On Sunday 24th April 2022, the team met up for the termly SwimWay instructor training. An opportunity for everyone to touch base with one another and have a rundown of the term ahead. Most importantly, a chance to catch up with the Health & Safety refresher course.
Health & Safety
Our resident Health & Safety guru Dave Perry was there to impart his knowledge for this term’s instructor training course!
First Aid Theory Q&A Session
Groups were split into two teams and questioned on a number of first aid procedures. Main points regarded potential incidents regarding choking, asthma, hyperventilation, bleeds and bruises. How to react in any health and safety situation is incredibly important, no matter how small the incident may seem. The session shined light on many aspects that some would not have thought to be important. There were a few queries that led to discussions about other potential issues/scenarios and how to deal with them.
This is why it is so important to run these sessions. They help everyone to continually build on their knowledge and understanding of SwimWay Health & Safety operations. Staff were also urged to thoroughly review and know their NOP’s & EAP’s for every site. This is important in case they had to cover at a pool they don’t normally work at.
Practical CPR Refresher
Following the first aid theory session was the practical CPR refresher course. This time the focus was on adult sudden collapse, adult drowning, as well as child and infant CPR (using QCPR App to measure accuracy for the infant CPR).
This type of training is important to ensure the safety of all of our clients. COVID has made these sessions extremely difficult over the past couple years. So, this term’s session was particularly important.
Operational Procedures
In the other room, SwimWay MD Dan Pastor and Head of Swimming Tamsin Watt took their part of the instructor training.
Welcome Back!
First off, Dan welcomed the team back after the Easter Break. He introduced a host of lovely new team members. Marcell Carbonare, Amanda Hoffner, Athina Konstantinidou, Jose Martins, Thaline Benachio and Anna Maria Veres. All these new instructors have had a great start to the term. They are already building up a dedicated following of students and parents alike!
Office Structure
Dan then took the team through the new office structure. This has has been in place since the beginning of the year when our new Bookings & Customer Services Manager, Claire Maskell joined the office team. It is important for our instructors to know not only who to call during regular office hours, but also who’s on call for out-of-office emergencies. Our friendly office team are always ready to deal with any issues that can’t be dealt with on poolside!
Emergency Procedures, General Guidance & Other Updates
As usual, Dan took the team through the SwimWay guidelines when dealing with minor/major incidents at the pool. He also covered basic day to day operational procedures. This included, pool closures due to health and safety incidents, presentation and uniforms, marking student assessments/registers and sickness.
He then took everyone through important term dates through the year, all of which can always be found on the SwimWay website. He spoke about some of the pools which have been performing extremely well over the past couple of terms. This is due to many things like refurbishments, customer service and general demand. However, we would be nowhere if it wasn’t for the excellent work from our instructors.
It’s Not Only About Teaching
Our instructors are not only teachers. They are the face of SwimWay. It is important to always create a welcoming and positive environment, not only for the children but for the parents/carers too! Dan finished off by emphasising how the instructors should be proud of the excellent work they do.
Updated SwimWay Programme
Tamsin then took over, starting with a breakdown of the updates to the SwimWay programme. Over the past few years, there have been only minor changes. However, the SwimWay programme is always being reviewed to ensure the best possible teaching methodology in practice. This year saw major updates and improvements to many of the stages – you can see them for yourselves here!
Do’s & Don’ts!
She then spoke in depth about “do’s and don’ts” for SwimWay instructors. This covered a number of topics. Memorising the SwimWay programme, mobile phone use during lessons, ensuring correct usage of SwimWay drills, correct stroke technique and teaching from inside the water. She also spoke about best practices when teaching pre-club lessons, life-saving skills and using floats in the water (no noodles!). She finished off the instructor training day with her focus for the summer term: Holiday swimming skills, which strongly emphasised swimming with and without goggles as well as basic pool safety.
Click here to learn more about SwimWay’s termly team meetings and health and safety policies.