A good school should build self-confidence, teach safety precautions in water and create a warm, friendly and happy atmosphere among students and instructors. Visit a few fitness clubs or private swimming schools in your neighborhood and consider some of these points:
* Location: The closer to home, the more likely you are to go. A neighborhood sports club or swimming school will also be more likely to attract your child's schoolmates, too.
* Frequency and flexibility of schedule: Many schools offer swimming lessons once or twice a week. A few offer classes as many as five times a week. Intensive learning is more likely to speed up competency.
* Class size: The smaller the class, the more individualized attention. Many classes average 10 children per teacher, but numbers may not accurately reflect the long-term learning experience. Class size will fluctuate, depending on skill level, season and day of the week.
* Length and content of class: The benefits of one-on-one instruction have to be weighed against waiting time. Group instruction in the water can be more fun and exercise than sitting poolside and waiting for a turn with the teacher. A 45-minute or one-hour class can be easily consumed in poolside warm-up exercises, waterplay with buckets and watering cans -- and waiting. Assess how much time children are actually in the water, learning new skills.
* Sequence of skills: Each school teaches its own sequence of skills. Ask if they have a pamphlet listing the skills they teach and the equipment or props used to teach them.
* Pool rules for parent participation. Can a parent, if a member, swim in the pool while his or her child is taking a lesson, rather than pass the time in the waiting area? Check, too, whether your club offers a regularly scheduled hour or event to encourage parent-child swimming time.
* Rapport with teachers: Do teachers quickly learn kids' names? How do they handle crying children or fearful children?
* Chlorination: At some clubs, like Crystal Sports Club in Setagaya, a sign states that pool water is sterilized by nontoxic ozone instead of chlorine. If no sign is posted, ask.
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