STA Stages and awards

Our Lessons Programme is working in partnership with the STA and will be awarding swimmers in line with the STA's International Learn to Swim Programme every term.

We believe in celebrating our swimmers' progress and success. As a result, all lessons swimmers who achieve their next stage or distance award will be presented with their certificate and badge in the final week of the term, free of charge.

Below is a summary of our class groupings and badge Standards.

Penguins Lessons

Little Penguins / Starfish 1-6

Little Penguins is a parent-assisted swim lesson for children aged from 18 months to 3 years. These classes have parents involved and are designed for children to enjoy swimming at a critical developmental age.  Children will develop essential safety skills and confidence in the water, while having fun and learning to enjoy swimming environments!

The class sizes is five swimmers - 5 parent or guardian : 1 teacher

Class duration is 30 minutes Held at Kings School and Oaklands Community Pool on Saturdays and Sundays.

Penguins Lessons

Non-Swimmer (Stanley 1-4 & Octopus 1&2)

The early stages are really important for developing the building blocks for future technique and the skills that are learnt should be fun and enjoyable.

Children will be encouraged to move around the pool and become confident with water on their face as well as learn safety skills such as floating and entering / exiting the water.

swimmers are supported and assisted in the water by either a teacher or teaching assistant (helper).  We aim for a ratio of 2 swimmers per member of staff.

Penguins Lessons

Beginner (Stanley 5-8 & Octopus 3 - Golddfish 2

Swimmers are introduced to basic stroke technique and aquatic breathing.

They will develop basic floating and learn how to rotate to regain an upright position without support.

Beginner class further develops confidence and teaches swimmers to breathe confidently while in the water.

Being confident with the face in the water, or having water on the face, is crucial to stroke development.

Swimmers will develop their kicks, on both their front and their back.

They streamline through push and glides, whilst also swimming underwater.

Swimmers begin to learn how to breathe to the side in front crawl, allowing them to travel longer distances independently. Water safety knowledge and rotation skills will also be progressed. One of the fun areas of this stage is learning to go under the water to pick up an object. This helps develop skills for a number of different disciplines, including synchro, diving and competitive swimmingTo pass this stage, swimmers must be able to swim 10m front crawl and backstroke, with the ability to breathe to the side on their front. They should also be able to perform breaststroke kick with a float and dolphin wiggle.

Penguins Lessons

Improver (Goldfish 3 - Angelfish 3)

Improver class sees swimmers perfect their leg kicks for all four strokes and further develop push and glides, while also being introduced to sculling.

They will develop an understanding of buoyancy through a range of skills and should swim 10 metres 

By the end of this stage, swimmers are expected to have a clear ability to perform recognisable leg kicks for all four strokes.

Swimmers will develop their skills in treading water and learn how to do handstands and somersaults. They will also continue to develop their stroke technique, introducing breaststroke and butterfly arm pulls.  This means they will be required to perform all strokes.  The emphasis is on ensuring all work done in the previous stages is developed further.

A key activity in the Improver stage is sculling, which is an important skill to master as it is not only prevalent in artistic swimming, but is also vital to ensuring water safety.

Learning to tread water is an important area of development and again is a crucial lifesaving skill.

Penguins Lessons

Advanced (Shark 1 - 3)

Advanced swimmers should have a solid understanding of all 4 strokes. At this stage, skills such as streamlining, somersaults and basic competitive starts/turns are taught.

Advanced level  teaches swimmers how to prepare for exercise, while developing an efficient technique for all four strokes over longer distances.

By the end of this stage, swimmers will be able to swim 25 metres of all four strokes 

Swimmers will also learn to swim in clothes and understand how to be safe when they’re in and around water.

Swimmers should develop a quality stroke technique for up to 100 metres, incorporating the skills they have learnt throughout the stages and combining them to develop a linked routine.

Swimmers will have developed a range of skills in previous stages and these are now brought into a sequence.

By the end of this stage, swimmers will be able to swim 25 metres of all four strokes t Swimmers will also be able to complete a continuous swim of 100 metres using three of these different strokes.

Penguins Lessons

Pre-Competition

Swimmers focus on smaller details of stroke technique and continue to build their stamina.

There is a focus on starts, turns, learning to work off the clock to complete sets and beginning to learn skills associated with water polo.

Penguins Lessons

Additional awards

As well as progressing throughout the levels,  we offer a number of additional awards which swimmers can achieve. Below is a list of what we offer.