SwimStage 6 of 6
Gold
Advanced Personal Survival and Swimming Skill Proficiency
What this stage is for
Performing a variety of strokes efficiently over 400 metres within set times, plus survival skills including making a flotation device from clothing and holding H.E.L.P. with it.
What parents should know
Gold is the end of the programme and it is genuinely demanding. 400 metres of timed swimming, butterfly, a head-first dive to 1.8m, and removing long trousers in deep water to make a float from them — all inside five minutes for that last part.
What changed on 1 July 2025
- A standing dive entry was added — front crawl and breaststroke are now started from it. This did not exist in the old syllabus.
If your child was taught before July 2025, check they have actually practised these. I see students arrive at assessments having never been shown them.
Everything the assessor marks
The assessment splits into blocks, and the goggles rule differs between them. This is the order it is worked through.
Swim
✓ Goggles allowedGoggles allowed. Front crawl and breaststroke are started with a standing dive entry.
- Standing dive entry, used for front crawl and breaststroke new 2025
- 100m front crawl within 3:00
- 100m breaststroke within 4:00
- 100m backstroke within 3:20
- 50m survival backstroke
- 50m sidestroke
- 15m butterfly
Gold Sequence
✕ No gogglesNo goggles. In swimwear, long pants and t-shirt.
- Enter deep water using a compact jump
- Head-first surface dive to at least 1.8m, equalising the ears if needed
- Swim through hoops on the pool bottom for 5m and resurface
- Swim 45m quickly using front crawl
- Swim a further 50m slowly using any preferred survival stroke, face clear of the water
- Remove the long trousers in deep water and make a float from them while treading water, within 5 minutes
- Hold H.E.L.P. with the self-made float for 1 minute
- Swim 25m with the self-made float
- Climb out of the water
The times to beat
These are pass/fail cut-offs. Finishing is not enough at this stage.
| Swim | Maximum time |
|---|---|
| 100m front crawl | 3:00 |
| 100m breaststroke | 4:00 |
| 100m backstroke | 3:20 |
On the day
| What to wear | Swimwear, plus long pants and t-shirt for the survival sequence. |
|---|---|
| Goggles | Allowed for the timed swims. Not allowed for the Gold survival sequence. |
| Pool required | 50m, at least 1.8m deep. |
| Students per assessor | 10 students per assessor. May be combined with Silver, 10 total. |
The one I see catch students out
Butterfly and the trouser float. Both are one-off skills that appear nowhere else in the programme, so they get neglected right up until test day.
If your child learned in a condo pool, read this
Around three in five of the condo-pool students I assess fail on the surface dive or the swim through the hoops on the pool bottom. Not on the strokes — on the underwater work. Gold goes further again: a head-first surface dive to at least 1.8m — harder to control than feet-first, and it drives the pressure onto the ears faster — followed by 5m through the hoops on one breath. Then the trouser float, in deep water, treading throughout. Comfort at depth is not a bonus at Gold; it is most of the sequence.
This is the single most common reason I see condo-pool students come unstuck from Stage 3 upwards, and it gets worse the higher the stage. It is nothing to do with how well they swim on the surface. Time in genuinely deep water, before test day, is the only fix — going down, staying down, and moving while they are under.
How long does this stage take?
Most students spend 6 to 12 months at this stage on standard weekly lessons of 45 to 60 minutes — roughly 12 to 16 hours of pool time.
Treat that as a range, not a schedule. Water confidence, attendance and coordination move it a long way in both directions, and there is no advantage in pushing a child into an assessment early to hit an average.