Swimming teacher connections
Although we’ve always swum with Water Babies, N’s had a few teachers during his 3 years of swimming. Mostly to do with changing days, going from a Wednesday to Friday, and for the last 18 months or so, to a Saturday. However, there’s obviously been holiday cover and teachers moving to different areas or jobs which means we’ve had weeks where we’ve had stand ins or swaps for a couple of weeks.
N’s teacher for the last 18 months taught her last one of our classes the other week. Although N does always talk about Lynsey being his swimming teacher, given the ups and downs that N still likes to test me with, I was surprised at how strongly he (and the rest of the children) felt about her finishing. We’re always the first Water Babies class at our pool on a Saturday but even though it’s always a rush moving from one class to the other, Lynsey was essentially mobbed by the 3 and 4 year olds all wanting a hug to say thank you and goodbye. It was really sweet to see.
I think the change in teacher has gone really smoothly. It’s definitely something that’s done well in our classes. I don’t think N’s that worried when people change at the activities that he does. He’s pretty relaxed when it comes to changes, but not all children are. On this occasion, we’ve had the outgoing teacher weaning off the classes, having temporary teachers the children already know, and then introducing the new teacher Laura alongside the old one. Laura came along and helped out in the pool, then this week was the first lesson where she taught us, with Lynsey on the side giving insight into the different children and their capabilities.
I’d also been talking to N out of the pool for the last few weeks, about the change in teacher, and trying to get him to be excited about a new teacher. I was hoping he’d want to impress and work hard at all the activities. So he was expecting to see Laura teaching this week, and he was quite happy to take part in most of the activities with no problems.
Some people think changing teachers is a bad thing. Yes generally I agree, but with swimming I think N’s benefitred.
- He’s had to adjust and make those connections again with different teachers.
- Each teacher has a slightly different way of teaching and it means if N struggles with one method, he might benefit from a different explanation or support.
- N’s not very confident about his ability in the pool. ‘I can’t’ is a favoured refrain from him. So having different teachers tell him ‘well done’ or that he’s done a good job at xyz, rather than just me, helps reinforce that he can actually swim if he puts his mind to it.
We’ll be sad to see Lynsey go. I think she’s been great for N – keeping things light hearted, while trying to encourage, and be stricter when necessary to get him to try activities he wouldn’t always try with me. Hopefully he’ll continue to do well with Laura in our final term of swimming with Water Babies.
How do your children relate and connect with their teachers?
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Disclosure: We swim with and blog for Water Babies. All words and opinions are my own.
It sounds like he has taken the whole experience in his stride and is a well settled young man. Like you say change isn’t always a bad thing and N obviously takes it all in his stride x
#letkidsbekids
Yep, we’ve very lucky that he does tend to take things in his stride really well. Thanks for stopping by
It’s always sad when teachers leave but it is good to hear the positives too of managing the transition. My little girl loves swimming too but I’ve not done any lesson type sessions with her yet. With the music and movement class she does, she didn’t take it well when the teacher changed so I think we’ve got more work to do with transitions. X
My girls only started swim lessons in April but they have loads of different teachers, as there are 5 to a class of 8 kids and they seem to be fine with all this variety luckily. Mich x
Wow, that seems like an unusual set up, but handy if any are ill or away, means any one of them can step in without upsetting the children. Thanks for stopping by
I think changes of teachers can go either way, but it helps make children adaptable to each style. My children have never minded swapping teachers for a week or two.
Glad N has benefited from the new teachers.
Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids
You’re right, definitely depends on the child. I think it helps seeing changes at nursery as well – although they do tend to try and adapt for the younger ones to continue some of the staff they’re used to as they move up the rooms
I personally think it is a good thing for them to get different teachers. After all they will do at school and extra-curricular activities expose them to this before school (if you see what I mean!). Luckily my two have never been phased by changing teachers. Sounds like you have been lucky and had some great swimming teachers.
It’s strange because when I was at primary, we had one teacher a year, but nowadays having 2 seems to be standard. Guess that’s good if the child doesn’t particularly get on with one of them that well, they’ve got the chance with a second, but seems odd to me compared to the old days!
Thanks for commenting.
I’ve recently stopped my little boys swimming lessons because they never had the same teacher for more than a few weeks and it really unsettles them. A change every now and then is good for them but if they can’t get to know a teacher and settle with them then there is little point them being there as they aren’t being taught at all. Not one teacher followed on from the previous teacher and they were always asking parents what they did last week etc! So it was a bit of a shambles really! oops rant over!!
I hope N continues to enjoy his lessons and loves his new teacher as much as the last 🙂
That is a bit rubbish, and too up and down. This term’s been quite unusual as they’ve been ‘weaning’ the old teacher out so it’s less extreme, but because they have theme week rotation, it’s easy for the teachers to continue from one week to the next.