Sea stacks

You’ll need

Access to water suitable for swimming
Pool floats
A device to use as a timer

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.

Make your stacks

Everyone should split into small teams.
Explain to everyone that they will need to swim over to the other side of the pool, or to a specific location in the pool. When they get there they should take one of the floats and place it in the water to begin a stack. They should then swim back to their team.
The next member of each team should swim to the other side, pick up a float and add it to their teammate’s first one, being careful to balance it in a stack. If the stack falls, the team must start again.
Everyone should keep going until the time is up. The team with the tallest stack wins.
Set a time for five minutes, and when everyone is ready start the race.

If someone feels more comfortable swimming over to the stack using a float then give them the opportunity to do so.

Reflection

This game was about being physically active and gaining confidence when swimming. How did you find swimming while holding an object? Was it easier or harder than usual? Did you have to practice any skills like treading water when you were building the stack?

This game was also about working in a team. Did you work well as a team? How could you have work together more to make the building easier? How did you manage any differences in swimming ability in your group?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Water games and activities: Be careful when doing activities with, in, or near water. Check surfaces and reduce the risk of slipping where possible. Make sure you have appropriate supervision for this activity.

You must always:

Complete a risk assessment
Have the right ratios of number of adults to provide suitable supervision
Set up an InTouch process
Know what to do in an emergency
Share information with parents and carers with an activity information form
Get approval from your Lead Volunteer.

Be safe in water:

Everyone should be able to swim 50 m wearing the clothing or equipment for the activity. Non-swimmers will need additional support.

Water can be dangerous - be aware of the risks.

The category of water depends on how safe the water is. Use our waterways directory to check.

Be sure to manage the group when near water, keeping everyone safe.