Have you ever been to a swimming lesson for free with your class? Well I have and actually I just had my first lesson for the year on Wednesday. Most years we go swimming with our class but it’s our first time in a while since it was closed due to Covid – 19. Us Piwakawaka were put into groups and those groups were who we were going with on the bus and swimming with. Our swimming lessons were held at the Manurewa Leisure Centre and we had 3 very nice teachers named Lyall, Teegan and one other teacher but I never got to get her name. Schools across Auckland were getting swim classes for free for all students to learn how to swim or get better in case of a life living situation.

The next step after getting there and changing was to sit down on the edge of the pool in a nice line so that they can show us the proper way to get into the pool. As we get in, they tell us all the rules and get us to test our goggles by putting our face in and blowing our bubbles. After that we were all paired up and had to show them our freestyle swimming as well as our breathing. A few minutes after everyone showed off their great freestyle swimming we were all put into groups. Group 1, group 2 and group 3. I was put into group 2 but there were a lot of us so we did another freestyle so they can see who can actually be put into group 3 and lucky enough for me I was moved up to group 3 which I was very happy about. Another great thing about group 3 is that I was with Teegan, one of my favourite teachers.

Now was the fun part! Learning well is more like practising our swimming skills. The first swimming skill we practised on was swimming with one arm and our legs so that we can use it to rest our head on to catch our breath. Next skill was backstroke which I really enjoyed because it was very relaxing. I can’t entirely remember the other skills we did but I do remember the games we played. The first game was going to swim to get a dive stick but there’s a twist. We weren’t allowed to use our legs which I thought was very challenging but wasn’t even that hard. Next game was keeping the flutter board on our head without dropping it into the water. We were allowed to use any strategy but I didn’t know what to do until I realised that we were allowed to hold it and that made it so very easy.

Sadly it had been the end of swimming but I really enjoyed it. At first I had been really nervous because I was thinking what if I embarrass myself or do something wrong but I just had to give it a go and look where I am in group 3. I am very excited for next week because we might be doing some even more challenging things next week.