Swimming

Our Waves Classes are for children who are 4 years and above that have experience with water and pool environments. Children are taught the necessary swimming and aquatic skills to swim and the vital skills of water competence where they learn how to be safe in and around water, such as swimming in clothes, treading water, and swimming without goggles.

Wave 8 is multi-aquatic and can either be a taster for participation in one of the aquatic sports or where a participant can keep aquatically active and take part in other aquatic activities such as Rookie Lifesaving, Artistic Swimming, Diving, Competitive Swimming and Water Polo.

If your child has attended swimming lessons previously and is in full-time education, we recommend that you book these lessons. If your child has not attended Swimming Lessons previously but is in full-time education and has experience in a swimming pool environment, then we recommend that you book into Wave 1.

To see which wave your child should be booked into, please refer to our Wave Classes Outcomes Poster.

Cardiff Met Learn to Swim Lessons are £26.50 per month. Booking a place will require an initial payment of £26.50. Upon completion of the initial payment, you will receive a link to set up a monthly Direct Debit or Reoccurring Payment from the following month for the duration of your lessons.

Monthly Direct Debits and Reoccurring Payments must be set up within 2 days of registration to the Learn to Swim Programme. Failure to do this may result in losing space.

A missed payment will result in the space being lost and offered to a member on our waiting list.

Our lessons are for children only and any other adults, except for staff members, are not permitted in the pool and on the poolside. Our qualified assistants are in the pool and have the knowledge and ability to aid and assist your child throughout their lessons.

Our Swimming Lessons are split based on ability, not age. However, we offer Splash classes that are for children aged a minimum 3yrs+ and Wave classes for children in full-time education that are a minimum 4yrs+.

• If your child has never attended swimming lessons previously and is in nursery or reception class in school, then we recommend that you book our Splash lessons.
• If your child has not attended Swimming Lessons previously but is in full-time education and has experience in a swimming pool environment, then we recommend that you book into Wave 1.
• If your child has attended swimming lessons previously and is in full-time education, we recommend that you book our Wave lessons. To see which Wave is the most suitable lease, please refer to our Wave Classes Outcomes Poster.​

​If you remember which class your child was in prior to the start of the pandemic, then please register for the same level. Our teachers continuously assess the swimmers weekly and if they feel that children would benefit from moving to another class (either lower or higher) then this will be done as soon as an opportunity arises to do so.​

Cardiff Met Swimming Pool has a shallow end which most of our beginner lessons will be taught in and a deep end too. Or higher lessons will be taught within lanes to allow for extra swimming distances, however, this will be flexible as our teachers may need to teach other skills that require the use of the whole deep end or shallow end some weeks.

Pool depth is:

• Deep End: 3.150m
• Shallow End: 1.195m

In every lesson, up to Wave 4, we will have one assistant in the water with a maximum of six children in the lesson. Our Assistant is a Level 1 qualified Swim Teacher Assistant that has the ability and knowledge to aid the children in the water. All our teachers will use equipment including swimming aids that will ensure your child is able to learn to swim safely and build their water confidence.

Cardiff Met pool temperature is 28.5˚C and is monitored regularly by our operational staff.

Cardiff Met Sports Swim School will use Swim Wales Aqua Passport System to monitor and assess our swimmers' progress. After registration, you will be provided access to Aqua Passport online where you will be able to see your child's progress.

Parents of children in Splash Classes and Wave 1 Classes are allowed to spectate via the viewing area. We are only able to host one parent per child in the viewing area. Parents must access the site via the entrance behind the pool and not via the changing rooms.

Unfortunately, to protect the safety of swimmers, parents, teachers, and lifeguards we have limited the number of parents that are allowed to spectate which means we are unable to allow parents of swimmers in Waves 2 and above into the viewing area.

Children under 8 years old can access any changing room with a parent.

Children over 8 years are only permitted to the changing room of their sex.

There is pay and display or app payment parking on campus that is managed bySaba​.

Peak (weekdays 08:00 – 16:00)

Off-Peak (after 16:00 and at weekends)

Extended Periods

We recommend that your child wears tight-fitting costumes/trunks. Baggy costumes can restrict movement. We also recommend that all swimmers bring goggles and a water bottle to every lesson.

All our lead teachers have obtained a Level 2 or equivalent in Teaching Aquatics and are DBS checked. All our Assistant Swimming Teachers have obtained a Level 1 or equivalent in Assisting Teaching Aquatics and are DBS checked.