Swimming

Swimming is part of our taught curriculum for specific year groups.

Swimming lessons are delivered by our whole-school PE teacher Andrew Russell, along with Sonia Perkins, Director of “Sport on the Move”.

All swimming lessons are held at the Aquatic Center which is part of the Sir Garfield Sobers Sports Complex - Regency Park, Wildey, St. Michael.

The first two years of the MYP have a swimming period as part of their PE Curriculum at the Aquatic Centre, in addition to regular PE lessons on campus. From PYP 3 through PYP 8, primary school students have a swimming period per week at the Aquatic Centre, also in addition to regular PE lessons on campus.

For the current academic year:

• MYP 1 and 2 classes have their session (in six week blocks) on Fridays from 7:30-8:30 a.m.
• PYP 3 Mondays from 7:30-8:00 a.m.
• PYP 4 Mondays from 7:30-8:15 a.m.
• PYP 5 Mondays from 7:30-8:15 a.m.
• PYP 6 Thursdays from 7:30-8:15 a.m.
• PYP 7 Thursdays from 7:30-8:15 a.m.
• PYP 8 Thursdays from 7:30-8:15 a.m.

The swimming program is centred around 2 basic aspects:

• Learning a stroke
• Learning basic water skills

The 4 strokes are freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly, taught in that order. Each stroke comprises of 5 principles:

• Body position
• Leg action
• Arm action
• Breathing
• Timing

The water skills undertaken will be:

• Diving to recover an object from various depths
• Holding breath under water
• Floating (front and back)
• Treading water
• Diving
• Flip turns

The swimming program adopts a hands-on approach with the children. This technique has proven to be the most effective way, when necessary, to ensure that a clear understanding of the instruction by the teacher has been portrayed to the student.