As in the past two years, our school organized a one-week swimming camp in cooperation with the local DLRG group in Glauchau. Organized by our two swimming teachers - Ms Tornow and Mr Pötzsch - around 20 girls and boys attempted to take their seahorse or bronze swimming badge.
The seahorse is completely overrated - and that is dangerous.
Many people believe that just because your child proudly wears the seahorse badge, they can swim. We see it differently - and for good reason: cover 25 meters in the water, bring up an object from shoulder-deep water with your hands, jump from the edge of the pool into the water. That's all it takes for the seahorse. 77 percent of primary school children have it - but that doesn't make them confident swimmers.
Only those who have mastered the disciplines of the bronze swimming badge can be considered safe swimmers. The requirements for bronze are significantly higher: jumping from the edge of the pool and swimming at least 200 m in a maximum of 15 minutes, diving approx. 2 m from the surface of the water once and retrieving an object, jumping from a height of 1 m or starting to jump, and knowledge of the swimming rules.
Each child could go into the water three times a day for about 30 minutes. In between, there was breakfast and games, which were supervised by our "landlubber" Mr. Speck. The children also practiced swimming rules on land. The training ended with a tasty lunch.
The results are once again impressive: 2 x seahorses, 10 x bronze, 3 x silver.
We will continue to work towards our goal of ensuring that every pupil at our school can swim safely. That's why the 4th edition of the summer swimming camp will take place during the summer vacations.
Anja Tornow and Matthias Pötzsch
