Many of our clients ask the question “What is the difference between Swim Schools and Traditional Swimming Lessons?”
Traditional swimming lessons often operate based on a pass-fail system. This type of grading system is often comprised of an arbitrary skill set that must be completed for each level, with little consideration for the difference a student’s age can play in their physical ability and cognitive understanding. Often times, this system requires students to complete a skill only once or twice to receive a checkmark and are then moved onto the next level, instead of taking the time for the student to build confidence and understanding in that skill through continuous repetition and practice.
Swim school models are built based on teaching students essential water safety skills and proper learn-to-swim technique. Swim school facilities are built with the sole purpose of teaching people to swim using shallow, warmer pools to enhance comfort and aide in learning proper technique right from the start. Swim schools provide high quality instruction with professionally trained instructors, and programs are generally divided into specific age ranges to meet the developmental and age-appropriate needs of the students.
As a swim school, H2O Academy developed our very own award-winning AQUA-Lit™ curriculum to create confident and competent swimmers. At H2O, our students practice meaningful and purposeful activities to develop essential physical literacy skills to confidently participate and enjoy a variety of activities in any aquatic environment! Our lessons are taught in our shallow, warm water pool with a filtration system featuring an enhanced ultra-violet disinfection process, the latest in commercial pool technology. H2O believes swimming is an essential life skill, and strives to make learning to swim a fun, comfortable, and enjoyable experience for all our students!
Following a Swim School model, H2O Academy offers specific benefits to students:
Safety Water safety skills are taught during every class to all age groups. At H2O we teach safety skills even before students enter the pool with an on-deck review of pool rules and safe swimming practices. Swim schools focus strongly on safety skills such as safe pool entrances and exits, floating, and treading water.
Technique Proper technique is achieved through appropriate, relevant, and sequential learning experiences. H2O teaches proper swimming habits from the very beginning and focuses on the correct development of swimming basics. The needs of all students are addressed through high quality instruction that is relevant, current, and balanced to meet the developmental and age-appropriate needs of students.
Consistency Consistency plays an important role in the learning process. Students practice a variety of skills each week and continuously progress to more difficult variations of those skills at their own rate. Once students have demonstrated that they can consistency perform those skills independently, they will move on to the next progression for that skill.
Progressions Students learn skills and build their confidence at different rates. Our award winning AQUA-Lit™ Curriculum is progressive and builds upon swimming skills in a variety of areas. We believe in continual learning and growth, which is why we assess students on a proficiency scale rather than a pass-fail system. Weekly lessons are planned based on a student’s individual skill progression and evaluations from the prior lesson.
Social and emotional development Our approach keeps students engaged and active the entire class. We use innovative equipment to encourage creativity and promote social acceptance while learning the FUNdamentals of swimming.
What drives our program is our vision of a world where people are as comfortable, confident, and efficient in the water as they are on land. At H2O, we work toward this vision through our purposeful programming.
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