Swimming with me, your child will progress through the STA’s Learn to Swim Programme, Grades 1-4.
Through this programme, all swimmers will have water objectives that they are working towards within their particular grade.
STA Grades 1-4
These initial grades work through the complex techniques of all 4 swimming strokes – front crawl, back crawl, breaststroke and butterfly (legs).
Your child will also learn water safety, water confidence, breathwork, push and glides, floating, submersion, treading water, rotating, sculling, handstands, sinking, tucks and beginners rescue. I will also eventually introduce them to skills from higher grades such as somersaults, surface dives, straddle entries and polo crawl.
Getting it right
Reaching swim milestones is so exciting but I don’t rush children through the grades – I focus on correct technique and believe that if they learn to do strokes properly over shorter distances, it will prove beneficial to their swim journey in the long run!
Individualised learning
Lessons will group children in the same grade together but I will always tailor lessons to individuals – such as giving new swimmers confidence-building activities and more competent swimmers additional more-advanced things to work on. As mentioned, I don’t believe that one size fits all.
‘Moving up’ through the grades
As well as regular rewards and well-dones along the way, when children reach a new grade, they will be given their official STA certificate and badge free of charge.
More often than not, with small class sizes of just 2 or 3, the whole class will ’move up together’ and we will progress to the new grade within your existing time-slot.
Distance badges
As another free-of-charge extra, children will also receive their distance badges once they have built up their stamina and strokes across set distance. Children will have the opportunity to reach their 5 metre, 10 metre and 15 metre milestones.
‘Outgrowing’ the pool
I won’t keep you swimming with me when I believe that a child has truly ‘outgrown’ the pool and can benefit from swimming elsewhere. Their progression will always be the most important thing – even though I will be sad to say goodbye!
Eventually all children will reach the outcomes of grade 4 and benefit from a much larger length and depth pool where they can work towards higher grades, grow their stamina across longer distances, learn proper diving practises and be introduced to more advanced lifesaving and rescue skills.
Question?
Do you have a question about swim grades – how it works, where your child is at currently and what their swim targets are? Just get in touch!
