Introducing baby swimming

You start baby swimming after you have built up your baby’s water confidence by getting them used to being in water both at home and in the pool.

The perfect start for you and your baby is to attend adult and child sessions which allow your child to get used to being in the water in a small group of people. It also helps to give you more confidence in supporting your child in the water.

These sessions start to teach your child the basic skills they need to learn to swim including how to move in water, floating, streamlining and how to get in and out of the pool safely.

Qualified teachers for baby swimming

Baby swimming lessons should be run by a qualified Swim England teacher, who will use fun activities, games and songs to allow your baby to get comfortable and more confident gradually, over a series of weeks.

Find out about why a fun approach to learning is so important and read about the core aquatic skills your baby will learn with the help of Discovery Duckling and his friends in our Learn to Swim Programme section here.

• Note: you won’t be expected to swim as the adult in one of these lessons, so it doesn’t matter if you are a confident swimmer or not. Your role is really just to help your child feel at ease and relaxed, and provide physical support to comfort and reassure them.