How to earn your badge:

1. Learn the general safety rules for swimming (such as not diving into shallow water or not swimming on your own) and where it is safe to swim locally.

2. Show you know how to prepare for exercises. You could do this by leading a warm-up.

3. Demonstrate a racing dive into at least 1.8 metres of water and straddle jump into at least 2 meters of water.

4. Swim 100 metres in less than four minutes.

5. Tread water for five minutes.

6. Surface dive into 1.5 metres of water, both head first and feet first and swim at least 5 metres underwater on both occasions.

7. Enter the water as you would if you didn’t know the depth. Swim 10 metres to a floating object. Use the object to take up and hold the heat escape lessening posture for five minutes.

8. Swim 800 metres using any of the four recognised strokes without stopping. You should swim 400m on your front and 400m on your back.

9. Take part in an organised swimming activity that’s different to the one on your previous swimming badge.