It was such a waste.

For kids who already know how to swim, it was worthless.

For kids who don't know how to swim, one week was way to short to teach them.

For non-swimmers, I would rather they give free vouchers to take the Arlington co swim classes so they actually could learn how to swim.

What happens in each swim unit will vary based on the swim instructor at the pool and the overall skill level of the group. Send you child’s PE teacher a quick email asking what the unit looks like. Students should also spend a day doing water safety- using life jackets, practicing help positions, trying some rescue techniques and a day playing water polo- my students love water polo day! Generally, we spend the 1st 3 days assessing students levels, practicing kicking, breathing etc and some students do go to the lanes to practice more strokes and swimming for fitness.
Signed- an APS PE teacher at a school where not everyone can swim!

Don't worry, at that age there are plenty of team kids better than your kid. My team kid is happy to help teach other kids and support them. That's the cool thing about the teams is they have older/more skilled kids teaching the younger ones. Your kid will be fine. I think its great they do that. They probably have several groups from beginners to intermediate to kids who are swimming all 4 strokes and can do 25/50's.

They are supposed to get swimming in 3rd and 4th and again in 9th/10th I believe. Can’t remember if they also go in middle school. My son was in 3rd last year and they do a very basic test on first day to see where kids are at and then two groups - one for beginners and those who need more basic instruction and one for kids who can swim and they work on strokes. I do think they get to play on the last day.

APS takes a lot of crap for requiring the schools to have pools and provide the swimming curriculum but I really can’t think of anything more important to teach kids. Many kids in Arlington do NOT have access to a pool and/or swim instruction for a variety of reasons.

I think this is great, too many kids die from drowning. I wish FCPS would figure out a way to do this.

I've never witnessed it but always heard from my children that they do a swim test of sort on the first day and then break into groups. Some kids get more basics, others work on more advanced. I think there are only two groups, so not a ton of differentiation.

Why would you expect differentiation? The school is simply trying to make sure everyone can swim.

According to dd’s friend, a competitive swimmer who took the unit last year, they did a lot of group activities like working as a team to get something across the pool, etc.

There was no differentiation for the better swimmers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does this work for kids who are proficient swimmers? DD is in 3rd grade so will have the unit of swim lessons this year. I think it’s a great concept to give pool access to many kids who might not otherwise have gotten any water instruction, so I don’t object, but am wondering how the teachers differentiate in the water. How does it work for the kids who are strong swimmers, such as those who swim competitively. Do they get free play time in the water, or does an instructor give them a workout, or are they blowing bubbles and practicing floating?

Where are you in APS? Our school pushed back the swim unit to 4th grade. Was this not a countywide thing?

What school was this? APS central policy is to have swimming in both 3rd and 4th grades.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does this work for kids who are proficient swimmers? DD is in 3rd grade so will have the unit of swim lessons this year. I think it’s a great concept to give pool access to many kids who might not otherwise have gotten any water instruction, so I don’t object, but am wondering how the teachers differentiate in the water. How does it work for the kids who are strong swimmers, such as those who swim competitively. Do they get free play time in the water, or does an instructor give them a workout, or are they blowing bubbles and practicing floating?

Where are you in APS? Our school pushed back the swim unit to 4th grade. Was this not a countywide thing?

Our school does 3rd & 4th

Anonymous wrote:How does this work for kids who are proficient swimmers? DD is in 3rd grade so will have the unit of swim lessons this year. I think it’s a great concept to give pool access to many kids who might not otherwise have gotten any water instruction, so I don’t object, but am wondering how the teachers differentiate in the water. How does it work for the kids who are strong swimmers, such as those who swim competitively. Do they get free play time in the water, or does an instructor give them a workout, or are they blowing bubbles and practicing floating?

Where are you in APS? Our school pushed back the swim unit to 4th grade. Was this not a countywide thing?

We have a lot of competitive swimmers in our school. It was an easy unit for them. It's just like the basketball unit for kids on travel or the gymnastics unit for kids on team. The last day is a fun day.

Same as for kids who are math wizzes who have to sit through instructions about things they already know.

It probably depends a bit on the gym teacher, but my kid spent time in the training tank learning to float with everyone else. He said they did put the swim team kids in the back though as they were less likely to need rescuing. If I recall, the last day was just free water play in the tank. They weren’t in the big pool at all except one day when they jumped in and did some water safety stuff.

How does this work for kids who are proficient swimmers? DD is in 3rd grade so will have the unit of swim lessons this year. I think it’s a great concept to give pool access to many kids who might not otherwise have gotten any water instruction, so I don’t object, but am wondering how the teachers differentiate in the water. How does it work for the kids who are strong swimmers, such as those who swim competitively. Do they get free play time in the water, or does an instructor give them a workout, or are they blowing bubbles and practicing floating?