The most common question on swimming that our coaches receive most is always regarding SwimSafer. However, parents and students often have a little understanding of what this certificate means and its benefit. Therefore, this article serves as a reference to answer common possible queries about SwimSafer.
To start off, we need to understand what SwimSafer is about. Swimsafer is Singapore’s nationally accredited swimming test where students are tested for their ability to swim and keep themselves safe in water.
There are 6 stages in SwimSafer test and they include:
Level 1 to Level 4 (Bronze) focuses on mastering Breaststroke, Front crawl (Freestyle), Backstroke, Survival Backstroke and Side Stroke. In addition, students will also be exposed to using life jackets effectively, floating and treading water. There is no time limit from Level 1 to Level 4 (Bronze) as these 4 levels are mainly focused on mastering different swimming strokes and water survival skills.
In Level 5 (Silver) and Level 6 (Gold), students will then be exposed to more competitive side of swimming. Each stroke will now require them to clock a certain timing for their 50m and 100m swim respectively. Silver will touch on more advanced techniques in swimming and Butterfly will be taught in Gold which students would be able to swim for 15m to pass the Gold standard for SwimSafer.
Should my child take SwimSafer or not?
Similar to all accreditations in sports, SwimSafer is not compulsory. The only benefit that obtaining SwimSafer would get your child exempted from compulsory swimming lessons in primary 3. In addition, the swimming lessons in primary 3 would also serve as an avenue to take the SwimSafer test. Although, there is an exemption from swimming lessons in primary 3. Poolva coaches would recommend that parents should still send their children to their primary school compulsory swimming lessons as part of the child’s holistic development. However, quality of swimming lessons compared to Poolva may vary from different primary schools and at times may not be as effective with a larger class to instructor ratio.
However, quality of swimming lessons compared to Poolva may vary from different primary schools and at times may not be as effective with a larger class to instructor ratio.
Primary school swimming programmes serve only as a baseline to learn the minimal basics of swimming. Therefore learning swimming with Poolva, students are better prepared for their primary school’s compulsory swimming programme as being more confident individuals when in water.