ManagingtheSwimmingLessonWaitingList:HowtoImmediatelyFillaVacantSpot[2026]

The pool is full, your instructors are fully booked, and there is still a line of parents waiting that you cannot place. For many swim schools, this has become the normal situation: the demand for swimming lessons is growing faster than the water and the people who teach.

The waiting list quickly becomes an emergency solution: a spreadsheet, a notebook behind the reception, or a folder with registrations that no one opens anymore. That works fine until a spot becomes available. Then you see the cost of that chaos. The wrong parent gets a message, someone does not respond, and the spot remains empty for weeks while thirty children are waiting for the same spot.

Below you will read how to use the waiting list as a planning tool, which figures to keep track of, and how to prevent a vacant spot from remaining empty for days.

What the Waiting Lists in the Netherlands Show

Waiting Times from Four Months to Two Years

Consumer program Kassa conducted a sample survey in February 2024 among about fifty providers in the provincial capitals. The longest waiting times were found by the editors in The Hague, Utrecht, and Middelburg, where children could wait up to 24 months for their first swimming lesson. In Maastricht, four months was the shortest waiting time found by the editors.

The sample shows the spread between regions:

This picture is regional, and it has not proven to be a snapshot. Omroep Zeeland found in October 2025 waiting times from six months to one and a half years, with fifteen months for the A diploma at zwembad Vliegende Vaart in Terneuzen. At the Zeeuwse Zwemschool in Vlissingen and Goes, parents waited one and a half years or longer, while the school employed 28 instructors and gave lessons to over a thousand children weekly. The youngest student on the list was one year old.

The Demand Is Not the Problem

Almost every swim school questioned about the waiting list mentions the same: there are too few swimming instructors. The NRZ named this shortage in 2024 as the main cause. The work takes place in the evenings and on weekends, so a full workweek is not feasible for many people. Extra recruitment does not solve it alone: with 28 instructors employed, there was still a waiting list in Zeeland, simply because the demand is greater than the number of water hours available.

There is a second limit. For diploma swimming, a minimum water depth of two meters is required, and that depth is not available in every pool. A swim school that wants to expand does not automatically find a place to do so.

Who Is Most Affected

The waiting time is not equal. According to figures from the Mulier Institute, published by the National Council for Swimming Safety, in 2024 fourteen percent of children aged 6 to 12 had no swimming diploma at all. In families from the lowest income group, that share was 33 percent, compared to 5 percent in the highest income group. Of children with a migration background, 40 percent had no diploma, compared to 9 percent of children without a migration background. This vulnerability is reflected in drowning figures: of the hundred residents who drowned in 2025, 37 percent had a non-Dutch origin.

For a swim school, this means the waiting list is longest for families who find it hardest to find an alternative. The flow to the B and C diplomas also lags behind: in 2024, 38 percent of children aged 6 to 12 obtained all three diplomas, compared to 27 percent in 2012.

What a Slow Waiting List Costs You

A waiting list costs money in a place where you do not immediately see it. An offer that remains unused means an empty spot in a group you have already scheduled, and thus less revenue from the same hour of water. Parents who hear nothing register elsewhere or drop out entirely. The municipality of The Hague itself communicates that commercial swim schools have shorter waiting times, showing that parents really compare. Every manual calling round also costs time that you do not spend teaching.

Seven Steps to Manage Your Waiting List

The order below is deliberately chosen: first order, then rules, then communication. Without the first two steps, the third only costs more time.

Step 1: Put All Registrations in One Place with One Registration Date

One central list, with for each student the registration date, age, preferred day, and whether swimming lessons were previously followed. As soon as that data is in two places, for example in a spreadsheet and in an app group, a discussion arises about who was earlier. One list means one order.

Step 2: Calculate How Many Spots You Actually Free Up Per Month

Your waiting list only moves if spots become available. Count once a month how many students graduate or stop, and how many new groups you can start with the instructors you have. That number determines how fast the list moves. Those who do not keep track promise parents more than possible.

Step 3: Make Your Order Rule Explicit

Whoever registers first is at the front. That is the simplest rule to explain and the easiest to maintain. There are always exceptions: siblings who want the same day, a minimum entry age, or a student who must start earlier on a doctor's advice. Write down those exceptions and share them with parents, so an exception does not seem like a favor.

Step 4: Give an Offer a Response Deadline

The silent loser in many waiting list procedures is the offer that remains unused. Give a parent a fixed period to respond, two days works well in practice, and then move on to the next on the list. Without that deadline, you hold a spot for someone who may not want it, while another child is waiting.

Step 5: Tell Parents Where They Stand

Parents rarely complain about the waiting itself. What bothers them is that they do not know how long it takes. A position on the list plus an expected month when the offer will come takes most of the pressure off. The municipality of The Hague shows how that works: parents see the waiting time per pool immediately upon registration and automatically receive a message when a spot becomes available.

Step 6: Keep Those Waiting Involved Before They Start

A practice hour for those waiting tackles two problems at once. In Drenthe, pools organize free swimming in the lesson pool under the supervision of a swimming teacher, where one lifeguard is enough for a whole group because parents are in the water themselves. Children who have already become accustomed to water before their first lesson progress faster through their swimming lessons. The Hague gives children on the waiting list a QR code for free recreational swimming under adult supervision until they have their A diploma.

Step 7: Make Entry Easier Than the Waiting List

Parents who register well in advance most often have a spot when their child is ready. Help them with that: put your waiting time on your site, keep registration open, and ask only for the data you really need at registration. The earlier a parent knows registration is necessary, the less rush there is at the end.

Which Figures You Track Every Month

Four Numbers That Tell Enough

• The number of new registrations this month
• The number of students who actually started
• The total length of your waiting list
• The number of students who drop out before the first lesson begins

With those four numbers, you know whether your list grows or shrinks, and what waiting time you can promise a new parent. More is not needed to give an honest answer when someone asks at reception how long it takes.

Use the Median, Not the Average

The average waiting time is one of the easiest ways to deceive yourself. One student who was on the list for two years or never started pulls the average in all directions. Put the waiting times in order and take the middle value: the median. That number tells you that half of the parents wait less and half wait longer, and that is the number you can use in a conversation.

Spread Your Lessons Over the Days That Remain Empty

The busyness on the waiting list says little about the gaps in your schedule. Pools in Drenthe saw that Wednesday and Friday were the most popular and Monday the quietest, and that Monday filled up well once they told parents there was space then. Communicating about available days often results in a full group faster than starting a new group.

How the Swimmigo App Manages the Waiting List

In Swimmigo, the waiting list is in the same system as your groups, lessons, and progress. These are the parts that matter in practice.

Registration, Position, and Offer in One Place

Parents register in the app on your waiting list or book an open slot directly with a fixed day and time. Whoever registers first is at the front. When a spot becomes available, you offer it to the top student without having to search in a spreadsheet or app group.

Response Deadline, Moving Forward, and a Maximum

You set how many hours a parent has to respond to an offer. If no one responds, the system can automatically offer the next student a spot. Per school, you choose what happens if there is no response: the student moves one place back or keeps the same position. After a number of times without response chosen by you, a student is removed from the list so that someone who never responds does not keep a spot occupied.

Messages in the Parent's Language

Upon registration, upon an offer, and upon placement, parents automatically receive a push notification and an email. The text is in the parent's language, while you do not have to send anything manually. You also see whether a message has been read, which is useful if you want to explain later why a spot was moved forward.

Visibility and Entry You Control Yourself

If you want parents to see their position and how many people are ahead of them, you enable that. You can close the waiting list for new registrations if the list becomes too long, set a minimum age for entry, and optionally request a registration fee with your own refund policy.

Internationally This Is Not a Dutch Problem

Waiting Lists Are Everywhere

Waiting times are also increasing outside the Netherlands. In Ireland, a mother told on the radio that children in some parts of the country wait up to three years for a spot. Swim England calculated that in the United Kingdom about 667,000 children miss swimming lessons due to the shortage of swimming teachers. The combination is the same everywhere: few pools, few instructors, and a profession given in the evenings.

Children Who Stop Too Early Make the Problem Bigger

Research by Swim England from March 2025 shows that more than seventy percent of children are taken out of swimming lessons before they are competent, and that more than half stop before mastering basic skills. Swim England uses four skills as a measure: swimming 100 meters, treading water for 60 seconds, floating and swimming in clothes for 30 seconds. Parents often estimate the distance at which their child can swim safely at five to twenty meters.

This is relevant for your planning because every child who stops too early makes the waiting list longer for the child who still has to start. Those who keep the flow to the B and C diplomas smooth keep their groups fuller and their waiting list shorter.

What Is at Stake Worldwide

The WHO names drowning as the fourth leading cause of death among children aged 1 to 4 years and the third among children aged 5 to 14 years, with about 300,000 deaths worldwide annually. Worldwide drowning mortality has decreased by 38 percent since 2000, showing that swimming skills and water safety lead to results. Swimmigo is available in five languages because swim schools in different countries struggle with the same planning and the same waiting lists.

Conclusion

The waiting list arises from more demand than water, and that does not solve itself by working harder. What you can control is the order around it: one list with one order, a fixed response deadline, and parents who know where they stand. A vacant spot filled within two days pays back the entire system.

Curious how that looks in practice? Check the page for swim schools and swimming instructors, the features, or the student tracking system. For parents, we previously wrote about making good use of the waiting time and about planning with limited pool capacity.

Sources

• Kassa (BNNVARA): Large Differences in Waiting Time for Swimming Lessons, Shortage of Instructors, 3 February 2024
• Omroep Zeeland: Long Waiting Lists for Swimming Lessons, the Youngest Registered Is Only One Year Old, 27 October 2025
• RTV Drenthe: Swim Schools Drowning in Waiting Lists but Also Come Up with Solutions, 18 April 2024
• National Council for Swimming Safety: More and More Children Obtain Swimming Diplomas A, B, and C (Mulier Institute Research), 10 November 2025
• Municipality of The Hague: Many More Children Obtain Swimming Diplomas in The Hague, 15 April 2026
• Rescue Brigade: Higher Drowning Risk in Specific Groups, 2026
• WHO: Drowning Fact Sheet, updated 1 May 2026
• Swim England: More than 70% of Children Taken Out of Lessons Before They Are Competent in Water, 19 March 2025
• Swim England: Concerning Number of Children to Miss Lessons Due to Teacher Shortages, 16 April 2024
• Newstalk (Ireland): Too Many People, Not Enough Pools, Children Waiting Up to Three Years for Lessons, 2025