Gloucester’s young residents have been taking advantage of the summer swimming sessions on at the Gloucester Swimming Pool Complex.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The week long, group intensive swimming lessons are run every year in mid January to provide young swimmers with water safety experience.
These lessons are in addition to the normal eight week sessions run during the school term to ensure children continually have the opportunity to learn to swim.
“It’s a very important part of society today,” recreation and aquatic supervisor, John ‘Tad” Parish said.
“With the amount of drownings the rivers and pools, children need to know how to save themselves.”
Recently, the swimming instructors have introduced teaching the students to swim in their clothes along with basic rescue techniques at the end of the regular sessions.
As Tad recounted his own experience of having to pull a child from the water during a family outing, he explained how easily things can happen.
“Lessons are so important because children don’t understand the dangers and are attracted to water.”
Tad also talked about how the intensive lessons have brought whole families to the pool, with siblings and parents taking the chance to enjoy the water.
The Gloucester pool is currently taking enrolment for the first term of school with five instructors available for lessons.