A child’s first learn to swim experience is one of the most important in terms of capturing and retaining their interest. We believe the best way to achieve this is to create safe environments in which children can be introduced to the water whilst having fun and by providing a progressive learn to swim programme that is both challenging and rewarding.
The STAnley – First Steps Series offers a progressive aquatic awareness programme for young children from 2 years to 5 years by combining a flexible mix of lessons, activities and incentives. 7 progressive levels, each with its own full-colour A4 certificate and woven badge.
After completing the 7 steps of the STAnley First Steps Series, pupils should progress to ILSP Level 2 – Goldfish Series.
Children over the age of 5 will probably wish to learn to swim using the Octopus Series.
All the STAnley – First Steps Series lessons are shown below:
STAnley 1 introduces the child to the teacher and their role, entering and exiting the pool safely, kick actions and moving through the water in different directions.
STAnley 2 enables your child to understand poolside safety, master blowing bubbles into the water with nose and mouth submerged, learn to move through the water and return to a standing position. It also encourages them to learn how to float, roll and push and glide.
After completing the STAnley 3 your child will really starting to gain their confidence in the water. They will be able to enter the pool move away and return to the side, they will be confidently performing a star float and move through the water 5 metres on front or back, and many other things, all of which are essential for water safety.
Taking the STAnley 3 to the next level is the STAnley 4. Your child will learn skills like, picking up objects from below the water surface, pushing, gliding and rolling onto their back, jumping into the pool and climibing out of the pool unaided. They will also be starting to look at the different swimming strokes and mastering two different floats.
STAnley 5 looks a little more in depth at the breathing and technique needed for front and back crawl. Once completed children will also be able to retrieve an object from the bottom of the pool, tread water and push and glide on their front keeping their face in the water using their bubble blowing technique learned in earlier STAnleys.
In the penultimate of the STAnley awards with be able swim confidently through a submerged hoop, change from a front stroke to back stroke whilst swimming, learn the breast stroke leg action and start to look at the sculling action.
STAnley 7 is the last award of the series and your child will be swimming confidently now. Once completed they will be able to use all they have learned previously and apply them to their 10m front stroke, 5m breast stroke, sculling, swimming through a hoop to retrieve an object, treading water and starting to look at the dolphin kick.
