Parkvale School
Swimming lessons
Our teaching and learning strategies are being used consistently throughout the school. Developing success criteria with the children and having it on display means that all children know what they are learning.
One of the wonderful things that has occurred as a result of our formative assessment programme is the work we are doing in our swimming programme.
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Two of our teachers asked the children to 'buddy up' and look at what swimming skills they had, what they were being taught to do in the swimming programme and what the learning intentions were. They were also asked to identify what the success criteria would look like for doing freestyle, or floating on their back.
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We changed our usual swimming lessons so that each child could work with their buddy and we gave them an opportunity to observe what their partner was doing. The buddies could then discuss their swimming intentions with each other. Through this process they could improve their stroke in the water, or improve the way in which they floated, or worked on their arm actions and things like that.
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The teacher was then free to move around the pool and work with each pair, or each little group. The children were much more focused on their swimming and teachers could give more focused support where needed. We found that teachers had a greater coverage of what was happening in the pool. Real learning was taking place as each child had to discuss how their partner was achieving against the success criteria. It’s really exciting to watch this development.
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"I know how to float on my back now because my partner showed me how my tummy was sinking and could help me."
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"I liked being able to swim all swimming time instead of having to wait for my group’s short turn or having to get out early for someone else's turn."
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"I couldn't swim and all the other kids could, so I felt embarrassed when it was my turn. I didn't want to get into the pool. Now we work with partners and everyone is in the pool together and busy. It is not embarrassing. Because my partner could help me with all the little things, I can float on my back and tummy now and I don't even need a flutter board. It feels good that I can help my partner learn some things too."
