To finish our Safety September at The Swim School WA, we asked all our swimmers to wear their pyjamas over their regular bathers. This whole month we worked on different skills in our classes to make our students more aware of how changing the conditions, can change your ability to swim.
Our students are always assessed on their swimming skills in a comfortably heated pool. Unfortunately not al swimming happens in warm, clear water with a teacher standing close by to help you. Sometimes you will choose to swim in the ocean, a river, a lake or a dam. In Safety September we work with our students to show them in a very hands-on way the difference between all the bodies of water Australia has to offer.
We always make time for water safety in our lessons. Every class always starts with a Safe Entry, whether it is sliding in or wading in, and always ends with a Safe Exit. This goes for our littlest swimmers in our Parent Baby program al the way up to our Squad kids. Learning to float and rolling over to breath are other ways we work on safety in the water with our students during our normal lessons.
In Safety September all our classes had extra attention for Safety in and around water. We had activities suitable for the lower levels like floating on your back in a current or rip by letting the teachers join classes and run around while the kids floated. We gave our students a chance to experience shuffling through seaweed and let them have a go at safe entries and exits in deep water. It was so wonderful to see our young swimmers get so involved in the reach and throw rescues. Some of our teachers did end up with some bumbs from flying kickboards, but that is part of our job. It takes practise to make it perfect!
Our higher levels got involved in activities like swimming through a current or choppy water, while the teachers made waves with kickboards. We brought out the lifejackets so they could practice how to hold on to their lifejacket if they need to jump in the water. With so many lifejackets, we had the perfect time to do our huddles to learn how to keep warm in the water. A train of swimmers in lifejackets was great fun and showed them a perfect way to stay together and include the weaker swimmers when a group ends up in an aquatic emergency.
Even our babies in our Parent Baby program joined in the fun! Our older babies got a chance to rescue their parents using a noodle or kickboard, while our younger ones were rescued by a teacher in their parents’ arms. All our babies enjoyed their piggyback rides on Mum and Dad while they had to “swim to survive”. Some of our infant teachers made it even more fun by making waves in the pool. We even managed to ride the noodle train in some classes.
Our last week, is traditionally pyjama week. This week we let our students feel how much harder it is to swim and float when you are being weighed down by your clothes. We had many children coming in with cautious looks on their faces. “Think Mum has lost it, she made me wear my pyjamas to swimming” was a phrase we heard almost daily! Those looks quickly changed once the kids were actually in the water. It feels weird and makes everything in the water so much harder not to mention slower!
For both our students and their parents the whole month was a great reminder to see and experience how your ability to swim is impacted by a change in circumstances. This can be clothes, but also the temperature of the water, not wearing your goggles or the clarity of the water.
We supported our parents and grandparents with a daily post on our Facebook page with useful information, so feel free to have a look through them.
We are already looking forward to next year!
