Lesson Information
Here at St Margaret’s Swim School we operate our own lesson criteria in order to ensure your child learns to swim to the best of their ability. The aim of our lessons are to provide your child with a full awareness and understanding of each swimming stroke in addition to water skills and personal survival skills.
Further details of our class types can be found below.
Parent & Baby Lessons
These sessions are for children under the age of 3 years and are a great introduction to the water through a lesson environment. From the age of 6 months* your baby will be introduced to the water in a safe and enjoyable session, by learning how to move, float and relax in the water. Through the use of games, play and nursery rhymes your child will learn water skills that will prepare them for water based activities later in life.
We recommend that your child has completed all their inoculations before they start Parent & Baby Sessions.
Non Swimmer Classes (Bay 2)
Our Non Swimmer classes are designed for children aged 3 and above who are unable to swim without any floatation aids. Our weekly sessions are a great way to introduce your child to the water in a lesson environment and is a natural progression from Parent & Baby sessions. Children are taught to move themselves through the water using aids such as armbands or swim discs. Armbands and discs will be removed frequently to allow children to progress to swimming unaided on both their front and back. Once the teacher feels they are competent without armbands/swim discs, children will be moved into our swimmer classes.
We feel that encouraging children to learn to swim from an early age can enhance their swimming experience and help them adopt an eagerness to progress further in their water activities.
Why we use Armbands or Swim Discs.
The use of armbands and swim discs for our non swimmer classes, allow us to safely teach your child the correct body position, technique and encourage water confidence they will need to progress appropriately.
Bay 1
Our Bay 1 class is suitable for a child who can swim a width of our pool (13 meters) on both their front and back without any aids. In this class children will be introduced to front crawl, back crawl and the breaststroke leg kick action, encouraging the basic development of these strokes before progressing to the next bay (Bay 3).
Bay 3
Our Bay 3 class is suitable for children who can swim competently on their front and back, showing a good standard of back crawl/breaststroke legs. They should also demonstrate a basic front crawl breathing technique and be able to attempt the butterfly leg kick action. In this class swimmers will refine their basic skills progression to a good ‘full stroke’ technique.
Bay 4
Our Bay 4 class is our strongest widths class. Here children will demonstrate a good standard of back crawl, front crawl, breaststroke and show the basics of a butterfly stroke. This class will work on maintaining their technique and developing their stamina so they are ready for our length’s classes.
Length’s Classes
We run 2 levels of length’s classes for children capable of these distances. The 30 minute classes are for those who demonstrate a good technique for all 4 strokes and will work on maintaining this technique, improving their stamina and adopting new water skills such as tumble turns, starts and dives. During this session, lanes are dived in to 3 levels of beginners, intermediate and advanced swimmers.
The second level is our 45 minute sessions adopting a ‘coaching’ style and targeting swimming fitness whilst ensuring good technique is maintained throughout.
On occasion children joining our classes will be assessed prior to their first lesson to ensure they are placed into the most appropriate class for their ability.
Private 1-1 Swimming Lessons
Here at St Margaret’s Swim School we offer Private 1-1 swimming lessons, these are usually held during school holidays through prior arrangement with your Swimming Teacher. Prices start from £25 for 30 minutes.
For further details please contact the Swim School on 0208 4164604
Adult Lessons
Our Adult Lessons are available for all swimming abilities, whether you are a complete beginner or someone who swims for fitness. The classes are small, friendly and most importantly enjoyable. Pre-booking is required.
Sessions run as follows:
Beginners & Intermediate
Tuesday 19:15 -20:00
Saturday 16:00 – 16:45
£7.50 Pay As You Go