On Sunday 23rd April 2023, the team met up for the summer 2023 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 David Ashton was there to impart his knowledge for this term’s instructor training course. David first focused on anaphylaxis. He went into detail with the team, covering possible scenarios and responses. He then did the same with a more common occurrence – nose bleeds. This can seem like a minor problem, but it is important to cover all aspects of the health and safety landscape.
Dave and the team then practiced recovery positions and secondary surveys. Here, we investigate what the possible cause of a potential unconscious person is, and how to manage based on the cause. They also practiced bandaging grazes and lacerations. Dave then ran a quiz which covered dynamic risk assessment and identification/treatment for incidents. Finally, everyone completed the usual practical CPR refresher for dry adult, drowned adult, child and baby.
Operational Meeting
In the other room, SwimWay MD Dan Pastor and Head of Swimming Tamsin Watt took their part of the instructor training. Dan kicked things off by talking about some new SwimWay ventures, including SwimWay Boat Charters (more info to follow soon). He also announced the brand new Barnes Station venue opening in September 2023. Not to mention the successful purchase of a new SwimWay Kew Gardens site set to open in Summer 2024.
Dan then spoke about the individual efforts of some of our instructors and how appreciative we are of their team spirit. He specifically mentioned instructors Laker, Ivanka, Richardson, Ioannis, Istvan and Kirsty who were a great help over the Spring Term, and had repeat client positive feedback.
Following the thanks and conratulations, Dan spoke about the more practical operational topics such as uniforms, office communications, health and safety incidents, sickness & lateness, notice periods and holiday courses. He then handed over to Tamsin…
Tamsin started her section of the summer 2023 training with an introduction to SwimWay’s new instructor development team. Put together to continue to raise our teaching standards and methodology. The development team consists of…
Alberto Baggio and Lydia Baxter, who have recently completed the STA “Teach the Teacher Training Course”. They are now in the midst of completing the STA “Aquatic Tutor” course. Following this, the intention is for them to finish the full STA training course and join Tamsin as SwimWay’s teacher trainers for our entire instructor team.
Ana Mauricio has been put in charge of developing our parent and baby programme. We intend to implement this updated programme by the end of Summer 2023.
She then went through an important aspect of our instructor app: the “alerts section”. This allows them to monitor medical information, previous swimming history/awards, as well as holiday course feedback from other instructors. It is an important aspect of our bookings system, heavily impacting the lesson quality.
Click here to learn more about SwimWay’s termly team meetings and health and safety policies.