
Making waves. Swimming -an important life skill

Without a doubt, one of the most important life skills is learning to swim. A child needs to be able to swim for safety, and with this in mind, it’s often one of the top priorities of parents. Sitting in the poolside changing rooms at Oakham School, I talked with Andrea Kemp - a swimming instructor, with years of experience, who teaches both at the School and locally. I discussed the importance of introducing swimming at an early age and what to consider when choosing a swim school.
Andrea has been teaching swimming to babies, toddlers, and adults for many years, a competitive swimmer herself, her story brings home the reality that swimming saves lives and remains with you for life.

‘When I was a young, I went fishing with my family friends and I somehow thought I could walk on water. I went under in a canal and I got pulled out to safety. I was in the hospital and it made the front page of the papers where I live. The council at that time contacted my parents and arranged for me to have swimming lessons. I started having swimming lessons, really enjoyed it and it went from there.’
Having learnt lifeguarding skills, and taken her teaching qualifications, Andrea went on to work in the Police force and later came back to teaching swimming. I asked her why children should learn to swim:
‘From my own experience, it’s a life-saving skill. Children can do other activities like horse riding, football, hockey, after-school clubs that are all good for socialising but with swimming, it’s a life skill. I feel if you can’t swim, you miss out on so much such as holiday and family times.’

A child can start swimming at any age, but I wondered if there is an ideal time to start?
‘The earlier the better. To get them used to the environment, you can bring your child when they have had their second lot of injections (so that’s about 3 months onwards). Get them in the water, and if they have siblings, let them sit on the side, so babies can get used to the noise, and the pool.’
In her experience, Andrea has noticed that children whose parents take them regularly for lessons are likely to progress more. From analysing the groups of children she has taught in school, Andrea says you can tell those children who have had swimming tuition outside of school as they are always in the top groups. One of the questions I had, was whether or not you should use armbands and floats in the early stages to help your child swim?
‘Personally, I totally disagree with armbands because they restrict the child’s movement and they keep their body upright rather than horizontal - the latter is the position we want for swimming. Instead, I prefer to use noodles as they keep the body up yet still allow for freedom of movement of their arms and their legs.’
