Close, But Not Close Enough in Swimming

I've taken Joshua to his swimming lessons when I've been able to do so, and tonight was the last lesson for this session.  He seems to be doing a good job, and since he didn't quite pass Level 1 last time, Meghan and I were hoping another round of lessons at the level would be enough to get him over the hump.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.  Like last time, he could do almost all the required skills, but again he came up short on two of them.  So he still hasn't passed Level 1.  Still, our main goals are for him to be comfortable in the water and for him to be a good swimmer, and I feel like we are succeeding there, based on what I see when we go to the neighborhood pool.  He really likes to be in the water and to swim, and he's a decent swimmer in that he can maneuver around in the deep end (with me close by, of course) and can swim the width of the pool. I think he could actually swim the length too, or get very close, but we haven't tried that yet.  Clara is doing really well too.  She can swim even further than he can and is much more comfortable doing it.  That's because he just doggy paddles until he's tired, and then he'll need help.  But Clara has figured out a system that works for her where she doggy paddles until she's tired, and then she flips over on her back and swims on her back for awhile to catch her breath, and then she flips back over to her front.  She never even stops moving forward, but just alternates on her front and back until she gets where she needs to go.  They are skilled enough that when I take them to the pool, neither one of them needs to wear their floatie anymore, but we have strict rules about what htey can do, and I watch them closely.  Incidentally, Hannah is still just happy to cruise around the pool in her floatie.  So it's disappointing that no one has passed the course, but I'm still pleased that at least two of our kids have made significant strides in their skills since last summer.