It was with happy but heavy hearts that Albie, Dominic, Max and Niamh’s Puddle Ducks swimming journey came to an end at the end of last month. The four young swimmers enjoyed their last class, showing off their beautiful swimming strokes, before teacher Michaela invited them to choose their favourite, most fun activities
Congratulations to our Level 6 graduates at Winterbourne Pool. L-R Niamh, Dominic, teacher Michaela, Albie & Max.
On the day Michaela is a mix of excited and sad, watching her swimming superstars graduate from their Level 6 class.
"It has been a pleasure teaching the children this past year and a half. They have always turned up smiling and I have seen them all grow in confidence in their swimming and improvement in their stroke. I wish them all the best with the rest of their swimming journeys."
Sarah Austin, owner of Puddle Ducks who attended the graduation at Winterbourne Academy commented,
“I loved seeing the children graduate today and chatting to the parents about how much they’ve gained from swimming with Puddle Ducks. Our vision is to teach every single child in our territory to swim. We want to save lives by giving children a strong foundation in swimming and water safety. Watching Albie, Dominic, Max and Niamh swimming fills me with pride. Best of luck in everything you do and a huge thank you to parents Ben, Nuala, Ellie and Jennie for choosing Puddle Ducks.”
The four swimmers are now great friends. They’ve swum together since they were toddlers and will miss their weekly class. Sarah asked them what was their favourite memory of swimming and Dominic recalls,
“I liked it when our teacher Michaela jumped in to show us how to do a straddle jump. That doesn’t usually happen, so I remember really enjoying it”.
A look back through time at our graduates Puddle Ducks journeys!
Albie was just three years old when he joined Puddle Ducks after a friend recommended the swim school back in 2015 and here he is graduating at 10 and a half years.
Albie pictured in the early Puddle Ducks years!
Jennie, Albie's Mum said on his graduation day,
“Over the years we’ve been taught by several different teachers as we’ve moved from the parent and baby classes all the way through Swim Academy. They’ve all been amazing. The standards are so high.
Swimming lessons for Albie were so important to us. My dad is a white-water kayaker and as a family we love water! Albie is following in his grandads’ footsteps as he is a keen white-water kayaker as well, and he goes to The WAVE surf club every week. He absolutely loves the water.”
Max joined Puddle Ducks as a Floatie when he was just 3 months old, "and he would giggle all the way through class." said Ellie, Max's Mum. He graduates from Level 6 Swim Academy at age 12, as a confident swimmer.
“We’ve had such a happy time swimming with Puddle Ducks. As Max has got older, I would ask him what other clubs and activities he’d like to do, but swimming was never optional. I wanted him to swim so he would have respect and be safe in water for life."
Max in the beginning taking the plunge - photo taken at a Puddle Ducks photoshoot age one.
Mum Ellie describes how important swimming is to their family,
"During half term this year we did a Lifeboat tour in Lyme Regis. Max knew all the answers learned from the termly Puddle Ducks PJ Lifesaving Classes! As a family we kayak and sail and it’s reassuring to know that Max, and his younger sister Violet (who is a Level 5 swimmer at Puddle Ducks) know exactly what to do if they fall into the water. They’ve been learning to jump, turn, swim back and hold on since they were babies.”
At the graduation Max's mum mentioned how on Monday this week she had received a Facebook notification about one of her ‘memories’ and it was a post from Max’s first ever swimming class in February 2012, so he was swimming with Puddle Ducks for 12 years to the exact day! What a great discovery!
Siblings Dominic age 11, and Niamh age 9, both graduated at Winterbourne pool along with their peers. The Willis family have been swimming with Puddle Ducks for 11 years, with Dominic joining Puddle Ducks as a Splasher in 2013, shortly followed by his older brother Toby, and then in 2016 Niamh their younger sister joined as well.
Dad, Ben, said on graduation day,
“The children have always loved their swimming classes. As a parent I can see that the structure of the sessions ensures kids learn the right technique but have fun whilst doing it. All three of our children are now super confident in the water but also have a respect and understanding of water safety - pyjama weeks really helped with that! Lots of children can swim a distance but there is a noticeable difference when I watch Toby, Dominic and Niamh."
Dad continues,
"We took the boys out of Puddle Ducks for a while and tried other swim schools, but we couldn’t find anything that matched so we returned. To be honest, they really don’t want to stop swimming with Puddle Ducks. They will miss coming., as will we.”
