Around the end of the previous winter, a friend of mine in Wandsworth began discussing swimming lessons in the same manner that people used to discuss reception class spots at a reputable primary. Quiet. A little desperate. When she eventually received one, she felt a little proud. Her daughter is four years old. She informed me that there had been a nine-month waitlist. The child had outgrown two swimsuits by the time the email arrived.
It’s difficult to ignore the change. On a Saturday morning, stroll past any local recreation center Morden, Britannia, Wadurs, the council-run pools scattered throughout half the nation, and the parking lots are packed by eight. Parents are waiting in line on the tiled benches by the small pool inside, not for a session but for the opportunity to *book* one. Swimming has become the activity that parents won’t compromise on, despite football clubs closing and ballet schools finding it difficult to fill their Tuesday evenings. This feeling has been subtly growing over the past two or three years.
Saying it aloud makes part of the reason clear. The curriculum’s only life-saving sport is swimming. A child who can walk 25 meters without assistance is generally fitter, safer near water, and perhaps less quantifiably better at the kind of patient self-discipline that helps with everything else, according to parents and the majority of the evidence. The pandemic might have made this worse. Eighteen months of instruction were missed by a generation of kids. For eighteen months, a generation of parents had to worry about it.
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Activity | Swimming Lessons (Learn to Swim Programme) |
| Operator | Better / GLL (Greenwich Leisure Limited) |
| Pathway Used | Swim England Learn to Swim Pathway |
| Typical Cost | £25 per month via Direct Debit |
| Booking Window | Up to 7 days in advance (members); 3 days (non-members at some sites) |
| Age Range | Post-natal through adult / competition standard |
| Instructors | Fully qualified ASA / Swim England teachers |
| Booking System | Course Pro app / Better UK app / reception |
The numbers have a silent narrative of their own. Waiting lists at Better’s Morden Leisure Centre currently span almost every phase of the Swim England pathway. The center’s own booking notes are startlingly direct: the majority of lessons are full, registration is only available online, and even the holiday short courses which are intended to boost confidence in between school terms fill up within days of their release. The monthly direct debit fee for lessons is £25, which is incredibly affordable when compared to after-school activities in London. Perhaps that’s also a part of it. The public pool has held its ground in a year when tennis coaching has become obsolete and music instruction has risen above £40 per hour.
The actual lessons haven’t changed all that much. The badges and certificates still come in those recognizable plastic sleeves, the teachers are still ASA-qualified, and the stages continue to advance in the methodical manner they always have building confidence, introducing treading water, aquatic breathing, and the gradual improvement of stroke. The structure that surrounds them has altered. The digital tracking system, Course Pro Parents can view weekly feedback, ask questions, and track progress from their phones with Better and several other operators. I was informed by a father at the Morden viewing window that he checks the app more frequently than his work email. He wasn’t just kidding.
There’s also a more subtle, difficult-to-define shift. Swimming has once again become a social activity. Inflatable obstacle courses in the main pool, flumes that empty out into the shallow end with a satisfying crash, and family-friendly swims with music are not novel concepts, but they are being promoted and reserved with a level of intensity that was previously unheard of. Families who haven’t been near a public pool in years are being quietly drawn in by Kids Swim Free programs, which are run in collaboration with councils like Merton. When you see a parent retrieve a goggle for £3 from a locker, they still only take a small padlock a detail that seems charmingly stuck in 2003 and you get the impression that something ancient has been rediscovered.
Not everything is comforting. Uncomfortable concerns about capacity are brought up by the waitlists. For more than ten years, pool closures have outpaced new construction in the UK, and the remaining facilities are meeting demand that wasn’t anticipated. Because the slots are simply too valuable to leave empty, cancellation policies have become more stringent. If you miss two classes in a thirty-day period, you may lose your ability to make online reservations at certain websites. The system’s capacity is still unknown. A center may be shut down for months due to a single boiler failure.
As you watch all of this happen, you can’t help but feel that the activity’s cultural significance has somewhat changed. In the past, taking swimming lessons was something you had to do. They are now something you schedule, prepare for, and set reminders for on your calendar. They are discussed by parents with the same forward-thinking focus that was previously reserved for school catchment areas. It’s unclear at this point whether this is a short-term spike or a longer realignment. The pools are full, the apps are refreshing, and another parent is signing up for a waitlist that won’t be cleared until autumn on Saturday morning at Morden, somewhere between the small pool and the vending machine.
i) https://www.better.org.uk/leisure-centre/london/merton/morden-leisure-centre/holiday-activities
ii) https://southdownsleisure.co.uk/junior-activities/holiday-programme/
iii) https://magnavitae.org/11-21-swimming-lesson-sign-up-form/