Active Lifestyles Swimming Lessons
Building Confident Swimmers across the Stroud District
At Active Lifestyles, we’re proud to be teaching over 2,500 children to swim every week across our Stroud and Dursley centres. Our expert instructors are dedicated to delivering high-quality, enjoyable lessons that help swimmers of all ages and abilities build confidence in the water.
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Have a free swim on us!
Once a child enrols onto our Learn to Swim programme, they have access to free public swimming for as long as they stay on lessons. Please note that this is only available to children whose lessons are paid for by Direct Debit.
We have found that bringing your child at least once a week on top of their lesson greatly improves their water confidence and skills.
Swimming Lessons
Our swimming lessons run on a continuous 50-week programme, offering flexibility with sessions available seven days a week. You can start your child’s swimming journey at any time during the year. Children are assessed weekly, ensuring they progress at their own pace and move up as soon as they’re ready.
Ready to get started? Complete our questionnaire below to assess your child’s ability then you can book online.
If you would prefer to speak to somebody about your requirements then please call:
Stroud: 01453 766771
Dursley: 01453 546441
Or leave your details in the form at the bottom of this page and a member of our team will be in touch.
1. Can the child glide and float on their front and back with or without aids, then return to their feet?
Swimming Lesson Stages
Little Ducks
To begin a child’s swimming journey, we offer Little Ducks parent and child swimming lessons. In these sessions, both parent and child get in the pool to learn water confidence and basic swimming skills. This first step in a child’s swimming journey is a great way to introduce them to the water – not only do these lessons make your child feel more confident in the water, but you’ll feel more confident, too. We offer these lessons for babies from birth up until the age of 3-and-a-half.
Stage 1: Preschool
Before a child starts school, they can join our Learn to Swim Programme at Stage 1 from the age of 3 and a half. Once they start school, they are then able to move into Stage 2. These lessons work on developing basic water confidence and learning to work as a group.
Stages 2 – 7: Junior Learn to Swim Programme
Our Junior Learn to Swim Programme runs every evening and on the weekends. We follow the Swim England National Teaching Plan to ensure that your child progresses as quickly as possible. In some cases, we may ask that you bring your child along to a public swimming session so that we can accurately assess their ability and direct you to the correct class.
Aquatic Development Programme
The Aquatic Development Programme is a progression from the Learn to Swim programme. It will develop a swimmer’s skills with specialism in a certain discipline, whether it’s developing competitive swimming, lifesaving or synchronised swimming techniques, or simply swimming for fun.
Our youth volunteering programme is also included within the Aquatic Development Programme, and is aimed at children aged 14 years and above. This programme provides an opportunity to introduce them to teaching swimming, lifesaving, synchronised swimming and to understand lifeguard duties.
ADP Squad Swimming
Once a child has achieved Stage 7, they can continue their swimming journey within our squad system.
Squad swimming is an introduction to competitive swimming and focuses on good technique, building strength, stamina and speed in the water. If a child is unsure about joining a club, squad swimming is designed to give them the club swimming experience while staying local.
Squads are split into four sections. Each section has its own criteria in order to build and develop the children as they move through the squads. Some club swimmers combine squad swimming with their swimming club in order to continue to enforce good technique.
ADP Lifesaving Club
Lifesaving Club is aimed at 8–12 year olds who would like to learn lifesaving skills and water safety in a fun and safe way. The only criteria to join are that they must be able to swim 25 metres on both their front and back and be able to tread water for one minute.
Sessions usually include a mix of swimming, lifesaving skills, personal safety and resuscitation, where, once perfected, your child will have the opportunity to gain awards as they progress through the years.
Private Lessons
If group swimming lessons are not for your child, we offer private swimming lessons on a 1-to-1 or a 1-to-2 basis. These swimming lessons occur during public swimming sessions and are available for both adults and children.
Bookings are available in a block booking where you pay for a number of lessons and have the same time, same teacher each week or you can book a number of one-off sessions with different instructors that are available.
You can request the teacher works on a specific element of swimming to aid the progression of the particular swimmer.