Pool & Spa Scene: SCHOOL POOLS
ABOVE: In partnership with the ASA and with sponsorship from British Gas, Total Swimming’s Pools 4 Schools scheme takes a mobile pool out to any school or community that has the space to accommodate the enterprise.
> There are some bold initiatives to off-set the problems faced by schools in providing adequate swimming opportunities for the children they teach. Total Swimming is, according to co-founder, Olympic swimmer
Adrian Turner, on a mission to revolutionise swimming for children. In partnership with the ASA and with sponsorship from British Gas, the company’s Pools 4 Schools scheme takes a mobile pool out to any school or community that has the space to accommodate the enterprise. A Total Swimming steel tank pool measures 12 x 6 metres and is one metre deep, which, according to Adrian is the ‘optimum size’ for teaching a primary school class to swim.
In addition to the pool, Total Swimming provides health and safety measures, maintenance and a 24-hour emergency contact. The teaching programme, which normally lasts 12 weeks, is free, although the school has to pay the cost of heating the pool, which can be somewhere in the region of £2,000 to £3000, according to the time of year. The success of the scheme is refl ected by the fact that just a year after Pools 4 Schools hit the road 10,000 non-swimmers had been taught to swim. The ASA, has also issued a ‘Save School Swimming, Save Lives,’ six-point manifesto with the aim of improving central and local government policy for swimming and making school swimming lessons a priority. Incorporated into the six-point plan is ‘improved training for primary school teachers,’ which states that ‘before qualifying all primary school teachers should be provided with at least six hours of aquatics and water safety training.’ Water safety is uppermost in Patsy Coleman’s mind. An ex- coach to the British Paralympic Swimming Team, Patsy has spent the past 13 years running the Splash Academy in Cambridgeshire, where she teaches children and adults to swim, as well as training teachers to coach and give swimming lessons. “I really empathise with teachers who have to become experts in so many subjects,”
48 Pool & Spa Scene: SCHOOL POOLS
ABOVE: The pool at Kimbolton Independent School in Bedfordshire, is open all year round and used by children from other schools as well as by the local community.
says Patsy.
“But I am a huge advocate of teachers being trained to teach swimming effectively. I show them how to break the strokes down and they really benefi t from the extra knowledge they get from a teaching course, in addition to the most important training of all – rescue technique. In an ideal situation all schools would be able to employ a swimming teacher.” n
KEY STATISTICS
• Every 17 hours someone in the UK drowns.
• Drowning in the UK is the third highest cause of accidental death in children.
• In 2012 there was a 35 per cent increase in the number of children drowning.
• Approximately 200,000 children left primary school in 2012 unable to swim.
• Approximately 75,000 primary school children could leave school this summer, having never been given school swimming lessons.
• 40 per cent of parents do not believe their child would be able to swim to safety if they were in danger in the water.
• One in five adults is unable to swim in the UK.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100