Can my child wear armbands so they’re not as scared?
Your child, no matter how young or how new to swimming they are, will never wear armbands in a Puddle Ducks lesson. We want to teach your child to swim independently and how to be safe in the water. There are compelling reasons why we don’t use armbands:
- If your child fell into water when on holiday or even just on a riverside walk with the family, they probably won’t have armbands on. Their experience in their swimming lessons needs to be as realistic as possible. Water safety is a core building block in our lesson plans and everything your child learns will, unbeknown to them, be teaching them vital life-saving skills.
- We teach our Puddle Ducks to swim beautifully. Technique is ingrained at every level and wearing armbands hinders this. Your child will learn to swim on the surface of the water, gracefully and efficiently. If they wear armbands, they will not be aligned in the water. Their top half will be bobbing above the water, forcing their bottom half to dip down, making the alignment required for independent swimming all but impossible.
Non-fitted buoyancy aids (such as floats or woggles) allow children to push away from them when they are ready to be independent whereas fitted aids (arm bands) require an adult to deflate them. We would never recommend the use of inflatables or buoyancy seats – these can flip toddlers over into the water and even land on top of them, making it difficult for them to surface.
My baby really isn’t happy in the water he/she mustn’t like it and I don’t want them upset should I stop bringing him/her?
Understandably, some parents worry that if their baby cries a lot that it is doing more harm than good.
This is not the case. Removing your baby from swimming classes because they don’t seem to enjoy it initially (or maybe they were fine to start with and now are a bit unsure) is more likely to instil a fear or dislike of water than working through it with them.
Our teachers are trained in dealing with cases of this and will work with you and your child so that we find activities they enjoy and move it on from there.
What if my child has a genuine fear of the water? Will they be able to overcome it & learn to swim?
Yes – with care, nurturing and reassurance. It is important never to rush because children develop at different stages on land and it's the same in the water.
The main thing is to stay relaxed and have fun – if you start to force an activity on a child when they are nervous, they will respond with resistance, develop further nerves and the lesson will not be enjoyable. Allow them to watch others and to just be in the pool.
We find that children who also swim with their family outside of structured lessons progress from being nervous much quicker than others so go and have fun and allow your child to lead. Never force.
What if my child disrupts the class or misbehaves?
Please don’t worry, we have dealt with tens of thousands of children over the past 15 years and we can deal with yours! In our Baby & Pre-school classes, if your child were to become upset or start misbehaving, we suggest that you move to one side for a moment to speak with your child, however, the teacher will happily speak to your child too if you feel it is appropriate/necessary.
We usually find that after a minute or two they want to join back in with the lesson – we can always provide one of our toys to help calm them down and wait until we are doing an activity we know they enjoy.
If your child is in Swim Academy and therefore you are not in the water, you will see that our teachers are very good at controlling a class of up to 8 children. If a child repeatedly causes disruption in a class, they are asked to take time out and sit on the side of the pool.
The teacher will then come and speak to them to see if they are ready to re-join the group. Think of our disciplinary measures being just like your child’s teacher would carry out at school. We have never had an instance of having to exclude a child from classes – an important part of our teachers’ training is to learn to deal with all kinds of personalities.
I didn’t take my child swimming from when they were tiny. Have I left it too late and should I wait until they learn at school?
It is never too late to learn to swim. Swimming is an essential life skill and something we should encourage our children to learn to do at any age – the younger the better. Here are some of the reasons why you should start now, whatever age your child:
- Water-safety and eventually life-saving skills are built into every Puddle Ducks lesson. It is never too late or too early to equip your child with these skills.
- Family holidays are so much more fun and relaxing when your children can happily and confidently play either in the pool or the sea. Swimming lessons play a vital role in making your holidays more enjoyable for the whole family.
- The government have made it policy for all children to be able to swim 25m, unaided by the time they leave primary school. Most of our little Puddle Ducks can do this by the time they turn 6 years’ old. Give your child the head start they deserve and instil a love of swimming in them for life. Children who are just learning to swim when they are around 7 are often put off because they feel as though they are already behind their peers.
My child has a disability, can they attend?
At Puddle Ducks we aim to ensure that our lessons are as inclusive as possible, enabling children with additional physical and learning needs to attend our group lessons with some support. We are not able to offer 1:1 specialised disability lessons or 1:1 support in classes at this time.
Risk assessments for accessibility are carried out at all the pools we use, and where pools are not owned by Puddle Ducks and we therefore have limited influence over structural constraints, we will work with the pool owner to suggest reasonable adjustments where we can.
Please contact your local franchise to discuss your specific needs and the local team will endeavour to find the most suitable lessons for you. The local team may suggest a particular pool or specific teacher who has relevant training and experience, and they may also suggest that a parent or guardian accompanies a child in the water for a Swim Academy class if it's felt that 1:1 support is necessary.
Trial lessons are often offered at no cost to ensure that a customer is comfortable with the facility and arrangements.
Will my child ever learn to swim? / What if they can’t do something?
Every child has the potential to learn to swim. First and foremost, we will only progress a child at their own pace. If they can’t do a certain activity, we will work on progressive stages of that activity with your child until they can master it. This applies across our Baby & Pre-school and Swim Academy programmes.
Our Baby & Pre-school programmes are only ability-based once your child hits 2 years old and at this stage the children are placed in classes with other children of similar ability in order to work the necessary aspects of their swimming before joining our Swim Academy around the time they turn 4.
You may find that in the early days of our Swim Academy classes, your child is working on blowing bubbles, learning how to maintain alignment with the surface of the water and the basic strokes amongst other techniques and of course life-saving skills. We run distance swims in our lesson plans where your child will get the chance to work on their stamina, maintaining their alignment and breathing over a distance and ultimately gaining their distance awards however it is important to note that distance swimming is not the focus of all our lessons. It is important to focus on technique over shorter distances rather than pounding up and down the pool with a poor stroke. Because of the ground work we put in to your child’s technique and efficiency in the water, some parents find progression is slow to begin with but then it all comes together and usually quite quickly, you see your child starting to swim confidently and with efficient and eventually beautiful technique.
A recent testimonial from a parent related to their child starting swimming with school, which usually happens around the age of 7. The class was assessed by the swimming teacher and placed into two groups. The higher ability group consisted of two children, both Puddle Ducks customers.
How soon will my child be able to swim? Will they be able to swim before we go on holiday in 4 weeks?
Whilst every child learns to swim at their own pace, some are naturals and take to swimming like a fish to water! However, this isn’t the norm and 4 weeks is not enough time to teach most children to swim and be safe in and around water.
The Puddle Ducks programme is a sustained approach and whilst 4 weeks of classes would be better than nothing before a holiday, please don’t book our lessons looking for a quick fix.
Why won't they blow bubbles in the pool when they do in the bath?
It is important to remember that there is a lot to take in when children are in a swimming lesson – the environment, the other children, the activities etc.
Sometimes it can be sensory overload for some children and they take longer to process instructions as they are focussing on other things. Many children don’t seem to listen but then do everything at home.
This is still a positive response to the lessons and it is important, if your child does this, not to force them to listen or watch in lessons as the information is obviously going in and they are happy to practice in their own environment for now. This will soon transfer to the pool so please don’t worry.
Should my toddler wear goggles?
At Puddle Ducks, we find that as the children get older, more of them are inclined to wear goggles as they spend greater parts of their lesson with their faces in the water. However, we have very specific guidelines which may help you decide whether to give your toddler or pre-schooler goggles when you are swimming with them away from your Puddle Ducks lessons:
- Encourage head down swimming without goggles first. Goggles should be a last resort.
- Don’t allow young children to jump in with goggles on:
- They could slip and hurt your child’s face if not fitted properly which is often difficult with young children.
- They should regularly resurface and swim without goggles on.
- Take goggles off occasionally to “practise personal survival skills”.
- Make sure the goggles are well-fitting.
- Don’t allow a child to wear goggles if they cannot keep them on!