Tadpoles
Tadpoles' are participants in Nottingham Leander's learn to swim sessions.
We take learners from 3½ years old until, as swimmers, they are ready to become full club members. (The minimum age for this is 6 years old).
We teach our Tadpoles Swim England’s recognised National Teaching Plan from Level One up to the Level Six award. (Full details of the stages are available on Swim England's website.
To be able to move to a full club membership Tadpoles have to be able to swim three different strokes competently, being able to complete 25 metres non-stop and 50 metres non-stop on one of the three.
There are many learn-to-swim classes available but we think we offer something different. Being staffed by (fully qualified) teachers who have considerable involvement in competitive swimming means we have one eye on swimming as an enjoyable sport in the future. We focus on the 'smiles not miles' philosophy throughout.
When our Tadpoles reach an appropriate level of ability they are offered the chance to move seamlessly into the main part of the club with its attendant coaching and competition programmes.
To aid the move from Tadpoles into full club sessions, an intermediate stage of TRANSITION, with separate sessions, focuses on becoming used to swimming lengths, diving, and an introduction to the technical parts of swimming such as understanding competition rules. The smiles remain unchanged.
