PROGRAM STRANDS
The key learning areas in Swim and Survive are known as Strands. The strands inform the context within each learning area and group the related learning outcomes to be achieved within that area. The strands make up a holistic and comprehensive curriculum that integrates skills, knowledge and understanding, attitudes and behaviours for participants to learn.
The Swim and Survive strands are:
Parent & Carer Education (for Little Wonders only)
The focus of this strand is for parents and carers to understand their role in aquatic education and safety in aquatic environments. As children in the Little Wonders levels are too young to understand dangers of water, actions to keep safe and consequences of accidental immersion, it’s important to impart the information to parents and carers, particularly the Keep Watch actions: Supervise, Restrict, Teach and Respond. In addition, underpinning knowledge supporting the skills is included in parent and carer education.
Hazards & Personal Safety (for Levels 01 to Bronze only)
Content within this strand is an integral component in identifying and understanding the dangers of aquatic environments, understanding, and following rules for safe behaviour, and participating safely in aquatic activities with the ability to assess aquatic risks and understand personal abilities and limitations.
Entry & Exit
The entry & exit strand concentrates on a variety of methods to enter and exit for a range of aquatic environments and the underpinning knowledge to assess the access points, environment, and conditions to determine the safest method.
Flotation
This strand enables participants to develop personal survival skills including floating, sculling, treading water and orientating the body in water. These foundation skills provide a basis for many skills within other strands and are extended to build competence in dealing with accidental immersion particularly in open and inland water environments by learning survival techniques.
Swimming
The focus of the swimming strand is to provide opportunities to learn the range of competitive and survival strokes and develop the ability to select and adapt a stroke to suit the conditions of the environment. In the early levels, lessons should concentrate on developing an efficient stroke technique through activities that break down the components of a stroke before increasing distance and greater endurance.
Underwater
The ability to swim underwater requires effective stroke patterns and breath control and competence in underwater skills can lead to further development of more complex skills. This strand aims to provide confidence and control in swimming underwater to search for a submerged object or person in difficulty and escape from dangers as well as underwater orientation.
Lifesaving (for Levels 01 to Bronze Only)
The lifesaving strand focuses on developing the skills and knowledge to identify people and actions to help in an aquatic emergency and build competence in recognising and responding to an emergency by calling for help and performing a primary assessment. Participants can extend their skills and knowledge in resuscitation at the Bronze Star level.
Rescue (for Levels 01 to Bronze Only)
This stand aims to equip participants with the skills and knowledge to assess an emergency situation, select an appropriate rescue method and perform a rescue safely considering self-preservation. In the earlier levels, the focus is on learning how to be rescued before progressing to non-swimming rescue methods and then non-contact rescues for the upper levels.
Sequencing & Survival (for Levels 01 to Bronze Only)
The focus for this strand is to apply the skills and knowledge from all the other strands in a simulated emergency situation and increase complexity by adding variables such as wearing clothing, using buoyant aids, lifejackets or group survival strategies.
