The Swim Centre (est 1978)

Fun & focused, patient & personal Qualified & sensitive child specialists

THE SWIM CENTRES EVOLUTION Swimming Lessons from the UK to the North Shore

"My husband Paul and I started the school on the North Shore of Auckland in 1978 a short time after arriving from the UK where I qualified with the ISTA (International Swimming Teacher Assoc), the ASA (Amateur Swimming Assoc) and Royal Lifesaving Society. The foundation of my love for teaching was the time I spent with the UK education department as a dedicated swimming tutor. While this was satisfying the number of pupils in a class made it impossible to give the personal attention required to 'teach swimming correctly' so the idea of creating a swim school designed specifically to teach young children was born and the decision to come to Auckland and New Zealand followed.

From the beginning, The Swim Centres facilities have been designed for teaching young children swimming. Development has occurred in stages, since 1978, and now 32 years on The Swim Centre is a landmark set in 4 private acres on Upper Harbour Drive, Albany."

Anne Scanlon - Founder and Principal Teacher

IDEAL FACILITIES FOR CHILDREN(TM)S SWIMMING LESSONS

The Swim Centre is much more than just a swimming school. Centrally located on Upper Harbour Drive, Albany, the facilities have been deliberately designed to create a friendly and fun, safe place where children look forward to visiting.

We suspect children think more about coming to see the pet pig & chickens in our mini farm, playing in the playground, getting a small reward and drink after swimming lessons, watching a DVD while waiting for their swimming lessons to start or when mum is having an espresso, more than learning to swim.

However our motive is simple, making swimming lessons a positive experience and in doing so creating the conditions that enable us to succeed in teaching swimming and water safety.

LEARN TO SWIM TO SURVIVE

"Our approach develops skills remembered for life." Anne Scanlon - Founder and Principal Teacher

The Swim Centre's swimming lessons focus on teaching children to Swim to Survive.

We have long understood that a parent(TM)s first priority is that we prepare their children to swim to survive if the unexpected occurs. That's why we describe the overall focus of our swimming lessons as teaching under and over fives to swim to survive.

This is achieved by starting with the basic front and back paddle strokes, which quickly leads to learning freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and personal survival techniques. Many pupils continue to develop beyond swimming lessons and become strong swimmers competing for their school and surf lifesaving clubs.

Our other key objective is that our pupils are confident swimming ~out of their own depth as this is an effective test of their ability and confidence to deal with the real world where water is seldom shallow. Our approach develops intuitive swimming skills and a real understanding of what to do if the unexpected occurs, which is in the first place is to be careful then if the unexpected occurs not to panic, instead be calm and confident.

A SWIMMING NEW ZEALAND CERTIFIED QUALITY SWIM SCHOOL

The Quality Swim School mark is the national mark for swim school best practice. Only those swim schools who comply can be awarded and can carry the Swimming New Zealand Quality Swim School mark so that stakeholders and the public can instantly recognise the value this mark brings to a swim school and its swimming lessons.

NOT ALL SWIMMING SCHOOLS ARE EQUAL

\What makes The Swim Centre special?

- Over 30 years experience teaching swim to survive
- Qualified teachers with vast experience
- PASS ... our structured step by step Pupil Achievement Swimming Standards
- Detailed swimming lesson plans that guide our teachers towards a learning objective
- Our lessons include learning both swimming and water safety strokes/techniques
- Individual assessment
- Achievement awards certificates and matching badges to reward and motivate
- Small classes in beautifully warm 34C, auto-purified water
- Clean, friendly, respectful, family atmosphere

Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have. Our team is always ready & more than happy to help.