Is that what you do? Is it even allowed to do that? To splash water on a child’s face and pour a mug of water over their head? The teacher Ulrike Arndt is downright enthusiastic about how playful and yet sensitive her helper took away the children’s fear of the water when she recently attended a swimming lesson for the first time. “At the end of the lesson,” says Arndt, “the children have already splashed happily in the shallow water.”
If this continues, the children, who a few weeks ago didn’t dare to go into the pool, will soon take the seahorse test – the badge for swimming ability. In any case, that is the goal that the rector Ulrike Arndt has set for the elementary school on Burmesterstraße in Freimann: “That all children can swim when they leave our school.”
The DLRG already fears a generation of non-swimmers
Learning to swim is not easy these days. Because of the corona pandemic, the baths were closed for a long time, courses and lessons were canceled. The German Life Saving Society (DLRG) already fears a generation of non-swimmers: In Bavaria alone, it is estimated, more than 100,000 primary school students could not have attended a swimming course.
The Technical University of Munich is now giving them tuition: Christine Hoffmann, who has a doctorate in sports science, has initiated a pilot project for this purpose within the framework of applied sports science – students support swimming lessons, or “SuSu” for short.
With just one teacher for twenty children, swimming lessons are almost impossible
In the summer, 15 students for sports teaching were trained as lifeguards at the TU’s expense, plus there was additional training for beginners’ swimming. After the autumn break, they were then sent to a total of 33 primary school classes.
“The demand from schools for the offer was enormous,” says Hoffmann. “We are happy about any support,” explains Arndt. Thanks to the student assistants, it is possible to form groups: “While a student gets six children used to the water, the teacher can practice the technique with the more advanced.”
“Every week my teachers say what a gift it is that I am there,” says one student
With twenty or thirty children per class and only one teacher, swimming lessons are almost impossible, says the student Hannah Jahner. Because the non-swimmers enjoy priority, advanced users would have to do the beginner exercises.
“Every week my teachers say what a gift it is that I am there,” says Jahner: “Because the swimmer children are so dissatisfied when they are not encouraged.”
Hannah Jahner is studying sport at grammar school to become a teacher. She has already given beginner courses in her home club in Berlin and is now signing up for extra shifts. Instead of taking two classes like her fellow students, she helps in five classes from three primary schools – in Allach, Bogenhausen and in Westend. “Swimming is the only vital sport,” she says: “If you can’t do it, it’s life-threatening, especially on vacation.”
Nevertheless, not all schools place as much emphasis on swimming as Ulrike Arndt’s. When at the end of the previous school year it was a question of which deficits from the Corona period still needed to be worked up, “we asked ourselves whether it would really be enough to do another five hours of math,” reports the Rector. Her colleges considered swimming more important; as a result of a crash course, ten out of 16 children came to the seahorse.
In some classes, only five children could swim
Hannah Jahner also thinks that there is a lot of catching up to do. In some classes, only five children could swim, twenty have yet to learn, she says. The beginners get used to the water by getting them to stick their faces under the surface, to dive under a pool noodle, to practice frog legs. “I only know that from three to four-year-olds and now do it in third grade,” she says.
Basically, “SuSu” should be evaluated by a student for her thesis. The project was originally planned to run for six weeks, one double hour per week, i.e. two consecutive school hours of 45 minutes each. But because days were always canceled when there were too many corona cases at a school, it dragged on until January.
“This is not a drop in the ocean,” says the Rector
It could go even longer because of Rector Arndt: “The students are really great, there is motivation on all sides. We would be happy if the project was extended.” The student Jahner would also find it a shame if it remained a one-off thing: “I could imagine it being well integrated into my studies.” As a connection between learned theory and practiced practice.
In fact, efforts are being made to this end, says Christine Hoffmann: The TU is examining whether the training and practical experience of the students should be incorporated into the curriculum as an optional subject. In any case, the initial feedback from the project was clear and positive: all the children had made enormous progress.
This is astonishing when you consider that of the 90 minutes of lessons, quite a few are lost for the way to and from the swimming pool and for changing clothes. Even if you have a swimming pool at school like Ulrike Arndt, you only get around 50 minutes in the water; elsewhere it is sometimes only 30 or 35.
Nevertheless, Arndt sums up: “The six double hours are mega-profitable. That is not just a drop in the ocean, but a big boost.”