lessons
Welcome to Winchester City Penguins Swim School. We are proud to be a well respected swim school that has been delivering highly effective and enjoyable swimming lessons to local children and adults for over 70 years. Please register your interest through our online form.
We are unique because
We provide lessons to swimmers from as young as 2 years of age, up to adults
We cater for all ages and abilities. Our programme is broken down into different stages and provides a pathway which enables the non swimmer to start with us and progress up to eventually joining either a competitive squad or social swim programme if they choose to.
We have low teacher to student ratios
With a maximum of five to a class for our Learn To Swim, the highest ratio we provide is 1:5. In our non-swimmer lessons, we also deploy our Aquatic Assistants under the direction of the class teacher, making the ratio 1:2.
We offer small class sizes
Our lessons will be limited to a maximum of five swimmers per class for our Learn To Swim (Stage 1 to 5), with numbers increasing to a maximum of just six for our most advanced classes.
Our lessons are affordable
Our 30-minute lessons are ONLY £14.25 each! Many other Swim Schools charge around £21.00 for half an hour, which is the cost of our HOUR LONG lessons.
No rolling contract
You only need to sign up for one term at a time. We do not run our termly lessons over the Easter, Summer and Christmas break – so you aren`t tied in to paying for lesson over the holiday period which you may not be able to attend! However you are still welcome to sign up to our holiday courses if you would like to continue to swim.
We are accredited
We are the only swim school in Winchester awarded with Swim England Swim Mark Accreditation – which recognises excellence in governance, sustainability and effectiveness. Swim England describes our lessons programme as delivering the best possible Learn to Swim experience for all!
Our programme is inclusive
By employing a number of teaching assistants to work alongside our lead teachers in the water, we are able to adapt sessions around the needs of individual swimmers.
We have qualified instructors
Our Lead Instructors are fully qualified. Lead teachers are often assisted by trainee teachers. Many of our lessons swimmers progress through our lessons programme to become swim teachers themselves.
We offer a personal service
We have a supervisor present at every session to assist with any queries you may have. They oversee each session and ensure swimmers are in the correct classes for their ability.
We are a charity
We are a registered charity, committed to leading the way in offering accessible swimming lessons to the members of our local community.
We celebrate progress
Having partnered with the STA's International Learn to Swim Programme, we award badges and certificates to our swimmers at the end of every term, free of charge.
Look out for us on poolside
james swatton
James is a highly-experienced swimming teacher in his own right, who began his involvement in local swimming lessons when he was a 16-year-old college student. Since then, James has gone on to sit his Level 2 teaching qualifications and obtain Qualified Tutor Status with the STA. He spent close to a decade teaching full-time, so you know your program is being managed someone who truly understands swimming lessons.
James takes great pride in the provision of our swimming lessons and works tirelessly to ensure the programme is running smoothly, as he feels few things can be as rewarding as tracking the progress of a young swimmer. James is keen to continue mentoring young teachers as we look forward to nurturing the next generation of swimmers.
What our customers think
“The adult ratio was excellent and Lucas really enjoyed himself. He actually said the timings were shorter, which means he clearly had fun and time flew by as it’s the same length of his normal lessons”
