Welcome to Pepper Penguin's Level 4 course!

Welcome to Pepper Penguin's Level 4 course and congratulations to you and your baby for what you have both achieved so far with Aquatots! Your baby is trying to become more and more independent every day, and in level 4 we acknowledge that and cater for it with our new and exciting skills.

Level 4 overview

One of our important concepts in this level is introducing independence with entries to the pool. We will be showing you how to teach your baby to enter the pool safely and confidently with less and less assistance from you. We will practice this during the warm up section of your classes as well as during play time on the raft at the end, to reinforce the skill while having fun. This idea is further developed and complimented with a new version of our ever popular "Volunteer Swim", where your baby will voluntarily lean forward and swim to you from your Teacher's arms and then back again.

An even more important concept in level 4 is pushing up off the bottom of the pool which builds into a true lifesaving skill. If a baby were ever to, accidentally or deliberately, fall into a body of water then mastery of this exercise would give them a better chance of getting back to the surface and safety. As usual, we introduce this vital skill in the form of a fun little game called "High up in the Sky" where your baby will learn to initially push up off your knee and, later in the term, from the bottom of the pool. It will take time for your baby to become adept at this but, we hope you will agree, it is time very well spent and fun too

Another exciting new exercise to look forward to is the "Babyswap" where you and another parent will swap your babies underwater (you do have to give them back however). This skill is lots of fun, great for socialising your baby with others and a lovely exercise to do if you swim outside of your classes with your Aquatots friends. We also have two new versions of "Swim, Breathe, Swim" and "Backfloat" for you and your baby to try.

Level 4 skills

Here are some of Pepper’s favourite new skills. We haven’t listed them all because the page would be too long:

• Ready splash Stage 4 This new stage of ‘Ready Splash’ allows your baby to take some control and to enter the water confidently, independently and safely when mastered. EYFS Goal → Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Self-confidence and self-awareness, managing feelings and behaviour.
• High up in the sky Stages 1&2 This new skill is lifesaving, teaching your baby to push up off the bottom of the pool. EYFS Goal → Physical Development: Movement and Handling.
• Turn to Mummy Stage 2 In this new stage you will be giving your baby the opportunity to turn to you underwater, gradually with less and less assistance from you. Remember that turning underwater is a lifesaving skill. EYFS Goal → Physical Development: Movement and Handling - Understanding the World - Mathematics: Shape, space and measure.
• Turn back to the side Stage 2 Your baby will go underwater in this new stage before turning back to the side of the pool to hold on. It compliments ‘Turn to Mummy’ and makes this lifesaving skill more realistic. EYFS Goal → Communication and Language: Understanding, Listening and Attention.
• Carousel Stage 3 This stage of ‘Carousel’ combines the fun elements of the previous stages with ‘Swim, breathe, swim’. It shows you how to practice ‘Swim, breathe, swim’ in a smaller pool or in the corner of a busy pool without bumping into other swimmers. EYFS Goal → Communication and Language: Understanding, Listening and Attention.

These skills are just some of the ways that the Aquatots Programme supports the Early Years Foundation Stage. As you can see from some of the skills above, this will be your child's first journey acquiring skills that will prepare your little one for being a super learner as well swimmer. By providing a suportive, positive and well balanced social environment, your child will be introducted to all elements of the EYFS. This includes:

• gaining a grasp for language and understanding cues and instructions,
• basic counting,
• moving through space with the feel and support of water to build physical skills,
• self- awareness,
• building self esteem and becoming a social being.

Buy Happy nappy

Buy Aquawrap system

Buy Board shorts

Buy Costumes

Get swim readyPurchase your nappy set & get ready to make a splash!

If your growing baby's swim nappy is starting to look a bit tight, why not visit our web shop to view our range of stylish swim wear including "Happy Nappies", the entire "Aquawrap system", cool "Board shorts" for the boys and pretty "Costumes" for the girls.

These and many other quality products are available in our web shop.

Don't forget to browse all of our other quality swimming merchandise while you are there.

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Your Next Course...

Once you and your baby have experienced all of the pleasures of Pepper Penguin's Level 4, don't forget to book into Barney Beaver's Level 5 course.

In Level 5 we will be teaching your baby to sit on the side of the pool and wait while you get in. This will make your entries and exits from the pool independent, safe and efficient giving you a little more pool time which is always a bonus.

One of our most exciting new skills in level 5 is "Diving for toys" where we introduce the babies to sinker rings and teach them how to retrieve a ring from underwater, with your help of course. The eventual objective is for your baby to pick up the ring from the bottom of the pool and push back up to the surface to breathe which has many lifesaving benefits. This will be done gradually over a couple of terms so that the skill is easy, engaging and fun for your baby.

We will also be adding a short swim to the very popular "Big circle, little circle" exercise so that the babies keep learning while having fun in the pool.

With more practice of "Ready Splash" and by the end of Level 5 we would expect most babies to enter the water from poolside confidently, safely and independently allowing them to take more control and making their swimming experience more fun than ever.

As you can see, Barney is really excited about meeting you both in Level 5 and he can't wait to show you all of the skills above plus loads more.