To wriggle and giggle is great when you’re small, it brings water confidence and fun for all. Little Rays love to learn how to move, push and glide with our Chief Stingers close by their side. They’ll soon want to be free, swimming on their own, to fly through the water to ventures unknown.
Stingrays has over 1000 swimmers and runs 7 days a week. We boast the best lessons and best teachers in the area!
Thinking about starting your Stingrays Journey, but don’t know how to go about it? First, check out the information below and if you like the look of it, contact us and get booked into complementary taster session.
Taster sessions are 15 minutes long and give both you and your little one the opportunity to check out the facilities, meet the Chief Stingrays (teachers) and see our teaching style before you make any decisions. It’ll also give our Chief Stingrays the chance to check you’re booking your little one onto the correct stage.
Otherwise known as the Adult and Child programme, the Mini Mantas sessions are the first steps in the Stingray Journey.
Our Pre-School programme is also called our Little Rays programme. All Stingray lessons are based on the ethos of learning though play but this programme more than others.
School age children are ready for our main programme, the ‘Stingray’ programme. This follows 7 stages as developed by ‘Sport England’.
Also known as the Adult and Child programme, the Mini Mantas sessions are the first step in the Stingray Journey. Stingrays in the Mini Mantas programme can start from as early as nine weeks, although the NHS does say babies can come in the water earlier. It’s advised that when mum has had a C section, she should wait until after her six week postnatal check.
In this time, the children gain water confidence and develop the water safety skills that will become invaluable to them later in life. Lessons include teaching breath control, drowning prevention skills, building confidence to achieving independence, develop buoyancy, movement, coordination, strength and stamina, and motor skills in a fun environment.
The Mini Mantas programme has been developed by our Adult and Child specialist, Anna. Anna is a qualified nursery nurse and has ensured that the programme is best built around feed and nap times. Also, that any skills developed are done so in correlation with the child’s age and stage of development.
As the name would suggest anyone who is booked into an Adult and Child lesson will need to accompany the child to that lesson and get into the water.
Classes run on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, starting at 9:00am running in half hour increments.
Our Pre-School programme is also called our Little Rays programme. All Stingray lessons are based on the ethos of learn though play but this programme more than others. Little Rays classes are half an hour long, and since preschoolers can attend lessons during the day this programme is run both in the morning and evening.
Develop basic safety awareness and drowning prevention skills, as well as water confidence and movement through fun, henceforth gaining strength, coordination and independence. Learn to use a float and swim on a woggle, with the aim of completing the first steps towards swimming with aids. (maximum of 3 children in a class)
Can float on a woggle independently and swim distance of between 1 and 5 metres. This section of the programme addresses the swimmers’ independence in learning to float and swim independently without the use of aids. (maximum of 5 children in a class)
Can swim on both their front and back. They’re starting to enhance the skills learned in previous sections of the programme but with a main focus on developing stamina (up to 25 metres, co-ordination, water safety and lifesaving skills. (maximum of 5 children in a class)
With lessons running 7 days a week, 4pm until 7pm in the week and 9am-12pm on weekends there is lots of choice for Stingrays to plan their lessons around their social life.
Specifically for non-swimmers, this class develops basic safety awareness and drowning prevention skills, as well as water confidence and movement skills by developing strength, co-ordination and independence. Developing skills such as learning to oat on a woggle, safe entries and exits, floating, independent travel and rotation. (maximum of 6 children)
Swimmers are starting to swim independently from 5 metres on their front and back and can float independently on their backs. This class will focus on regaining an upright position in the water and then starting to develop the basic strokes. (maximum of 7 children)
This stage is broken up into two halves; Stage 3 Learner and Stage 3 Main, because it’s such a vast stage. Swimmers starting in this stage will be able to swim 10 metres on both their front and back and to move into the ‘Main’ stage must be comfortable swimming in the main pool without an instructor in the water. In this stage, we’re looking at basic technique, stamina and submersion. (maximum of 7 children)
Stage 4 swimmers will be able to swim a length on their front and back
with good technique and have a basic understanding of both Butterfly and Breaststroke. Swimmers will develop the understanding of buoyancy through a range of skills, and refining kicking technique for all strokes. (maximum of 8 children)
The main focus for this stage is water skills, sculling, treading water and rotations. This stage develops all four strokes, so it is a pre-request that swimmers can swim 25 metres of each stroke and a minimum of 100 metres front crawl and backstroke. (maximum of 8 children)
Swimmers should have a comprehensive knowledge of all four strokes and have a basic understanding of the importance of preparation to exercise. Swimmers will work towards an awareness of water safety and competitive principals. (maximum of 8 children)
Final stages of developing quality stroke techniques and working on stamina, fitness and expanding on competitive swimming principals. (maximum of 8 children)
After completing the ‘Learn to Swim’ programme swimmers are encouraged to choose a swimming principal to pursue.
Here are Stingrays Swim School we offer both Swim Squad and Nippers lifesaving; both are great ways to use skills gained throughout their time with Stringrays!
A specialized class that allows competent swimmers (Stage 5+) a pathway to extend their interest and enjoyment in swimming. It is an introduction to competitive sport, teaching children the importance of warm up and cool down as well as starting to implement the competitive principals. This class is the perfect way to continue to enjoy swimming after completing the ‘Learn to Swim’ programme.
Aimed at children ages 5 – 15 this is a fun and inclusive way of learning how to be safe around water. Sessions include; water awareness, self-rescue, shout, throw, reach rescues, and Lifesaving Sport, all delivered by our local search and rescue team LASAR.
Stingrays boast the best facilities in the area with both a warm stingray lagoon for our littler swimmers and a 25m lane swimming pool for those who are a little further along their journey.
Badges are an awesome way of rewarding our swimmer’s when they have done well or succeed at something new! There is a comprehensive log on each swimmer’s CoursePro detailing which badges they currently have.
Teachers will either award a badge when they think it’s appropriate or CoursePro will automatically do so if the teacher ‘checks’ the right competency i.e. Henry can swim 5m on his back. —> Henry gets his 5m badge award!
A Badge and Certificate can be collected from Front of house for the cost of £5. And if you ever want to know more about badge criteria, you can check them all out at the Sport England website.
