Customers can opt for the easy payment plan direct debit scheme*, which includes core badges from the International Learn to Swim Pathway.

2026 pricing:

• Junior: £27 monthly direct debit
• Adult: £28 monthly direct debit

*At sites offering direct debit payment options

2026 pricing:

• Junior: £67
• Adult: £70

Badges aren't included in this price.

Badges and certificates for completing each grade are available to purchase from the East Riding Leisure centre that provides your swimming lessons.

• STA swimming lesson badge: £2.70
• STA swimming lesson certificate: £2.20

• Swimming costume/shorts
  • plus a swim nappy
  • and a neoprene nappy cover
• Suitable footwear for poolside and changing areas (flip flops/poolside shoes)
• £1 coin for the lockers
• Three towels:
  • 1 for the poolside
  • 1 for the changing area
  • and 1 for the adult
• Shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, hairbrush and any other additional toiletries required
• An extra set of clothing
• Healthy drink and snack for after

This list is not exhaustive, and some items of the kit can be optional.

• Towel
• Swimming cap
• Goggles
• Shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, hairbrush and any other additional toiletries required
• Hairbrush/comb
• Hairband/hair clip
• Water bottle
• £1 coin for the lockers
• Suitable footwear for poolside and changing areas (flip flops/poolside shoes)
• Healthy drink and snack for after

This list is not exhaustive, and some items of the kit can be optional.

• Towel
• Swimming cap
• Goggles
• Shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, hairbrush and any other additional toiletries required
• Hairbrush/comb
• Hair band/hair clip
• Water bottle
• £1 coin for the lockers
• Suitable footwear for poolside and changing areas (flip flops/poolside shoes)
• Healthy drink and snack for after

The STA Inclusive Swimwear Guidance looks to accommodate and support swimmers’ individual needs and encourage participation and involvement in swimming. It is designed to support swimming facilities in permitting all swimmers to wear alternative or modified swimwear, guaranteeing no swimmer is excluded or discriminated against.

Lack of appropriate swimwear options are a key barrier to participation in swimming for many people in the community. For some swimmers, the standard swimsuit options may not suit their individual needs and preferences. This may be attributed to a range of factors including but not limited to a swimmer’s cultural or religious observations, impairment, hygiene needs, modesty, body image and cost. With inclusion at the forefront of this guidance, STA hopes all swimmers will feel welcome, safe, valued, and celebrated in swimming.

Below are some examples of acceptable swimwear:

Would your child know what to do if they ever faced a dangerous situation in water?

Providing the right opportunity and support for your child to learn to swim is very important; being able to swim is an essential life skill, just like reading and writing.

Plus, it's fun and opens up a world of new opportunities for young learners.

Learning how to swim means your child can enjoy playing as a family and with friends on holiday, and participate in other fun aquatic activities like water polo, snorkelling, sailing and much more!

Our children are our most precious gifts, and as parents, we want to make sure that they are always happy, healthy and safe; making sure they are confident and safe in and around the water is an important part of this. Getting young children into aquatic activities from an early age and helping them develop this lifelong activity has always been, and continues to be, a key priority for STA. First and foremost: it is fun!

Going swimming does not have to mean rigorously practising strokes length after length. It’s about enjoying the water as a family – it’s the one activity you can all join in and have fun together.

Playing with your baby in water also helps them to feel safe and secure, and it helps to boost their confidence. This is thanks to the skin-to-skin contact, regular eye contact and big smiles. Teaching babies in water relies very heavily on this empathy and awareness on the part of the parent. A calm, relaxed approach achieves far better results than an anxious, fearful one. Young babies have no concept of fear, they accept every new experience they are introduced to by smiling or crying, relying on the empathy of their parents to guide them through the maze of discovery.

Joining a baby swimming class can also help with this. It is important, however, that children are taught by trained instructors who use a recognised baby swimming programme. Programmes such as STA’s STARFISH learn to swim programme for 0-2-year-olds have been developed specifically for babies and will ensure that your youngster will reap positive experiences in the water. They are structured to help them develop physically, emotionally, intellectually and socially, while equipping them with key safety and safe hold skills in the water.

Swimming also keeps your baby active, fit and healthy. Research has also shown that swimming can have a positive impact on a baby’s sleeping and eating patterns. Most importantly, you are teaching your child to be water safety aware and giving them a key life skill that could one day save their life.

There were 365 accidental drownings involving alcohol and/or drugs in the United Kingdom from 2018 to 2022. That's 29% of all accidental drownings in the UK in this period.

That's an average of 73 per year.

25% were aged 16-25 years old. Of these, 84% were male.

The charity, the Royal Life Saving Society UK, launched its Don't Drink and Drown campaign following a string of tragic and high-profile student drownings in 2014.

The risk of drowning doesn't disappear as you grow older. If anything, you become more responsible for your own safety around water, as well as being increasingly responsible for the safety of the people around you.

This campaign particularly wants to target those of us who should be responsible for their friends if they have had too much to drink, helping them to return home safely.

Learning basic swimming, water safety, and safe rescue skills is an evidence-based, low-cost, drowning prevention intervention that can drastically reduce the risk of drowning.

STA's Learn to Swim Programme is based on the premise of ongoing assessment throughout the scheme, ensuring consistently high standards are maintained and to facilitate progression through the scheme.

In order to effectively implement the LSP, it is recommended that swimming teachers undertake the following levels of assessment:

• Initial Assessment:

  • Necessary to ensure that participants enter the scheme at the appropriate point for their needs.
  • Can be made using the learning objectives for each award, and participants can be placed into the programme at the most appropriate point.

• Continuous Assessment:

  • Swimming teachers carry out participant assessments on an ongoing basis throughout the course to inform their planning for subsequent lessons and ensure lesson quality.
  • They ensure all learning outcomes are addressed over the course of lessons and that there are no omissions.
  • Continuous assessment activities can be recorded on the pro forma progress tick sheets for each grade.

• End of Course Assessment:

  • Swimming teachers should be satisfied that participants can consistently and confidently meet all of the learning outcomes before an award is issued.
  • Swimming teachers consult the assessment standards to ensure that each skill is performed to the required standard.
  • Only appropriately qualified swimming teachers conduct award assessments.

Goggles may be worn during lessons and assessments. However, STA recommends that they are not worn until Grade 2 onwards.

From a safety point of view, participants must be able to perform aquatic breathing practices without wearing goggles wherever this is possible.

Participants who do wear goggles should be given time to practice skills without wearing them during each lesson.

Distance awards up to and including 20 metres may be swum using any recognised stroke or paddle.

25 metres and over needs to be swum using a recognised stroke or a combination of recognised strokes.

Buoyancy aids may be used for performing all learning outcomes within Grade 1, and may be used for support within Grade 2.

For all other awards, buoyancy aids must not be used unless it is clearly stated that use of a particular aid is permissible in the learning outcome or the specific award.

In order to receive an award, participants must be able to perform all of the learning outcomes to a consistently high standard.

When assessing awards, swimming teachers will refer to the assessment standards for the award they are delivering and satisfy themselves that each outcome is performed to the standard which is required.

The learning outcomes for assessment can all be found on the relevant lesson page

If there is a medical reason why a participant cannot complete a certain skill, swimming teachers should contact STA for guidance.

In order to maintain the high standards required by the STA Learn to Swim Programme, the assessment of learning outcomes for all awards must be carried out by a qualified swimming teacher.

A holder of the STA Award in Swimming Teaching may assess:

• Grades 1-7*
• The Distance Series *excluding diving.

A holder of the STA Certificate in Swimming Teaching may assess:

• All of the above awards
• Advanced Swimmer Awards
• Junior Lifeguard Academy
• Water Safety Skills
• Aquatic Helper
• Kingfisher
• Dolphin
• Competitive Starts and Turns.

All distances specified in the learning outcomes are minimum distances.

Participants are not permitted to touch the pool floor during the assessment and may only touch the poolside to turn and not rest.

In a smaller pool, participants may swim in a circuit around the pool.

Diving must not take place in water less than 1.8 metres deep. Alternative skills have been outlined within the assessment standards.

Facility constraints for diving: If all other skills can be safely performed, but due to the pool depth, diving cannot be taught, then it can be substituted with the skills outlined below. STA strongly recommend that participants be taught to complete dives in another suitable pool where possible.

At East Riding Leisure, we list minimum and maximum depths for all of our centre's main and learner pools on the Swim Facilities page. All of our main pools are deep enough to dive into at the deep end.

The answer to this is never simple, unfortunately.

Every swimmer learns at a different rate, and there are lots of different variables that can affect how long it may take. Variables that need to be considered (but not limited to):

• previous ability
• the number of swimming lessons per week
• amount of practice outside of lessons
• fear of water
• motor skills
• age
• effort
• patience

It will take time for your child to learn essential swimming skills and to confidently and competently be able to swim using a range of strokes as well as have the water safety knowledge and skills to be safe around water.

Each participant is an individual and will progress through the Learn to Swim Programme at their own pace.

It is vital that swimming teachers and parents support participants to become the best swimmers they can be.

Rushing participants or attempting practices or skills which the participants are not ready for will lead to a lack of confidence or a lack of progression.

Play is an essential part of learning and development as it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being of children. Games are a great way for children to learn and practice the essential swimming skills in a fun and enjoyable way, without too much focus being set on the individual skill.

Play helps to influence the development of fine and gross motor skills, personal awareness, strength, flexibility, coordination, body awareness and endurance. As a result, aquatic games should be incorporated into swimming lessons as and when it is appropriate to do so. Games can help to take the pressure off learning a new skill and give children a chance to learn and explore those skills for themselves, whilst still having fun.

Be positive and supportive
Once your child is old enough to start structured swimming lessons unaided (without a parent/carer in the water), it is important to support them through their swimming journey, making sure that you offer praise and motivation at every stage.

Be consistent
Swimming is a vital skill for any child, so consistent attendance at swimming lessons is very important. It also means that they maintain and develop the skills they have learnt, which will help progression and improve your child’s swimming ability.

Have fun as a family
Outside of swimming lessons, swimming as a family is a great way to help your child and build their confidence – it also fun and is one of only a few activities that you enjoy together as a family. Swimming is a vital skill for any child, so consistent attendance to swimming lessons is very important. It also means that they maintain and develop the skills they have learnt, which will help progression and improve your child’s swimming ability.

Speak with your swimming teacher
To help, find out how your child is doing in their lessons from their swimming teacher. Find out where they might be struggling and try to help them when swimming as a family. (Please be mindful that the swimming teacher may not be able to hold a full conversation at the poolside as they may have a busy schedule. Find a mutual time that is convenient for both parent and the swim teacher to talk about the progress of their child.)

Most importantly, try to make your child’s swimming experience joyful!

Yes, STA has created a success tracker for you to keep a note of each time you or your child achieves a grade.

Download the STA Swim Tracker

Yes, Badges and certificates for completing each grade are available to purchase.

Most East Riding Leisure centres have a resident swimming club.

View all clubs

The following recommendations are taken from “The Pool Water Treatment Advisory Group”. They are maximum values and are not intended as set targets.

Children’s teaching pool: 29 - 31 °C

• For babies under 3 months or 5.5 kg: 32 °C
• For Babies over 3 months, young participants and disabled participants: 30 - 32 °C

Recreational swimming: 27 - 29 °C

Competitive swimming and diving, fitness swimming: 26 - 28 °C

Leisure waters: 28 - 30 °C

The air temperature should be 1 °C above the temperature of the water.

At East Riding Leisure, we list the target temperature range for all of our centre's main and learner pools on the Swim Facilities page.

It is important that the water is shallow enough that you are able to stand comfortably to support your baby effectively.

At East Riding Leisure, we list the minimum and maximum depths for all of our centre's main and learner pools on the Swim Facilities page.

Each swimming pool should carry out a risk assessment to calculate how many participants a single swimming teacher can safely teach during a lesson. A risk assessment should consider the pool space, number of teachers and assistants, age and ability of the participants, etc, as each swimming pool is different.

The table below states the STA Swimming Teaching Code of Practice recommended maximum participant-to-swimming teacher ratios. A ratio may need to be reduced depending on the risk assessment and to ensure a high-quality swimming lesson.

Baby and pre-school:

• 12:1 adult and child pairs for a STA BPS Teacher

Learners aged 3 - 4 years (with a swimming teacher delivering the lesson and their accompanying adult on the poolside):

• 6:1 for a STA Award Teacher
• 6:1 for a STA Certificate Teacher

Non-swimmers and beginners when the swimming teacher is in the water:

• 6:1 for a STA Award Teacher with appropriate safety cover on the poolside
• 6:1 for a STA Certificate Teacher with appropriate safety cover on the poolside

Non-swimmers and beginners:

• 12:1 for a STA Award Teacher
• 12:1 for a STA Certificate Teacher

Improvers:

• 12:1 for a STA Award Teacher
• 20:1 for a STA Certificate Teacher

Advanced:

• 20:1 for a STA Certificate Teacher

Disabled participants:

• 1:1 or 4:1 for a Disabilities Teacher, depending on the participant's needs.

At East Riding Leisure, the highest number of participants in a swimming lesson is 6.

Make sure there are suitable changing rooms for both you and your baby.

You will also need somewhere safe to place your baby while you get changed.

At East Riding Leisure, we list all of our centres' wet side changing facilities, including baby changing, on the Swim Facilities page and centre accessibility pages.

Check that your teacher holds the STA Level 2 Award in Aquatic Teaching - Baby and Pre-School or equivalent.

At East Riding Leisure, all of our swimming instructors hold STA Level 2 qualifications.

Don’t be afraid to ask your teacher for details.

At East Riding Leisure, all of our swimming instructors are insured through their STA qualification and membership, as well as through their employment with ERYC.

Often personal recommendation is the best way to find a good teacher.

View our East Riding Leisure swimming lesson testimonials.

STA have gathered feedback and opinions from parents who have been through the swimming development of their child/children.