Swim England

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The I CAN Awards

The I CAN Awards are single outcome Awards that can be given at any time.

The Awards are, I CAN…

  • …enter the water safely
  • …jump in
  • …float on my front
  • …float on my back
  • …rollover
  • …blow bubbles
  • …swim
  • …enter, turn, return
  • …exit safely

They can be used as part of the Swim England Pre-School Framework, the Swim England Learn to Swim Framework, or as part of a School Swimming and Water Safety programme to reward and recognise milestones.

Why should you deliver the I CAN Awards as part of your lessons programme?

The I CAN Awards complement the Discovery Duckling, Duckling and early Learn to Swim Stages Awards, they offer further opportunities to reward and recognise the achievements of your learners. They are ideal to help motivate young learners and recognise individual achievements to help learners along their swimming journey.

Here’s why Glover’s Swim School delivers the I CAN Awards…

“The I CAN Awards are a great way of rewarding our swimmers within their stage if they’ve completed a particular outcome. It just gives them that incentive then to actually progress to hopefully complete the other outcomes within the stage.

“[these Awards]…really make a big fuss of when they’ve done something for the first time, which might be something like floating for the first time on their own. It’s lovely for the parents to see and share that moment with them.

“The certificates are nice and fun looking, they have nice colours on them, so they’re really engaging for the children and we’d highly recommend them to any swimming lesson provider.”

Here’s how Palatine Leisure Centre Swim School uses the I CAN Swim Award…

Palatine Leisure Centre Swim School started using the ‘I CAN Swim’ Award to help them resolve an issue they were having when supply teachers were taking lessons, and unsure about how many discs each learner should have. Here is what Jane Garrick (Aquatic Development Officer at Palatine Leisure Centre) had to say about the Award,

“When the children start swimming lessons we like to make them feel safe and secure and so provide them with 3 to 4 discs on each arm. Discs get removed as they move through the I CAN Swim Award (3 or 4: Not Attempted, 2 = Attempted, 1 = Good, 0 = Pass I CAN Award). This Award has proven invaluable for resolving this issue.

“As a result, the customer service has improved, parents don’t get dissatisfied now when we have supply teachers taking the class, because it is a continuation of what they’ve been doing previously.”

Interested in implementing the I CAN Awards into your lessons programme? Below are a variety of options of where you can go next to find out more…

📧 Email learntoswim@swimming.org to enquire about how to integrate these Awards into your swimming lesson programme.

🛒 Visit the Swim England webshop to view these Awards

❓ Want to shout about any Awards that form part of your swimming lesson programme? Email us at learntoswim@swimming.org to feature in our Awards video series!

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