Safety Week Follow Up
As we conclude our first set of safety weeks here at Barron swim school, we think it is important for our members to hear our conclusions. Let us start by saying we debated long and hard about if we were going to run safety specific weeks, who would participate in them, and what we would do in our classes. We think it is fair to share with you that many swim schools do not partake in such activities. We decided to go forward with safety weeks, because a big part of our mission is to teach safety in and around water.
We made a strategic decision to have the school age program wear clothes and lifejackets first so our junior students could observe and hear what was going on. We are glad we made this choice.
The response from our teachers, students, and parents has been overwhelmingly positive. Our goal was to conduct a normal class as much as possible while wearing clothes, a segment with lifejackets, and a class with no goggles.
OUR FOUR TAKEAWAYS:
- Safety weeks are here to stay and will be conducted once every 6 months.
- Wearing clothes during a lesson gave our students the idea of how it should feel when falling into a body of water unexpectedly. Performing our critical safety skills with clothes on was a fantastic learning experience. Giving parents and kids the option to wear clothes or not will continue for the future of safety weeks – especially at the entry levels of our program.
- Lifejacket education was an important addition to safety weeks. The teachers educated all students on when they should wear them, why they wear them, and how they should fit.
- Many kids struggled with no goggles week. The goal is to have them feel what it is like to have water in their eyes if something unexpected would come up. We were amazed at how the kids really didn’t like that feeling. Our solution is to implement a ten minute segment once every five weeks with no googles to get them more comfortable.
In conclusion, we thank you for your support with this new program. As always we will continue to welcome feedback from our customers. We are excited and already looking forward to Safety Weeks in the future.
