All the latest news and chat about
our Baby Squids swimming lessons.

This Saturday 8th August, 10 Winchester women are heading into the water at Hurst Point and swimming 1.3 miles across the choppy waters of the Solent to Colwell Bay on the Isle of Wight in aid of Wessex Cancer support.

From improved motor skills and stronger brain development to better sleep, closer bonding, and essential life-saving skills, baby swimming lessons offer a full package of benefits that go far beyond the pool.

This year's Place 2 Be charity's campaign for Children's Mental Health Awareness Week is called "This Is My Place" and its the perfect opportunity to celebrate the incredible swimming space we provide for children from birth to age 10.

Last Thursday and Friday, Hannah (our brilliant new Franchise Success Manager) and I travelled up to Oxford to meet up with all of our franchisees for Baby Squids Connect 2025, and I can honestly say it was one of the most brilliant, energising couple of days we’ve had.

Babies and young children are more sensitive to summer than adults and during hotter weather, extra care should always be taken. We've put this checklist and top tips together to help you and your little people stay safe and happy in the heat! It's often tricky to know what's going on with little ones.

Today, we want to share the story of one of our young swimmers, Josh —a bright, bubbly 2.5-year-old boy who has been part of our Baby Squids family. His journey in the pool began like so many others, first kicks, playful giggles, proud parents cheering from the poolside. But recently, his journey took an unexpected and devastating turn.

I am extremely excited to introduce you to Carly, a kindred spirit who is super passionate about running swimming classes for families in the Cheshire area. Let me introduce you to her properly!!

This blog is written through personal experience of working with children for years and owning my own neurodiverse child. I am not a professional - but I do know some fantastic ones I’ll reference at the end.

I am thrilled to introduce Hannah as our new Baby Squids Surrey and North Hampshire franchisee. She is starting brand new classes in Basingstoke and Leatherhead across three wonderful pools in mid January 2024.

I am delighted to introduce Jenna and her new franchise area with her first set of lessons starting at Moonfleet Manor in Weymmouth in January 2024. Very exciting for the West Dorset area!

I am delighted to introduce a really lovely blog written by our wonderful teacher Naomi who has three awesome boys, two of which have Autism and have needed additional support. This honest account of swimming lessons I hope will help other parents in learning how to support children further in the water. By Naomi Hardy, a swimming teacher with Baby Squids

Welcome to Viki, our fourth Baby Squids franchisee! Viki is now the brilliant owner of the East Hampshire postcode area licensed to run Baby Squids classes, across Portsmouth, Gosport and Titchfield.

I'm so delighted to introduce everyone to Nicky, our third Baby Squids franchisee! Nicky is now the proud owner of the Salisbury postcode area licensed to run Baby Squids classes. It’s likely that 1000’s of customers from over the years will know Nicky as being the amazing Chief Assistant who has supported me in head office for years. I actually don’t know what I’ll do without her as she flies off with her very own business to run. Already having taken on Salisbury during the pandemic she has set herself up with more hours, more pools and new teachers. Nicky is brilliant at what she does, she is calm, patient and supportive and her customer service is beyond outstanding!! Here Nicky tells you a little about herself and why this was the obvious choice.

I did a series on Instagram to remember all the reasons why baby swimming is so popular and why parents should take their children swimming. After Covid lockdown 3 it feels pretty hard at the moment to imagine how And by swimming I mean just getting them in the pool with their parents and families, not just lessons. I’m delighted to be able to write a little more detail so that parents can learn about the importance of swimming and how they can do some at home in the bath. We’ll all be back in the pool before long and all children will benefit from water play regardless of their age.

All swimming lessons are suspended from 16 March 2020. Coronavirus update following the government announcement this evening.

More and more nowadays we hear about life balance in the press and across social media. Everyone seems to be striving for the perfect life balance. Does it exist? Recently, I have been debating internally and probably boring my friends too about whether we are actually better off with the “you can have it all” lifestyle. I think life is all about balance and happiness, but how do you get that in today’s world.

Read all about Nadina, our very first franchisee who has taken over the Baby Squids New Forest & Christchurch territory!

As you have probably seen there has been lots going on at Baby Squids HQ over the last month or so, I just thought it would be a good idea to put pen to paper so you can understand what we are up to. So the culmination of six months of hard work is here! I am really happy to announce that our nationwide franchise offering is ready to roll!

Baby Paddlers has rebranded! And Baby Squids is born! In order to take our swimming lessons wider across the UK we have taken the big step to rebrand!

This weekend the Baby Paddlers team went further on their journey of discovery into the world of Aqua Sensory®, having completed the initial foundation training in September we headed off to the home of Aqua Sensory at Swim Works in Leamington Spa.

I'm really pleased that we are able to do the Santa swim this Christmas. The Brain Tumour Research charity got in contact with me to see if we might be interested and I jumped at the chance! I have some personal reasons for wanting to help out.

Facts and myths debunked as we explain why we use baby swimming nappies, the difference between over nappies and under nappies, different environmental nappy options and what to do if you spot a nappy leak!

Some baby swimming songs we use at Baby Squids during our swimming lessons, feel free to learn them word for word!

We'll be running special summer holiday swimming classes this summer for the week 14 - 18 August 2017 at our lovely, warm private pool in Bishops Waltham

We are swimming for a few charities this week. Named the Jungle Swim all our children will be swimming the Amazon to raise money for SIX local charities!

Whether an outdoor pool or a heated indoor pool, swimming usually play a big part in people’s holidays. I think this is a great opportunity and here's why!

Some of our fantastic Baby Paddlers showing us what they have been up to in their swim classes this week, some great Milestones achieved!

Our customer, Lindsay has written a baby swimming class review for our blog, and we were delighted to see such great feedback, makes us very happy!

There are fantastic benefits to baby swimming, & we hear many reasons why people come to our swim classes. We've shared our favourite swimming loves here

Baby swim benefits; exercise, health benefits, water safety, confidence, learning to swim etc. A group of Mum's reminded me how good classes are for making friends!

Want to buy somebody some swimming classes for Christmas or Birthday present? We offer flexible swimming gift vouchers in all denominations.

Laura and a customer write about what they love most about their swimming lessons and why being a baby swim instructor is the best job in the world!

How important is it to go swimming as a family whilst your kids are young? It's not ALL about swim lessons, family enjoyment at the local pool is key too.

The statistics are scary but reality, I read a report recently stating more children aged 2-5 can open a web browser than swim unaided for a short distance