Sheffield City Trust partners with Institute of Swimming to develop swimming provision at 6th National Performance Centre

Sheffield City Trust has renewed its three year consultancy-style agreement with the Institute of Swimming to further develop and grow its swimming lesson provision and increase opportunities and upskilling for current and potential new staff.

 

SIV, the operating arm of Sheffield City Trust, has recently been announced as a Swim England National Performance Centre, with SIV managing six wet sites, including the Olympic Pool at Pools Forge. SIV works with the Swim England National Performance Centre in Sheffield to make sure their elite athletes and clubs are given the necessary pool hours and world class facilities to train in. SIV serves its local community and teaches 5,100 children and adults to swim each week, across 625 lessons.

 

Natalie McGuire says: “Sheffield has a fantastic history of swimming and we are delighted to continue our partnership with SIV to nurture and grow its workforce and its aquatic provision.  It’s critical to both the Institute of Swimming and SIV to find the right people from the Sheffield area to become swimming teachers, as well as investing in its current workforce through bespoke upskilling.”

 

Sarah Livesey, Aquatics Manager, SIV says: “I feel safe in the hands of the Institute of Swimming. Our partnership is collaborative and supportive. The team are very responsive to the continual flow of new teachers into Sheffield and the availability of CPD to upskill our staff throughout the year.

 

“SIV is passionate about aquatics and it continually strives for quality throughout its operations; the relationship we have with the Institute of Swimming gives me the assurance to deliver this.  The Institute of Swimming continuously evaluates its offer, which supports our strategic objectives for the future to ensure we have enough teachers to grow our aquatic offerings and to make sure staff holiday/sickness/leave does not impact our customers.”

 

SIV was keen to explore positive entrance and exit pathways into swimming for its community and worked with the Institute of Swimming to deliver diving and water polo CPD and further baby and toddler training for its teachers.

 

Livesey says: “We wanted to engage with our customers. To encourage them to come swimming at an early age and to follow this entrance into aquatics with a trusted Learn to Swim programme that extend a young person’s interest in swimming by developing a fun exit pathway, including diving and water polo classes.”

 

Swimming teachers from SIV have just completed their diving CPD and SIV will be launching diving lessons at three of its sites in October. Livesey says: “We want to start our children swimming and to give the community the opportunities to keep on swimming.”

 

Earlier this year the Institute of Swimming delivered the SIV Swimming Teachers Conference. Due to the overwhelming positive feedback a second conference is currently being prepared for February 2020.  Expert workshops for the 2020 conference will cover a variety of subjects including preschool and SEND swimming lessons, delivered by the Learn to Swim team from Swim England, and further sessions about ‘Motivation through Communication’ and ‘Breaststroke and Butterfly Technique Faults and Corrections.’ Livesey says: “Swimming techniques are always changing and we need to ensure our teachers have the best and up to date teaching methods to deliver fantastic swimming lessons for all.

 

“It was important for SIV to professionalise the role of being a swimming teacher and to create an aquatic community for our workforce. We want our swimming teachers to feel valued and invested in.  The Swimming Teaching Conference is special as it brings together the SIV teachers together from our various sites. ”

 

McGuire says: “Our bespoke Swimming Teacher conferences are an extremely efficient and reliable way for operators to develop best practice, share ideas and to mentor the aquatic staff and instructors. It’s inspiring to have so many passionate swimming teachers being brought together with the opportunity to further upskill and learn.”

 

Livesey concludes: “Our partnership with the Institute of Swimming serves our community in two ways; firstly it enables SIV to employ and upskill people from the Sheffield area. Secondly is ensures our swimming teachers have a standardised and best practice approach to teaching that will grow and nurture a lifelong love of swimming for our customers.”