What Blue Wave Swim School Done in One Year

2016 ended and a new year is starting at Blue Wave Swim School.  So, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve done in one year; the new things we have learnt and what to look ahead to the future.

Our Achievements in 2016 

1. Growth in numbers:

Almost 200 families, many of them with two children in our programme, attended our swim school in 2016 some travelling quite considerable distances. That’s a 20 percent rise on 2015 and reflects our growing reputation for providing some of the best quality swim coaching in South West London.

2. Strong retention levels:

This year we saw a very good (70%) attendance rate across our lessons at our two venues as well as solid retention levels. This is testimony to children being happy in their learning environment and parents being satisfied with the pace of learning.

3. A substantial Increase in New Swimmers and Website Visitors

We are always keen to provide useful swimming tips and to transparently answer our clients’ questions. So blogging became a focus in 2016 enabling those Q&As to be easily accessed. Internationally renowned swim experts have shared their best practice with us collaborating with blogs and insights available online. One of our 2016 blogs which we did in collaboration with Mr Terje Stakset (Norwegian baby swimming expert), was extremely popular and was shared on different social media platforms more than 37 times (visited and read almost 2000 times).

4. Improved communication:

We are keen to build relationships and contacts within the swimming community, and better communication through our newsletter has enabled this. In one year, we sent 9 newsletters and reached 2000 people in South West London. A growth in our swimming community.

5. Focus on children with special needs:

We’ve talked before about the physical benefits of swimming and this is particularly true for children with special needs when the activity is well monitored and properly taught. We are particularly proud that this year we’ve taught more children with special needs (both physical and children with learning difficulties) to enjoy and be safe in the water.

6. Finalists in Local Business Awards:

For the second consecutive year, Blue Wave Swim School was a finalist in the ‘Best Business Awards’ by both Merton Chamber of Commerce and Wandsworth Chamber of Commerce.  Above all, having been shortlisted for the local business awards is amazing.

Learning More About Teaching Swim Lessons 

We constantly strive to do and be better at what we do – to offer more than other swim schools. So this year we’ve visited a number of other swim schools both nationally and internationally to ensure we are teaching to international best practice standards.

A) In 2016, we visited reputable swim schools in other countries such as Denmark, Austria and Sweden to share ideas and be inspired! The below picture is from visiting Swimmix in Denmark, in January 2016. Swimmix, a boutique swim school based in the suburb of Copenhagen, was founded and managed by one of the highly-respected swim teachers and internationally known baby swimming practitioners, Ulrika Faerch (standing on the right).

B) International swim school operators from Austria (EBA) and Greece (Athens based Ydria swim school) visited Blue Wave Swim School in London to assess the quality of our lessons. Their feedback was a valuable source of information for further improvement in our services.

C) This year Blue Wave Swim School teaching staff attended four different swim conferences.

• Presenting at the World Aquatic Development Conference (WADC) in Sweden.
• ‘Light in Water’ conference for baby and toddler swimming specialists,  in Cambridge by Birthright.
• Nordic ‘Learn-to-Swim‘ conference in Billund, Denmark. Billund is home of LEGO best place to learn more about how to engage children effectively.
• Nordic baby swim conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

How Teaching Swimming is Done Elsewhere

Because we invest a great deal in learning about new developments and through sharing ideas with our colleagues from all over the world, when it comes to teaching swimming to babies, infants and children, we know what works and what doesn’t. And, just as importantly, how to make it better.

We learn about best practices internationally. Then tweak them, and add them to our methods to make sure our children and the families who we serve in southwest London get the best deal from the commitment to our lessons. We understand time is precious and efficiency matters. Henece, we have consistency in delivering our swimming lessons and swim teachers.

Swimming Lessons at Our Independent Swim School

Blue Wave Swim School is an independent swim school, it is not a franchise business or operating nationwide. So we can listen to our clients, evaluate the demographic we work with and based on the term-by-term progression of our pupils, modify our lessons and methods to best suit our swimmers.

Blue Wave Swim School teachers are consistently professional, dedicated and trusted. Teaching swimming should have a right balance between having fun in the water and doing drills to learn.  Plus, teaching more children with special needs has become out specialty. This is due to our wonderful and highly skilled teachers.

Why Teaching Swimming is Important to Us

Swimming is unique, because knowing how to swim well, boosts self-confidence like no other activity. Above all we’re keen people don’t see swimming as only a summer activity. Above all, swimming is a great sport and learning it opens doors to other sports like triathlone or water polo.

I personally believe children should learn to swim confidently and competently whilst they are very young. The sooner children start, the more benefit they can get out of swimming lessons.

Well, that is it! 2016 has been an exceptionally busy year, but inspirational and rewarding. One of our clients says it all:

From all of the Blue Wave Swim School team, our very best wishes for future.

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