick with it. They’ll get her there, and the rest of her class there, and it’s unlikely that anyone in a different class will move her on any faster. It’s hard to move a child up mid term because there isn’t the space to. At least not in London, where all of the classes are full all of the time.

 

If it’s one to one’s …

Have a chat with the teacher. Explain that you think she’s ready for something more challenging and the teacher will explain what’s going on. Maybe there is one very specific thing they’re working on. And once that’s cracked she can move on to the next bit, but skipping it would be a false economy. Chat to them. Agree a plan.