British Swim School Of
Darien - Lemont

We teach swimmers from 3 months old with no upper age limit. Infants and toddlers start in Tadpole, Swimboree, and Seahorse; children 3 to 11 progress through Starfish, Minnow, Turtle, and Shark levels; teens 12 and up have dedicated Young Adult classes; and adults 18 and up have their own beginner-through-advanced program. Our Dolphin adaptive aquatics program serves swimmers of all ages with special abilities.

Group swim lessons are $156 per month for one 30-minute lesson each week. Adult lessons are $210 per month at a 3:1 ratio, and our Dolphin adaptive aquatics program is $240 per month. There's a $60 annual membership fee per family, due at enrollment. There's no long-term contract — enrollment is continuous and month-to-month, so there's no session-end scramble to re-register and no risk of losing your time slot. We ask for 30 days' written notice to withdraw, and programs are non-transferable.

Most levels run at a maximum 4:1 student-to-instructor ratio. Tadpole and our Stroke Development levels run at a maximum 6:1. Adult classes are 3:1. Instructors are in the water with swimmers for every class.

Because a child who can float, roll over, and breathe independently is safe in the water before they can swim a lap. We teach water acclimation, then survival floating and breathing, then stroke technique. Teaching strokes first tends to produce quicker visible progress — a swimmer who moves well across the pool early on. But moving well and being safe in an unexpected fall are different skills, and the second one is what we build first.

Yes. A certified lifeguard is on duty for every lesson, as required — and in practice, coverage is shared so that at any given moment someone is scanning the water rather than teaching in it. Every instructor completes the British Swim School certification program and holds nationally recognized Lifeguarding, CPR, and First Aid certifications, and all instructors pass a background check before entering the water with a swimmer.

Yes. We offer a free pool-deck observation, so your swimmer can see the space, meet the staff, and watch a class in action before committing — which for a nervous child often matters more than any amount of description. We also host Splash-a-Palooza events that are open to the public, an easy way to meet our instructors and see how lessons run. Call us and we'll find the option that suits your family.

Three concrete differences.

1. Sequence: we teach survival floating and breathing before stroke technique, so a swimmer is safe in the water before they're fast in it.
2. Range: we start at 3 months with no upper age limit, including dedicated teen, adult, and adaptive programs.
3. Scale: our pools are small and indoor rather than large multi-lane facilities, which means quieter lessons and instructors who know every family by name.

We're a strong fit for families whose first priority is water safety, for swimmers who do better in small, quiet spaces, for infants as young as 3 months, and for teens, adults, and adaptive swimmers most local schools don't serve.

Sooner than most parents expect. Children can begin water acclimation at 3 months old, and there's no developmental reason to wait. Drowning is a leading cause of unintentional death for children ages 1 to 4 in the United States, and the skills that prevent it — rolling to a back float, finding the wall, controlling breathing — are learnable well before a child can swim a stroke. Starting early also means your swimmer never develops a fear of water to unlearn later.

Year-round, indoors, including through winter. We don't use fixed sessions, so you can start any time and your swimmer keeps the same weekly slot and instructor instead of re-registering every few months. Skills fade fast with months off, which is why we don't stop in the off-season.