• Focused classes → Our slightly smaller class sizes than our other swim levels mean your child enjoys more individual attention from their friendly teacher, helping them build confidence from the very start and making the experience in the pool on day one less noisy than our super splashy regular classes. Don’t worry – those splashes will come, but as and when your child is ready!

• Dedicated swim partners → Parents/carers over the age of 18 are required in the pool too, bringing a “hands-on” approach that’s a core part of the Aquatots programme, so you’ll be right there to support and encourage your little swimmer as they develop new skills. With no waiting around in the pool for your teacher to help each child in turn, this means every 30-minute session is packed with learning skills and excitement - Money well spent! So don’t forget to arrive with your swimming kit too and be prepared to enter the water, and enjoy all the fun alongside your child!

  Our parents play a vital role in the water, ensuring that your child is busy practicing the skills for the full 30 minutes. This method of teaching also enables you to practice away from the lesson and empowers you to feel confident to take your child swimming elsewhere by yourself. Our parents learn just as much as the children and often find that their own swimming ability improves!

• Tailored to your child → The pace of each class is matched to your child’s comfort level creating a relaxed, fun atmosphere for all. We aim to build on their confidence with every class through repetition, rapport with the teacher and an array of exciting and achievable skills. The teacher will be fully prepared to cater for any mixed ability or confidence levels and to address the needs of each child by offering adaptations of skills with lots of fun, singing and splashing.

We teach the children to swim the natural way – without buoyancy aids, arm bands or noodles. Your child will be perfectly safe being held by you and under the direct and constant supervision of your teacher.

Arm bands and buoyancy aids can create a false confidence in water and don’t encourage the body to be in the correct streamlined position for swimming, making the child too upright in the water. Whilst some parents feel they might have a have benefit in certain instances like being on holiday, we discourage the use of armbands and our lessons are a great and safe opportunity for your child to be held in a more natural and correct position that will ultimately lead to independent swimming sooner.

All you need for your first swimming lesson is your swimming costume, towel and lots of excitement! Goggles are not a requirement, however they can be very useful for encouraging your child to put their face under the water. Your teacher will more likely have lots of pairs of goggles poolside for your child to try. If you are thinking of investing in your own set, we sell our recommended ones at: https://aquatotsonline.com/shop/swimming/en/

Here you will find a variety of goggles which we have tried and tested and found to be the best fit around little faces, offering the best visibility, durability and value for money.

We also sell plenty of other swim essentials such as swimwear, towels, accessories and special badges to purchase as a memento of your course to go alongside your free certificate at the end of term, each tailored to the specific course you have completed. All our courses are named after sea creatures to engage the children. Our Foundation levels are jellyfish, shrimps and seahorses so you will see these creatures on the certificates and badges!

Well done to you for wanting your child to gain the life skill of swimming despite not having it yourself. This is a common scenario among our swimmers and you have our utmost respect! All our Foundation lessons are conducted in standing depth water of 1.2m or less so you will never be required to swim yourself or stand out of your depth.

Despite not being a swimmer, you will still be able to assist your child working towards this goal and you may find you learn a lot yourself along the way! All the skills can be conducted with the parent/swim partner on the surface and if there is ever an opportunity for the child to go under the water with an adult then your teacher will be happy to do this with your child – maybe your child will be happy to be used as a demo in this instance which would really help the teacher!

It's always best to let the teacher know on day one if you can’t swim or lack confidence in the water so that they are aware and can keep a close eye to make sure you feel comfortable and safe at all times. They will of course be discreet about this.

All Aquatots courses are 9 weeks, this includes all our lessons for babies, toddlers and children as well as our Foundation Programme. We run 4 of these a year, largely in line with the school terms so that we fit in around family holidays and commitments. The pools are semi-warm/warm and the teacher is in the pool with you at all times.

We are aiming children to complete at least 1 full term in the Foundation class to cement their confidence and ability before moving into our regular swim programme when they are ready. Of course, we are fully prepared to keep them in these nurturing classes for a couple of terms if needed in order to make sure they are fully water confident. However, your child will be assessed continuously by their teacher throughout the 9 weeks and you will be kept continuously updated on their progress.

If your child is progressing extremely well & becomes confident in the water within the first few weeks, the teacher may move your child into a regular level mid-way through the term, but this does of course depend on space availability in lessons and many other factors so it’s always best to prepare for a full 9 weeks in the Foundation class, building familiarity with the pool, the teacher and the other children in the lesson. Spending two terms in Foundation can be very beneficial and is a popular and common option.

All the information about your pool will be sent to you in advance of the course and you will also receive links to the specific pool page on our website for useful information, such as the depth, temperature, parking & changing facilities and any special requirements such as swim hats. Your teacher will also send you a welcome text to introduce themselves and give you any additional information you may need for that first day. Having your teacher’s number before that first day will put your mind at ease to know that you can contact them if you have any difficulties finding the pool or arriving on that first day.

The Aquatots teacher will show you and your child the skills and techniques to help build their confidence in the water towards swimming independently. There will be a clear demonstration of every skill from both the child’s perspective and the adults.

Our teachers are equipped with dollies to use for clear demonstrations but will more often than not look for a volunteer child to assist them with the demo – something are young swimmers are always keen to do. They love to show the skills they have been practising and look forward to those claps from their classmates and high fives from the teacher!

Remember, learning to swim isn’t something that can be mastered in a few weeks, it’s much more important to build up water confidence first. Swimming should be slow and gentle with lots of praise for the little improvements that give big confidence boosts. If your child is pushed too quickly, with high or unrealistic expectations, their confidence, enjoyment and in turn their achievement can be affected.

Our lessons are progressive, well structured and fun and will prepare both you and your child for entering the regular swim programme when they are ready.

When you enrol on the course you will be given your own special achievements checklist. We recommend printing this out and pinning it somewhere where your child will be able to see and track their own progress, they could even tick off the milestones themselves if they are older enough to.

Jelly Fish Level 30

Age 18 mths to 2.5 years

Shrimps Level 31

Age 2.5 to 3.5 years

Seahorse Level 32

Age 3.5 to 4.5 years

Squid Level 33

Age 4.5 to 5.5 years

Children in our younger Jellyfish Foundation classes (age 18/21 months to 2.5 years old) will be able to tick off kicking their legs on their front and back, reaching out for a toy, holding onto the wall and counting for five and bravely putting their chin in the water!

Children in our Shrimp Foundation classes (age 2.5-3.5 years old) will tick off splashing into the pool from the side, holding on tight for a piggyback, paddling their hands and blowing bubbles into the water!

Children in our Seahorse Foundation classes (age 3.5 – 5 years old) will progress to holding onto a float and kicking their legs, running on the raft and jumping into the pool, paddling across the pool dipping their face in the water and even waving to their grown-up under the water!

All these milestones are extremely achievable and will make your little one (and us) feel very proud when they achieve them!

Our teachers are very used to those first day nerves this and have a wealth of training and experience in gently coaxing the slightly more nervous children. They will never be pressurised to do anything they don’t want to do but will be gently and positively encouraged.

Aquatots is fully inclusive and all children are welcome. If your child has any disabilities, learning difficulties or SEN needs please let your teacher know so that they can understand best how to help your child, put them at ease and tailor the skills towards their capabilities.

Remember that achievement milestones are different for every child and for the more nervous child, entering the pool would definitely be an achievement to celebrate!

Young children thrive on routine and familiarity, so the more they attend, the more they will become familiar with the teacher, the pool and the structure of the lesson. The teacher will always follow the same format structure of the lesson, starting with a gentle warm up and lots of songs and actions designed to engage the children and prompt some early swimming techniques such as wetting their face/head and blowing bubbles.

Children can also be very motivated by watching other children which is why the class environment is so important. Once they see other children doing something they are often more likely to give it a go themselves, but of course at their own pace.

Our teachers are all super friendly and approachable and will start to build up your child’s trust with lots of encouragement and praise, gradually introducing different and more advanced stages of the skills.

Attendance each week is vitally important so this is the best way to help your child progress and achieve – simply make sure you turn up each week and let us do the rest! Missing lessons can hinder your child’s progress, can mean they miss certain skills and stems the continuity for the child to learn and to become familiar with and comfortable in the pool environment.

Listen to your teacher and heed their advice about which skills to attempt, when and where. We work at each individual child’s pace without the need for any comparison with other children so if they feel your child has made enough attempts at a skill then lets’ take a break and do a fun resting skill on the surface for a couple of minutes.

To truly see the benefits, parents and children really progress when they also practice away from the lessons. Taking your child swimming in addition to the lesson is how real progress is made as 30 minutes once a week isn’t always enough for children. Your teacher will give you all the skills and exercises you will need for taking your child swimming outside of lessons or on holidays.

If this isn’t feasible then don’t forget that the bath is also a great place to practice many of the skills (wetting their head, putting their face underwater, blowing bubbles and even wearing goggles) and that can be done every day!

For many young swimmers, the first big achievement is getting comfortable going under the water—such a fantastic milestone and one to be very proud of!

From there, we’ll help them build skills at their own pace, step by step. And as they gain confidence, our teachers will assess when they’re ready to move up to another swim level.

Before you know it, you’ll be watching your child work toward their first 5-metre independent swim—a moment we know you’ll cherish!

Well first and foremost you will be there with them in the pool witnessing those achievement milestones and big smiles!

Your teacher will be willing to spend time discussing your child’s progress and how to help them. So as not to take up valuable teaching time this may be done at the end of the lesson if the teacher doesn’t have a lesson immediately after or might be done by telephone at a time that’s convenient for both of you. They will have plenty of advice on how to engage your child and help them to progress. Feel free to ask your teacher for this conversation whenever you like throughout the term and also their advice on which level will best suit your child for the following term.

Remember, each child’s learning pace is different and the most important thing about their swimming lesson is to have fun! If a child is enjoying themselves, they are much more likely to learn and progress and to feel happy in the water. So it might be that lots of singing, splashing and surface games are what’s required to start with before attempting too many underwater swims. There are many skills in the Aquatots programme which can be done on the surface rather than underwater so if your child isn’t under the water it doesn’t mean they can’t still master many new skills!

As mentioned at the start, our Foundation programme is not a “quick fix” and requires time, patience and lots of encouragement! Every child is taught and measured at their own individual pace. We are working towards your child gaining a skill that will last them for the rest of their life, so we certainly expect it to take more than a few weeks to achieve this!

If a child is less confident, they are advised to attend a second term of Foundation to help build and cement their confidence. Remaining in the smaller and familiar Foundation class for a second term can benefit some children who need this nurturing environment and they will still be given new skills or versions of skills that suit their growing confidence and ability. It is often the case that the whole class stay together for another term of Foundation and continue learning together now that they have bonded as a group.

As mentioned, sometimes a child joins a Foundation class and shows that they are already water confident or reach this within the first couple of weeks, maybe because they are returning from a break from swimming, already have some swimming experience or simply because they already have a love for the water and are enjoying our classes so much! In this case your teacher will talk you through various options, depending on class availability and your preference for your child. If there is room in an appropriate swim level that matches your child’s ability and is at a convenient time for you then you don’t need to wait until the following term to move, they can move across straight away so that they can start learning new and more advanced skills to suit their confidence and ability. Your teacher will make sure to liaise with you and our office to ensure your child is registered in the correct class for admin purposes and of course that all important certificate!

In rarer cases, a whole Foundation class might already be water confident so that the teacher can change the level of the class to suit the ability of the whole class. This would only be done in consultation with the whole class and if it would suit the needs of each child.

Rest assured, our classes will match the speed of learning and the needs of your child to make sure they are always kept at the right level for them.

Well done! You have completed your first term at Aquatots and your child will be awarded their special personalised certificate to proudly take home. You should feel very proud of what your child has achieved.

As mentioned above, you may well be recommended to or choose to repeat the Foundation course for another term to cement and build on their confidence in a familiar environment and class.

Alternatively, your teacher will advise you if they are ready to enter our regular swim programme. This is based on them having achieved most or all of the skills on the achievement checklist. The teacher will advise you which level they need to go into and they will base this on many factors such as their age, confidence, ability, the skills they have mastered and available spaces. If this means your child is moving to a new pool or new swim day with a new teacher, the current teacher will provide a thorough handover of your child’s ability and progress so that the new teacher is familiar with this before your child even starts swimming with them. The teacher will always ensure that special care and consideration is given to any ex-Foundation swimmers in mainstream classes to make sure they are comfortable with the skills and will provide any extra support where needed. Checklist of pre-requisites for moving to the next level.