Support your child with swimming

According to Swim England, nearly two thirds of parents and guardians of children ages 7 to 11 haven’t been swimming with their children in more than a month. They’re missing out: regular family swims can be enjoyed whatever the weather and help children develop their swimming ability more quickly.

If you’re booking your child in for swimming lessons, here’s how Swim England recommends supporting them:

Lessons are fun. Learning how to swim should be fun, so check with the lesson provider that games and activities are regularly included within their programme of teaching.

Timing is key. Book lessons for a time that is easy to fit around your family commitments.

Pay attention. If you are poolside during lessons, be ready to give your child a wave and lots of encouragement. Putting away your mobile will help your child understand that these lessons are important.

Celebrate their swimming milestones. Rewarding children keeps them motivated to improve in their lessons. Swim England’s Learn to Swim Awards and app give children regular celebrations of their swimming milestones.

Regular reports. Parents should expect regular updates either through reports or verbal feedback. If your child is struggling in lessons, talk to the swimming teacher and ask what you can do to help encourage them. If they haven’t started swimming lessons yet, visit the pool before lessons to get your child used to the environment.

Don’t end lessons too early. Water competency is often misinterpreted by parents and guardians as child being able to jump into a swimming pool and being able to put their face in the water. The reality is very different.

Learning to jump into a swimming pool is an important safety skill that is often achieved in the early stages of your child’s learning to swim journey. It is a skill which mimics the motion of falling into water and teaches swimmers to get themselves safely to the side without panicking.

However, there are many other water safety and survival skills that a child needs to learn before they are safe in water, such as floating and treading water.

So don’t be tempted to stop your child’s lessons before they are competent swimmers and have achieved Swim England’s minimum water competency standards.

For further information, visit www.swimming.org

When is my child water competent?

Swim England’s minimum water competency standards offer a clear set of skills that should be achieved before a child stops swimming lessons. The four competencies are:

• Perform a star float for at least sixty seconds;

• Tread water for at least thirty seconds;

• Have experience of swimming in clothing; Swim at least one hundred metres with ease and without stopping.

Research in September 2021 highlighted that more than three million 7 to 11 year old children were not achieving this standard, with just four percent of the age group being classed as ‘water competent.’ Swim England strongly recommends that where possible, parents and carers keep children in swimming lessons until they have completed Learn to Swim Stages 1 to 7 as a minimum. By this point children will have achieved all four of the minimum standards for water competency and will be much safer if they get into trouble.

See more at https://bit.ly/SwimPathway

The safest swimwear colours for your child

Adult supervision is crucial to keeping young people safe in, on and around the water but have you ever thought about whether the colour of your child’s swimwear could make a difference in preventing drowning? If the worst did happen, being able to quickly find a child in the water could save vital seconds and be the difference between a fatal and non-fatal incident.

Swimwear colour makes a huge difference to whether a child can be seen even on the surface of the water, let alone if they are underwater. The colour of the bottom of the pool will make a difference but when buying your child’s swimwear, think bright, neon, contrasting colours which are always easiest to see in a swimming pool.

For swimming in an outdoor setting, the results are the same. The caveat for this is that open water settings, such as beaches and rivers, also come with various hidden dangers such as tides and currents to consider before allowing your child to swim.