Teaching independent swimming from birth, Puddle Ducks want every child to love swimming, respect the water and swim beautifully. Lessons are taught in specially selected pools with limited class sizes

Little Dippers

The Little Dippers programme is our most exciting as this is where we teach children to swim face down in the water independently. It is a fantastic introduction to swimming classes and building confidence in the water. A typical 30 minute session would include the following: safe entry into the water, a warm up with some bubble blowing (very important, teaches your child breath control in the water), swimming independently with woggles, jumping in from standing, plenty of swims from teacher to parent. We use a lot of music and rhyme in our classes to help children learn technique and reinforce the positive experience of being in the water. Little Dippers is the last level where children can enter directly. We take children between 30 months old and four years old and no previous swimming experience is necessary. Because of the way our teachers are trained to support children of all abilities, in Little Dippers we can accommodate those who are new to swimming as well as those who have worked their way through the Puddle Ducks programme. Little Dippers is the first level where we introduce criteria, visible in your online account, where you can see what your little one is excelling at and where they might need some additional support. Those Little Dippers who fulfil the criteria before their 4th birthday are moved up to our Dippers class, a class for our more capable and confident little ones. Little Dippers is full of new skills to learn; back swimming, exhaling in the water, independently pushing from the wall, head down and swimming to adult, reaching under water for a sinking ring…the list goes on! Children are still supported in every way they need, physically and emotionally (a parent or guardian is in the water with them), and only moved forward at their own pace and when they tell us they are ready.