SWIMMING
Temporary Swimming Pools
Pete Hayman looks at how temporary swimming pools can help people in hard-
to-reach areas learn to swim and transform a venue into a water-based attraction
I
n an October 2008 report in place to unveil a second pool in early “We were hit with the fact at the time
examining the provision of pub- 2010. Another of the initiative’s partners, that one in five kids leaving primary
lic swimming pools and diving Total Swimming, is providing the tem- school were not reaching the national
facilities across London, the Lon- plate for Make A Splash, to complement curriculum requirement of being able to
don Assembly’s economic development, its own Pools4Schools programme. swim 25m and found out that some of
culture, sport and tourism committee Total Swimming founder Steve Parry these negative figures linked to areas of
suggested that better access could be developed the idea of using temporary deprivation, ethnic minority groups or
provided by increasing the use of mobile swimming pools to help children learn kids who did not have access to swim-
or temporary swimming pools. how to swim after returning from his ming pools,” he said.
Since the publication of that report, medal-winning performance at the 2004 With the help of commercial sponsor
London mayor Boris Johnson has contin- Athens Olympics. Having become frus- British Gas and a collaboration agree-
ued to affirm his commitment to driving trated with low attainment rates for Key ment with the ASA, the Pools4Schools
up sports participation throughout Stage Two pupils being able to swim 25m, initiative moves temporary facilities
the capital in the lead up to the 2012 Parry decided to do something about it. around the country on a six-week basis
Olympic and Paralympic Games. Part in a bid to help boost attainment rates,
of his focus during 2009 was to increase although Parry admits the scheme’s suc-
swimming opportunities.
We want to provide
cess is down to varying factors.
Despite the committee’s findings that
five hours of quality
“In terms of the planning, just the
a lack of accessible facilities was “unlikely
teaching provision, on
health and safety issues about sticking a
to improve by 2012”, efforts to improve temporary swimming pool into a school
swimming provision among communities a ratio of one teacher to hall obviously makes a lot of people very
with limited opportunities have been
seven swimmers, to 740
nervous, whether it’s asset teams at the
increasingly facilitated by the use of councils, headteachers or the partnership
temporary pools. This was underpinned
children per six weeks
development manager,” explains Parry.
by the launch of the PlaySport London: “The reason it’s worked for us is that we
Make A Splash scheme in October 2009, know a lot of people in swimming and
which received £7.5m to fund the use of we also understand what it takes to
mobile swimming facilities for 12 weeks learn to swim in an effective way.
in three different locations. “Per programme, we want to provide
five hours of quality teaching provi-
Swimming Partners sion, on a ratio of one teacher to seven
Delivered in partnership with children’s swimmers to 740 children, per six weeks.
charity The Variety Club, serviced office That’s more than 3,500 hours of teaching
providers MWBex, the Amateur Swim- swimming hours for the children. Our
ming Association (ASA) and London aim with the temporary pools model is
Swimming, the scheme’s first mobile to teach 10,000 kids to swim through the
pool was installed at the Greenwood Pools4Schools programme and another
Primary School in Ealing and plans are Steve Parry 5,000 to swim through Boris Johnson’s
40 Read Sports Management online
sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital Issue 1 2010 © cybertrek 2010
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