Great news! Your child is now confidently paddling across the pool on their own… with no woggles, arm bands, or floats in sight. They are over the moon! You’re super proud. What an amazing achievement! Fast forward a few weeks, or months, though, and you turn up to your swimming lesson. Your child is asked to put a floatation – or swimming – aid on. Why on earth are we doing this?!  A swimming aid is for life, not just for stage 1… “Why is my child being asked to use a swimming aid?” This is a very common question from parents. If you’re sat in one of our viewing areas, you might not be a ..read more

When it comes to swimming lessons – or any extra-curricular activities for your child – you’ll find loads of choice out there. This is great, and with many of us here at SwimNE wearing ‘parent hats’ ourselves, we know just how amazing the choice of classes, clubs, and activities is across the north east. The choice, though, can also be a little overwhelming at times. Take swimming, for example. There are numerous swim schools across the region, and there are also council-led sessions available. You’ll probably also find that each provider offers their customers different types of lessons – gro ..read more

We’ve been joined this summer by Grace from Jesmond Park Academy. Grace, 15, started swimming with SwimNE when she was just 4-years-old. She worked her way through stages 1 to 10 before joining the competitive swimming team at Tynemouth Amateur Swimming Club (TASC). Earlier this summer, Grace joined us once more – this time on work experience. In this blog, Grace shares with us her experiences of competitive swimming and how her time at SwimNE helped prepare her for this step. Tell us about your time with SwimNE I started with SwimNE when I was just 4-years-old. I’ve always loved swimming and ..read more

We hear this question – or variations of it – often. It’s a tricky one to answer, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, how do you define ‘learn to swim’ – remembering that our definition might be different to yours, and that might be different again to another parent. And secondly, because each child learns differently and at their own pace, which is totally normal. How do we define ‘learn to swim’? As we alluded to above, everybody has their own thoughts on what ‘learn to swim’ looks like. For some, it might mean that a child can swim across the swimming pool. For others, it might be ..read more

Recently, we’ve been sharing stories from some of our swimmers (and their grown-ups) who have been telling us about their first swimming lesson with SwimNE. Continuing on this theme, we today want to introduce you to Liz.  Liz’s story is a bit different to the others that we have shared, because Liz was in her fifties before she had her first swimming lesson with the SwimNE team. Liz’s first swimming lesson with SwimNE “My first lesson was seven years ago as a 57 year old non-swimmer. I was anxious and terrified, and turned up feeling – I’ll be honest – a little bit silly,” commented Liz ..read more

Putting their faces in the water can be a tough nut for many children to crack – and it’s something that we see regularly, especially in our beginners swimming lessons.  While some children jump straight in and are happy to submerge their nose and their mouths, others take a little longer to master this skill. Although either scenario – and everything in between – is totally normal, it is something that we get quite a few questions about. So, it’s something that we wanted to talk a little bit about in this blog. Why is this such an important swimming skill? Learning to put their face in t ..read more