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Lessons Programme
We operate a lessons scheme which runs throughout the week during term time and is tailored for all ages and abilities. Beginning with Adult and Child sessions through Tugs to Pre-school lessons, then After School lessons for children. Then for adults we offer a range of lessons from the completely terrified to the confident advanced swimmers. Lessons are daytime and evening. Unlike many other pools, when we are running lessons, the pool is exclusively for tuition - no general swimming takes place.
ADULT & BABY SESSIONS
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START |
END |
SESSION |
TUESDAY |
11.30am |
12.00pm |
ADULT AND BABY/CHILD CLASS |
THURSDAY |
1.00PM |
1.30pm |
ADULT & BABY/CHILD CLASS |
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The two classes on Tuesday and Thursday are for 30 minutes
and are pay as you go. Lots of adults return to part time
work and have busy lives, so the two classes give you a
greater opportunity to go swimming with your babies on
a regular basis. They are designed for the first steps
into swimming. Children come from as young as 6 weeks until
they are ready to progress to Tugs.
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We have a fairly structured lesson, including getting wet, singing, splashing, playing with toys, blowing bubbles, jumping in and having fun. It's as much for the children to learn to be water confident as it is for the adults who accompany them.
TUGS SESSIONS
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START |
END |
TUESDAY |
11.00am |
11.30am |
THURSDAY |
12.30pm |
1.00pm |
Tugs is a progression from the Adult & Child Class. This group is specifically for confident children who are not so confident that they can go in a class without "their" grown-up. We do proper swimming in this group with floats, woggles and lots of toys as well as singing. We aim to encourage the swimmers to listen to instructions and then they can interpret these in their own way!
The children in this group are generally wearing flotation suits and back floats and swim away from their carers. We encourage adults to increase the swimmers' independence with races and games-working towards a good swimming position and a child who can submerge happily, swimming both on their front and their back. Can I just say-it doesn't always go to plan-but at least they try (adults and children).
PRE-SCHOOL LESSONS
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START |
END |
TUESDAY |
11.30am |
1.30pm |
| WEDNESDAY |
2.30PM |
4.00PM |
By the time your child has only about three terms left before they start big school, it will be time to get them into pre-school lessons-even earlier if they've been through the Adult & Child and Tugs classes.
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You sit on the side and watch as a qualified teacher takes your child from shallow to deep and from on top to underneath. You will quake with fear as they throw themselves off a foam mat into the deep end and wipe away a tear as they swim from their teacher to the wall for the first time. There is generally much cheering as the children achieve small goals and they're so worn out when you get them home that they sleep really well. |
The children work through a great swimming scheme and may be awarded certificates and badges for their achievements.
There is generally between 6 and 8 children in a class and you sign up for a half term at a time. All swimmers are members of the pool and will be admitted at reduced prices to public swims. You will most probably be offered a place in our after-school scheme assuming that we have space on your preferred day.
We have seen some spectacular results in this class and it's always worth persevering even when your child having discovered the "terrible twos" makes lots of noise.
AFTER SCHOOL LESSONS
After school lessons are held from 4.00 pm on Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday during term time and classes run
for 30 minutes.
Class times allow 5 minutes for course administration or for
parent consultation but we do try to reduce this to a minimum
to avoid disrupting the lessons.
As many families bring two or more children to the scheme, we make extra efforts to keep the time spent by parents/carers and siblings on poolside at a minimum by trying to keep children's lessons at the same time or following on. We are also able to take shared lifts and school finishing times into consideration.
Groups are kept small, with the children in the classes allocated by ability rather than age. Swimmers progress though an Amateur Swimming Association swimming scheme with added bonuses of diving and personal survival and lifesaving activities. As the children show us that they can consistently achieve the various requirements, we assess on a regular basis and will only award certificates where they are truly earned.
We do not take pre-school children in the after school lessons unless they are especially competent.
CHILDREN'S INTENSIVE SUMMER COURSES
Each Summer, towards the end of August, we run an intensive swimming course for learn to swim. The children come for a 30 minute lesson each afternoon for a week. We have a variety of classes including at least one for the children who will scream until Wednesday, classes for the children who will be starting school in September and hope to get places in the After School Classes and we have a really rewarding class for older children who cannot swim, but may be in Year 6 or at Secondary School and want to lose their fear.
In addition, we run Personal Survival Courses for the able swimmers (50m plus) and Lifesaving courses for those who may move on to the Bronze Medallion when they are 14.
Application forms appear in June and we tailor the courses to the numbers applying.
ADULT LESSONS
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START |
END |
SESSION |
WEDNESDAY |
7.30pm |
8.15pm |
Advanced |
| THURSDAY |
11.00am |
11.45am |
Intermediate |
THURSDAY |
11.45am |
12.30pm |
Beginners |
| THURSDAY |
6.30pm |
7.15pm |
Beginners and Intermediate |
From complete beginners to Masters-classes are held in the morning and evening. Adult classes are 40/45 minutes.
The adults have the whole pool to themselves and most teaching is at an individual level in the beginner classes, with more group teaching as the ability increases. Classes are small with lots of individual targets set.
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Beginners range from the water phobic to people who have swum heads-up breaststroke for years and want to learn to do front crawl, or even people who have had surgery and cannot use their traditional style and need to learn new tricks. The oldest swimmer so far has been 82 - so you will certainly not feel out of place whatever your ability. We don't have a pole with a rope attached to drag you along like we did at school and we laugh a lot. There's plenty of time for a chat too.
Intermediate swimmers generally have the ability to float and move through the water on two or three strokes. They generally do not have much style and want to look sleeker in the water and be able to use their swimming as part of their activity programme. This is a great class to get back into swimming and learn the new techniques for propulsion -and the teachers have been known to get into the water to demonstrate. We use fins a lot in these classes so that we can increase the cardiovascular fitness and sort out the usual bugbear - breathing.
Advanced classes are more of a training session with strokes being tweaked rather that being taught from scratch. (Although, the butterfly sessions have shown amazing development from complete novices) Drills for arms and legs are the norm for part of our warm up, followed by specific work on a stroke, learning a new skill such as tumble turns is generally a cool down activity. Within the group, we may run two or three levels and everyone has plenty of recovery time. Its hard work - but very rewarding. Our triathlon swimmers have shown fabulous movement towards reducing their swim times. |
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We use a great deal of equipment in all of our classes, which is all provided, including woggles, floats, fins (flippers) and pull buoys.
We recommend all swimmers wear goggles.
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