When learning to swim, it’s important to recognize and celebrate every step – or splash, kick or paddle – a student takes forward. It’s also important to remember the ultimate goal: graduates who are stronger, safer, more confident swimmers. At FOSS, this has always been our hope for every student, and we continuously refine our program and how we talk about it to help keep this goal front and center.
Our quarterly Progress Updates are a key moment when we can show parents and caregivers not only how much their student has learned, but where they are on that longer journey. We measure that journey with Milestones –major markers that show how a student is progressing towards graduation. Skills and milestones help us see where students are today and what the next steps along their Swim Path® will be.
Levels, on the other hand, provide the environment where a student can best learn the next skills on their Swim Path. Students are assigned to levels based on age and ability, so sometimes they will remain at the same level even as their skills progress; other times they may move to a new level to keep them with swimmers of a similar age.
Let’s take a closer look at how we define and track progress for our students, and how this can make Progress Updates a perfect opportunity to recognize and honor how much they have learned and get excited for what is to come!
The Student Progress Tracker: Skills, Levels, and Milestones
At FOSS, we are always learning how best to explain the wonderful journey that is the Swim Path.
One improvement is the new Student Progress tracker, which you’ll see on your Family Account page, and your student’s teacher will walk you through during Progress Updates.
At a glance, we want you to be able to see where students are today and how much progress they have made towards graduation. You can find:
- Milestone Progress: Each FOSS program has four major milestones. For our Learn to Swim students, those are Water Adjustment, Float Up, Flip to Breathe, and Swim Confidently. We especially want to highlight progress in each of these areas – once all four are complete, a student will have fulfilled the requirements for graduation!
- Skills Progress: Each milestone is broken down into a number of key skills. These are objective markers of ability, including particular activities and the number of repetitions or duration a student needs to demonstrate to check off that skill. (When logged in, you can click a milestone to see its skills and which ones have been completed or remain.)
- Current Level: Your student’s level shows the learning environment that best supports the next skills on their Swim Path. During Progress Updates, teachers focus on which skills and milestone elements have been mastered, what still needs repetition, and where to focus next.
- Recommended Next Level: Teachers will recommend the best placement for next quarter based on the student’s learning needs. Sometimes that means staying in the same level to keep building skills; sometimes it means a move based on age group or readiness. Placement helps ensure the right learning environment; at FOSS levels are not, on their own, a measure of progress.
Conversations to Have During Progress Updates
You can log in and look at your student’s progress – both in terms of their current level, and their longer-term Swim Path journey – at any time. Progress Updates, generally held a few weeks before a quarter ends, are a great time to take a purposeful look at where a student is at a specific moment in time, and we invite parents and guardians to use the opportunity to connect with teachers.
Your teacher will be prepared to talk about:
- What skills have been completed, which are close to mastery, and which still need repetition
- What homework and exercises will aid your student’s progress
- What level to enroll in the next quarter
Keeping an Eye on the Prize: Graduation
Over more than 30 years of teaching kids and adults to swim, we have learned a lot, too. We have learned that HOW each student learns, in what order, and how fast, can vary. For graduates of our program, WHAT they learn is very consistent.
But what matters most is the goal of graduation. At FOSS, we are always ready to celebrate moving on to the next stage of learning and skill mastery that leads to graduation as a stronger, safer, more confident swimmer. We look forward to exploring this more with our FOSS families at the next Progress Update week!
