Booking unavailable from 3pm Wednesday 27th until 6am Thursday 28th January
We are carrying out essential work on our systems from 3pm Wednesday 27th January – 6am Thursday 28th January. During this time you will not be able to book any activity on the app or website and there will be no online fitness classes running or floodlit tennis available. We apologise for any inconvenience.
Learn to swim
Swimming with Edinburgh Leisure is a safe and positive experience for all children in Edinburgh, of all ages and all abilities.
We have over 20 years of experience in helping the children of Edinburgh learn to swim, so we know a thing or two about children in the water. Our swim teams are led by highly qualified SSTQ and Level 2 teachers who are continually up-skilled, developed and monitored by a team of professionals.
Important Information
We are very happy to have coaching in our venues again. The positive feedback we have received from customers already using our venues saying how safe and enjoyable their experience with us has been has been has been hugely appreciated. We are working hard to ensure that our coaching customers have the same experience.As with all our other activities in our venues, to ensure the safety of everyone we’ve introduced a number of measures. We will continue to review these measures over the coming months as the environment and guidelines from the Scottish Government and national sports governing bodies change. Our priority will always be the safety of our customers and our teams. Some key things to be aware of are:
- We may use different entrances and exits to our buildings than normal.
- For older children, you may not be able to enter or stay in our buildings during your child’s lesson. This depends on the age of your child, and sometimes on the capacity of the building. Be assured if this is the case our team are there to help your child get to and from their class safely. We understand that there may be some circumstances where you may need to stay and support your child. Please discuss your requirements with the venue if this is the case.
- We have to maintain a safe number of people in our venues at any one time. If you are coming into our buildings with your child for their lesson, only one adult can accompany a child and we are asking our customers not to take siblings/other children with them if at all possible. Children under 12 do not have to distance from each other, but still have to distance from other adults and therefore still have to be accounted for in our safety measures and calculations.
Important: In some sports the national sports governing body's guidelines mean we cannot allow accompanying siblings/other children. - Children should arrive ready for their activity as there are no or limited changing spaces available. For swimming lessons this means ‘beach ready’. By this we mean easily removeable footwear and ideally a onesie or cosy robe over your child's swimwear. We are not allowed to put on or adjust your child's goggles so please ensure your child can put them on themselves or you fit them before your child comes through to the pool for their class.
- Please follow the rules about wearing face coverings. Currently anyone aged 5 years and over is required to wear a face covering until their class.
Before you come to your first class class it’s important to read where to go and what to do at your venue – see here for full details.
Full details of our guidelines and what to expect in each of our venues can be found in ‘Coaching Guidelines’ below.
We know that this is a little different – for everyone - but we can assure you that our welcome will be as warm and our lessons as fun as ever. Our teams will always be there to look after you and your family. We appreciate your understanding as we work together to keep everyone safe.
Find out more about:
Our Classes
We offer classes for all ages (from birth to adults), including lessons for children with additional support needs in a choice of centres. We have lessons in 9 pools across the City. Click from the list below to find the right class for your or your child:
Find Swim classes for Early Years (Ages 0 to 4)
Find Swim classes for Juniors (From P1 to age 18)
Find Swim classes for ASN (Ages 3 to 18)
Getting back to the water after a long break means stepping back initially to build water confidence again so please don’t worry if your child has regressed a little during lockdown. Be patient and they will soon be back to where they were. Here are some things you can do to help.
Learn to Swim - Early Years
Our Pre-School programme specifically designed for ages 0 - 4 years aims teaches you how to safely handle your baby in water and gently introduces your child to the exciting world of aquatics. It will take your child through a seamless journey to becoming a safer independent, confident swimmer.
Swim Baby
A fun relaxed class for both you and your baby. The use of songs and structured play will encourage safe handling of your baby in the water and will ensure a great start to your babies swimming journey. This class is suitable for children from 0 to 1 year with a parent/carer accompanying them in the water.
Swim Toddler
The class again uses songs and structured play to encourage your toddler to become more independent and confident in the water. This class is suitable for children aged 1 to 2 years with a parent/carer accompanying them in the water.
Swim Nippers
For children aged 2 to 4 years with a parent/carer accompanying them in the water. Children's water confidence and independence will grow and grow through structured play, songs, and games.
Swim Pre-School
For children aged 3.5+, your child will work independently learning through structured play and will develop their water confidence and ability to perform a range of aquatic skills without the support of buoyancy aids.
Learn to Swim - Junior
Children will move from a basic understanding of the strokes and how to move through water through to developed stroke techniques, tumble turns and race starts.
They'll be confident swimmers with great skills for swimming for fitness. They'll also have the skills to diversify into other aquatic options such as diving, water polo and synchronised swimming should they wish to do so.
Swim Skills 1
Swim Skills 1+
Swim Skills 2
In Swim Skills 2, children will increase the competency of the core aquatic skills and develop basic stroke technique. This class is suitable for children who have an understanding of stroke technique and who can swim 10 metres Front crawl and Back crawl as well as attempting Breaststroke and Butterfly leg actions.
Depending on venue
this level may take place in deep water so children so be confident in and able
to tread water when out of their depth.
Swim Skills 3
Children who are competent at swimming 15m in a 'recognisable' stroke e.g front crawl, back crawl or breaststroke, will be introduced to a more advanced stroke technique
Swim Skills 4
Children who can maintain the correct technique over 25m in Front crawl, Back crawl and Breaststroke and can demonstrate basic Butterfly will continue to develop a quality technique while gradually increasing distance.
Club Ready
Suitable for children who can demonstrate good technique over 50 metres in Front crawl, Back crawl and Breaststroke and 15 metres in Butterfly.
Please note that children will need to be able
to maintain criteria over 50 mins.
Junior Skills & Drills
For those who have graduated from the Club Ready class. A great session to continue working on technique, maintaining fitness and developing other areas of advanced aquatics.
Learn to Swim - Adults
We believe everyone should have the opportunity to swim and we are proud to offer adult swimming lessons at all of our venues. Whether you’ve never swam before or are looking to improve your stroke technique and fitness, our lesson programme will support you. For adults looking to refine their stroke technique further and build their fitness beyond swimming lessons why not try out our Skills and Drills?
Beginner
Our beginners classes look to build water confidence, introduce a range of aquatic skills, and develop the basics of all swimming strokes. This class is for adults who are new to swimming or for those who are not yet swimming confidently.
Improver
Our improvers class aims to develop more efficient swimming technique in the four strokes. This class is for adults who – want to develop their swimming skills over a greater distance and be more proficient in deep water.
Stroke Development
Our stroke development class refines effective technique in the swimming strokes, develops effective starts/ turns, and involves more advanced aquatic skills. This class is for adults who can swim lengths of different strokes.
Learn to Swim - ASN
The water provides a fantastic environment for children with additional needs to experience freedom of movement, buoyancy and stimulation. Our experienced teachers will work with you to determine the best approach to swimming lessons for your child. We have a variety of ASN specific classes which are details below, however where appropriate we may recommend and encourage integrating within our main group lessons.
At this time we are
unable to provide a teacher in the water so if your child requires this level
of support a parent/ carer will be required in the water
Stroke Development ASN
Our stroke development class refines effective technique in the swimming strokes. This class is for adults who can swim lengths.
Adult Stroke Development ASN
Our stroke development class refines effective technique in the swimming strokes. This class is for adults who can swim lengths.
Swim Skills ASN & Carer
A class specific to children within Swim Skills who require additional support in the water by parent/ guardian.
Booking and Class Availability
You can see what what classes are running where, check availability and even request a space - all online in 3 simple steps:
- Our sports classes cover everything from pre-school tinies through to club standard coaching with adult coaching available too. Decide which class would be right for your child using our class information above.
- Find out where and when your class is on and whether it has spaces using the 'Class Availability' button below.
- You can then check space availability (updated every 4 hours) and complete a simple online 'Request Form'.
Please note: we cannot currently run our Adult Swim Beginners, Improvers or Stroke Development classes as these are restricted under Level 3 of the Scottish Government's guidance. Please continue to request a space if you are interested. We will book you in (if possible) and get back in touch as soon as we can confirm when these classes can start.
Coaching Guidelines
To ensure the safety of everyone in our venues we’ve introduced some important changes for our coaching customers. We know this seem very strange and want to ensure that our customer feel safe in our venues and classes. Click below to find out what might be different in our venues or click here for Scottish Swimming's guide on getting back into the water safely.
IMPORTANT – KEEP SAFE COACHING GUIDELINES
We have introduced rules and measures to ensure that we can welcome you back into an environment that is safe for you and our staff. We all have a responsibility as a community to keep each other safe, and by following our guidelines we can do this whilst enjoying being back. We hope you enjoy your session.
1. Important things to know about our coaching classes
2. How to find your way and what to expect in each of our venues