Swimming Lessons at Chard Leisure Centre
Infant swimming lessons
Starting from as a little as 3 months old, get your little one started on their water confidence journey.
Children’s swimming lessons
We provide lessons for children of all ages with no upper limit for those who want to learn to swim.
Adult swimming lessons
It's never too late to begin your swimming journey. Our adult lessons are for complete beginners as well as those looking to improve.
Private swimming lessons
If you or your child prefer a more intimate one-to-one environment we can help.
Rookie Lifeguard
We offer the RLSS's Rookie Lifeguard programme to enhance your child's water safety abilities.
Intensive swimming lessons
We can provide more intensive sessions mainly during school holidays to 'fast-track' your child's progress.
Infant Swimming Lessons
Our swimming lessons begin from just 3 months of age with our Discovery Ducklings and Ducklings programme from Swim England. These lessons enable infants and young children to gain water confidence and begin their swimming journey with splashing, songs and games incorporating essential swimming skills. In these lessons, the infant will be accompanied with an adult. As the infant progresses through these awards, the child will begin to learn to swim along with the swim teacher.
Children's Swimming Lessons
From school aged 4 and above, our children's swimming lessons develop the essential aquatic skills needed to become a confident, competent and safe in the water. Following the Swim England learn to swim programme, your child can achieve awards 1 to 7 across their swimming journey.
Adult Swimming Lessons
It's never too late to begin your journey to learn to swim. Our adult lessons are here to help you overcome any challenges you may face in getting into the water and becoming water confident before learning your life essential aquatic skills. Our more advanced lessons will see your stroke improve as well as your health as your swim better and for longer.
Rookie Lifeguard Programme
The Royal Lifesaving Society's Rookie Lifeguard programme enables swimmers from our Learn to Swim programme to further develop the skills they need to be water confident in different water environments, including the sea. The programme will begin to teach lifesaving first aid and how to rescue themselves and safely rescue others if there is a water emergency.
Private Swimming Lessons
Prefer a more intimate setting to learn how to swim? We have both child and adult one-to-one lessons available. Progress through your swimming goals with 30 minutes of intensive learning with our passionate and knowledgeable swim teachers.
What's included in our swimming lessons?
Lessons 50 weeks of the year
Our swimming lessons run all through the school holidays and bank holidays - only taking a 2 week break at the end of the year.
Progress tracking
With our useful Home Portal app, you'll be able to track your child's progress through each of the stage criteria before moving on to the next stage.
Swim School Journey
Your swimming journey doesn't end at stage 7. You can continue on to more advanced swimming in stages 8 to 10 and the Rookie Lifeguard programme.
Badges and certificates
After completing a learn to swim stage, you have to opportunity to purchase a badge and certificate to celebrate your child's progress. How many badges can you collect?
In Partnership with Swim England
We work in partnership with Swim England to deliver a high quality Learn to Swim programme for all ages and abilities.
All our instructors are experienced and fully trained to deliver the Swim England Learn to Swim Programme and are fully DBS checked.
View our parent guide
We've written this handy Parent Guide so our customers are informed of the Swim Pathway, how we will teach your child to swim and what to expect when you learn to swim with us.
What our customers say
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Frequently Asked Questions
Swimming lessons are paid for by monthly Direct Debit.
Most children are ready for swim lessons by the age of 4, at which point they can usually learn basic water survival skills such as floating, treading water and getting to an exit point. By age 5 or 6, they can work towards mastering the front crawl. The important thing to remember is it’s never too late to learn how to swim!
Absolutely! Our private swimming lessons are ideal for children and adults who prefer more intensive, one on one tuition. Learn and progress at a pace tailored to you or your child.
Some children are more naturally competent and confident in the water and therefore will progress faster. Other children may take a little longer to learn but can quite often become stronger and more proficient swimmers as they progress.
Our swimming lessons take place at Chard Leisure Centre, Fore Street, Chard, TA20 1PY. You can also find swimming lessons at our sister sites across South Somerset.