We are happy to accept babies from 6 weeks old onto our courses. Before this age we can suggest useful exercises for you and your baby in the bath at home.

The NHS advise that it is completely safe to take your baby swimming at any age, whether or not they have had their immunisations yet. Please see the NHS website for their advice on when to start taking your baby swimming.

As explained above, we accept babies from six weeks onto our courses. It is a great idea to get your newborn baby swimming as soon as possible as they tend to be naturally comfortable in water when they are very young. Obviously we want you to be completely happy with our courses – so please let us know if you’d prefer to be on a waiting list first so you secure your place with us.

We advise you wear suitable supportive swimwear which is comfortable for you.

Babies must wear a double nappy system to avoid any accidents happening in the water and keep the pools nice and clean for all of us to use. This means your baby will need to wear a swim nappy (i.e. a disposable one, such as ‘Huggies Little Swimmer’ nappy, or one that can be washed and re-used) PLUS a cover nappy – such as ‘Happy Nappy’.

For parent and child classes you will only need to bring a woggle (sold online here), your swimwear, babies nappy and swimwear and towels (for after lessons).

For child only lessons you will need a woggle, float and armbands.

All items can be bought online and collected from the Stanway or Dunmow pools. For other pools please contact your pool: Swim Shop

Yes, absolutely. Please let us know this preferably on your booking form or on the phone so that your instructor will be aware. The chances are our swimming courses will improve your confidence in the water as well as your baby’s.

The simple answer to this is: No.

Mini Swimming lessons are designed for both you and your baby to make the most from your time in the water. We would never force anyone to do anything they were not happy doing and we understand that not all parents would like the idea of submerging their baby underwater. A cue in the form of a wet test is always carried out to make sure that babies are ready, and most importantly happy to swim underwater. Most importantly however – there is such a scope of such fantastic activities that we can do with you for baby swimming – it’s not just about babies being underwater. We focus on every element that we can teach you through our courses.

Normally we always welcome both parents and any other family members who want to be involved but currently under the new guidelines we are unable to allow this. We hope this will be relaxed soon but for now only the parent swimming can attend.

Please give yourself and your baby enough time to change and feel relaxed before your lesson begins; 10 minutes or so should be sufficient time. Please try not to arrive too long before this time so that the previous class also experiences the calm, relaxing environment for their lesson.

Please avoid feeding solids at least one hour before swimming.

If your baby has a mild cold and is quite happy then please do come along. The water has quite an amazing decongestant ability! If however your baby is miserable or has a severe cold then its best to not attend as it will not be a good experience for either of you. If your child has any illness that is contagious such as diarrhoea, sickness or conjunctivitis- anything that a nursery for example would send your child home with, please do not attend the class.If you or your child have and Covid-19 symptoms (High temperature, persistent cough or loss of taste or smell) please do not attend.

At Mini Swimming we are more than just a baby swim school; we continue teaching babies through to toddlers and beyond. We continue our aquatic journey all the way to 11 year olds.