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Disability Swim Stars


A young boy with swim cap, goggles and float, being helped to swim. Text on image reads: Disability Swim Stars

Swimming Lessons for Disabled Children

Learning to swim is an essential life skill that all children should be given the opportunity to acquire.

Our swimming lessons for disabled children follow the Water Skills and Alpha Step Awards. If the learner is improving to a point where we believe that some of the Swim Star Awards are attainable then we can review to see if the Swim Stars would be a better path.

We create a more supportive experience by making sure there is a minimum of one instructor per six children during our swimming lessons for disabled children. Our swimming teachers are Swim England qualified within Disability Swimming and can teach children with a wide variety of disabilities. We also allow parents to enter the water during lessons to provide more support.

Our instructors will work with you throughout the programme and if your child is able to move over to the Junior Swim Stars programme, these lessons will help to support their transition.

Home Portal

Home Portal allows you to track your child's progress through your child's swimming lessons.

No need for queuing at reception, you can manage your child's swimming lessons online. You can change the day of your child's swimming lesson, see notes from their instructor and when your child is ready to progress to the next stage you can move them up to a day and time that suits you.

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"The swimming instructors are fantastic and the staff are friendly. We can attend this class without feeling judged or afraid of what others may be thinking"

Ages

These swimming lessons are suitable for children 4 years and over.

Prices

The best way to pay for your swimming lessons is by direct debit. Swim lesson memberships start from the date of purchase and include FREE unlimited access to public swim sessions.

For prices of swimming lessons and all other activities, memberships and facilities hire, please visit the Gedling Leisure price list.

 

For more information, visit the swimming lesson terms and conditions webpage and the changes to memberships webpage.

Alpha Step Awards

The Alpha Step Awards are designed to build confidence in those who may need additional support during their swimming lessons.

There are three Alpha Step Awards to acheive in total, covering the following skills: buoyancy, rotation, coordination, spatial awareness, breathing, and entering and leaving the pool safely.

The number of skills needed to achieve each Award are as follows:

Alpha Step 1

Six out of 22 skills (maximum of one skill from each section).

Alpha Step 2

12 out of 22 skills (maximum of two skills are to be gained from each section).

Alpha Step 3

17 out of 22 skills (one skill must be gained from all sections).

Water Skills Awards

The Swim England Water Skills Awards support intensive activity programmes and reward your child for successfully developing eight out of 10 skills across six grading levels, or six out of eight skills if your child has a disability.

By the time your child succeeds at Water Skills 6, he or she should be able to swim 75 metres within two minutes using three different strokes.

More detail on the outcomes for the Water Skills Awards can be found on the Swim England Water Skills Award webpage.

 

Facilities and accessibility
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Facilities and accessibility

Learn more about the accessible facilities at all our leisure centres

Private swimming lessons
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Private swimming lessons

Private swimming lessons with one to one instruction, helping your child achieve their swimming goals

Swim Stars
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Swim Stars

Our swimming lessons can support your child onto our Swim Stars programme.