Adult & child class overview

Classes are packed full of fun songs and activities to develop water confidence and water safety skills. Songs are the most effective ways to communicate with your baby/child, promoting learning through repetition, rhyme and movement. During each lesson, children learn to enter and exit the water safely.

Lessons include games and songs that help develop:

• Buoyancy and balance. Songs/games include: ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’, ‘Dingle Dangle Scarecrow’ and ‘Jelly on a Plate’.

• Travel and co-ordination. Songs/games include: ‘Five Little Ducks’, ‘Wheels on a Bus’, and ‘The Hungry Shark Game’.

• Rotation and orientation. Songs/games include: ‘Pat a Cake’, ‘Row, Row, Row your Boat’ and ‘Treasure Hunt Games’.

• Aquatic breathing. Songs/games include: ‘Humpty Dumpty’ (jumping from the wall), ‘Rainbow Magic’ (blowing bubbles under a woggle bridge) and ‘Egg flip races’.

• Streamlining. Songs/games include: ‘Zoom, Zoom, Zoom’, ‘Speed Boat Rockets’, and swimming with floats.

Each lesson includes a wide variety of water toys and resources to gently simulate babies and children and to encourage development of the key water skills.

Our resources include: Flashing dolphins, egg flips, colourful animal floats, large floats, large hoops, woggles, spongy and squirty animal toys, brightly coloured balls, floating bricks, buckets and watering cans, diving fish, and a turtle and a duck family! We also have our own ‘Baby Annabell Learns to Swim’ doll, that the children love!

Certificates and Badges

Your baby/child will be awarded a free badge and certificate for each half term of lessons that they attend. The Adult and baby/toddler & Preschool lessons follow progression through the Swim England National Plan for Teaching Swimming (formally ASA).

The Adult and Baby lessons will focus on Discovery Duckling award skills.

The Adult and Toddler and Pre-school lessons will focus on the Duckling Award skills. All awards can be achieved with or without floatation equipment or support. A record of your child’s achievements will be kept in a file on poolside that you can look at anytime.

All children can work towards achieving ‘I CAN’ badges. The Swim England ‘I CAN’ Awards are perfect for babies, toddlers and pre-school aged children. The Awards recognise achievement of specific single successes for early learners, and can be awarded at any time by your child’s swimming teacher. Your child can enjoy receiving a special badge, certificate and sticker for nine types of skill development:

• …enter the water safely

• …jump in

• …float on my front

• …float on my back

• …roll over

• …blow bubbles

• …swim

• …enter, turn, return

• …exit safely

Badges that your child can receive at Mini Manta Ray’s include:

• I CAN AWARDS (for jumping in, blowing bubbles, floating, for example).

• DISCOVERY DUCKLING AWARDS (Levels 1 – 4).

• DUCKLING AWARDS (Levels 1 – 4).

• Puffin 5m badges (swimming with aids).

• Rainbow distance awards, such as 5m, 10m an 15m badges (swimming without aids).