Stepping Stones - Swimmers Pathway

At Stepping Stones, we’ve designed a clear and progressive Swimming Pathway to support every child on their journey from their first splash to confident, skilled swimming. Our programme moves through ten structured stages, each matched to one of our class levels to help parents and swimmers understand how progress is made.

Here’s how our class levels align with the stages:

Non Swimmer (Stages 1 & 2)

These early stages are all about building water confidence and learning basic safety skills. Swimmers learn to enter and exit the water safely, float with support, and become comfortable putting their face in the water. At this point, we focus heavily on trust, routine and independence in the pool.

Beginner 1 (Stages 3 & 4)

Here we introduce key body positions for swimming, develop front and back movement with floats, and start to build independent swimming over short distances. Swimmers work towards being comfortable without support and start to develop a recognisable front crawl and backstroke kick.

Beginner 2 (Stages 5 & 6)

By this stage, swimmers are confident in the water and swimming independently. The focus shifts to improving technique, especially in front crawl and backstroke, while also introducing breaststroke legs. We continue to build distance and stamina, with lessons typically running in deeper water.

Improver (Stages 7 & 8)

This level is all about refining stroke technique, improving breathing control, and developing endurance. Swimmers are now working towards performing full strokes over longer distances with good form, including all three strokes — front crawl, backstroke, and breaststroke.

Stroke Development (Stages 9 & 10)

At this final level, swimmers develop more advanced technique, introduce butterfly, and focus on competitive elements like starts, turns and underwater phases. These stages are also ideal preparation for club swimming or moving into water-based sports.

You can download our full Stepping Stones Pathway here: