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Try a class for FREE!

FREE swim class at Cheltenham Everlast Fitness, GL50 4FA 15th September

Tiny toes, big splashes! At Puddle Ducks Gloucestershire, we believe that every child deserves to love the water. Join us for a free swim class on Monday 15th September and watch your little one giggle, splash and grow in the pool. Perfect for little ones aged 6months - 4years.

Fill in the form below and the office team will be in touch to confirm your space in class.

  • Learning to swim is a life skill every parent wants for their child; the swim school you choose and teaching methods they use are important to understand as they vary and can affect your child’s relationship with the water.  

    Why is the Puddle Ducks guided-learning approach the best way for your child to learn to swim? 

    We set the environment for success. 

    From arriving pool side, you are expertly guided through your lesson. Every activity is designed with your child’s stage of development in mind and is taught in such a way that you, the parent/carer are learning how to nurture your child’s water confidence. 

    Guided learning broadly refers to playful educational activities which, although gently steered by an adult, give children the freedom to explore a learning goal in their own way. This approach leads them through positive pathways and builds progression. It helps children develop problem-solving and communication skills as well as promoting creativity and imagination. 

    Our guided learning approach is continually developed by the leading baby & pre-school swimming experts and we are at the forefront of child-led swimming in the UK. 

    What does it look like? 

    It’s about choice. 

    We use signals, positively encouraging them to try an activity and they choose whether they are ready to complete it. Through repetition in a class environment, every child finds the motivation to complete activities that move them forward through their swimming journey. 

    It’s about positive pathways. 

    Our fun learning environment teaches skills that positively enhance yours and your child’s lives; making exercise part of the routine, improving your time together as a family, from bath time to family holidays and learning transferable safety skills that can be used in and out of the pool. 

    Our teaching techniques enable you to guide and support your child. We will help you understand how we structure activities to build up those essential swimming skills. 

    The Puddle Ducks learn-to-swim journey achieves progression in a nurturing way that leads to increased water confidence and ultimately, impressive swimmers at an early age. 

  • 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. 

  • Whilst in our Kickers class, the children’s communication skills come into their own. Language and responding to key words, counting and listening all play a part in this level of the programme. We use two short woggles to help them move around without adult support (which often ends in the parent chasing them around the pool 😊). Many of the Learning Outcomes below are directly linked to personal survival and this is a key element of the programme, including partaking in our PJ week, three times a year, where the children learn how it feels to be in the water with clothes on. They can stay in our Kickers programme until they are 30 months and this length of time is just what some children need to gain and even regain their confidence as this stage can prove emotionally difficult for some toddlers (“Really?”, we hear you cry incredulously!). Our teachers are specially trained to make sure activities are adapted to each and every child and the focus is on encouragement and empowerment, never forcing and never undermining. 

  • The Splashers class is full of action, toys and songs – and of course lots of ducks! The progression in this level is visible for all to see, with the littlest ones learning from their peers as well as their parents and our clever teachers. Watching a baby that can’t yet walk, initiate their own head down swim is a pretty special thing…

Contact today to join us on Monday 15th September

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