Stage 6 Gold

Advance Personal Survival & Swimming Skill Proficiency

Over 400 meters, children will need to execute strokes with more ease, efficiency, power, and smoothness. Lifesaving readiness will be the main focus of rescue techniques and water safety education. Personal safety and standing dive techniques will still be taught.

Clothing Requirement

Participants in stage 6, the last stage, must perform advanced survival skills while wearing long pants and a t-shirt. Using clothing to make a flotation device—for example, turning long pants into a float—is one of the most important skills acquired at this stage. This skill is essential in real-life water survival situations, where individuals may need to rely on their clothing to stay buoyant while waiting for rescue.

Other tasks in this stage, such as surface diving and swimming through hoops, are designed to test participants’ stamina and resourcefulness while wearing heavy, wet clothes. By the end of this stage, learners are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to survive in challenging water environments, even while fully clothed.

Stage 6 Gold Test Criteria

Entries & Exits

Standing dive.

Sculling & Body Orientation

Scull, float or tread for whilst making a self-made float within 5 min

Underwater Skills

In at least 1.8m deep water, perform head-first surface dive (tuck or pike) and perform ear

equalisation, if necessary and swim through hoops on pool bottom for 5m.

Movement / Swimming / Strokes

Swim:

100m Front Crawl (within 3:00 min).
100m Breaststroke (within 4:00 min).
100 m Backstroke (within 3:20 min).
50m Survival Backstroke.
50m Sidestroke.
15m Butterfly.

Survival & Activity Skills

Dressed in swimwear, long pants and t-shirt demonstrate:

Enter deep water using a compact jump.
Perform a headfirst surface dive to a depth of at least 1.8m (and perform ear equalisation, if necessary).
Swim through hoops on pool bottom for 5m and resurface.
Swim 45m quickly using front crawl.
Then, swim slowly for a further 50m using any preferred survival swim stroke.
Remove pants in deep water and make a float with it while treading water within 5 min.
Demonstrate Heat Escape Lessening Posture (H.E.L.P.) technique with the self-made float for 1 min.
Then swim 25m with the self-made float and climb out of the water.

Knowledge

Principles of Personal Safety and Survival.
Environmental Awareness.
Health Awareness.
Emergency Situations and Survival Techniques.
Rescues.