Here at Turtle Tots, we are really proud that our award-winning team of swimming teachers are not only trained to the highest standard and are experts in their field, but that they all have a passion for teaching swimming to babies and toddlers and for \u2018bringing on the smiles\u2019.<\/p>\r\n
With this being World Teachers Day (5th<\/sup>\u00a0October), we would like to celebrate all that they do and share a little insight into the role of a Turtle Tots swimming teacher to give you a sense of their passion \u2013 and hopefully inspire more people to see all the wonderful benefits of becoming a swimming teacher.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n Here we speak to Becki McBride, one of our teachers who works for Fiona\u00a0Vittery\u00a0at Turtle Tots Lancashire, South Lakes and Craven.<\/p>\r\n I\u2019ve always enjoyed being in the water, and taking part in water-based activities, but I was never an overly confident swimmer because I didn\u2019t have access to swimming lessons when I was a child. I think this is an important point to raise, as there are a lot of misconceptions about you needing to be a competent swimmer in order to become a swimming teacher. The most important qualities for people wanting to become a swimming teacher are to have an interest in swimming and realise its value as a life skill, be enthusiastic, empathetic and enjoy working with people.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n Like a lot of new parents who perhaps didn\u2019t have the opportunities to learn to swim at a young age, I wanted my daughter to start lessons from as young as possible so she would grow up water confident and water safe. When she was six months old, we enrolled into a Turtle Tots class, which we loved so much. Then as she was moving up to the toddler programme, we moved house and changed franchises which is when I saw the teacher\u2019s advert and contacted Fiona to see if it might be the right fit for me.\u00a0\u00a0Within a week I was shadowing a teacher in the pool and I soon realised this was the job for me and that I can do something for another child like my daughter\u2019s teacher did for her.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n With Turtle Tots support I successfully gained my STA Level 2 Awards in Aquatic Teaching – Baby and Pre-School qualification, which is a professional qualification that teaches you how to plan, deliver and evaluate progressive and fun lessons specifically for babies through to pre-schoolers and their accompanying adult.It gives you the knowledge of how to teach babies, how to interact communicate and read cues, and qualifies you to teach a range of aquatic and safety skills such as floating, rotation, water confidence and basic swimming strokes.<\/p>\r\n Following this I spent a week in Edinburgh on Turtle Tots own in-house training course, which shows you everything you need to be able to do to deliver Turtle Tots swimming programme \u2013 and the how and whys of their unique approach.\u00a0\u00a0I then undertook a series of assessed lessons with both babies and toddlers in Cheshire, before finally becoming a fully fledged Turtle Tots teacher.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n From start to end the training process was amazing; it\u2019s natural to feel a little about nervous but everyone at Turtle Tots is so supportive.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n As mentioned above my daughter started with Turtle Tots when she was just six months old, and we loved it.\u00a0\u00a0I loved the ethos and was inspired by the passion of the teachers, and it made me want to be part of\u00a0a baby\u2019s first steps into water, and help make their experience the best they can possibly have.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n Everything!\u00a0\u00a0I love the general vibe of every class; the happiness and excitement that shines from the babies and the innocence of the toddlers and what they say – they make me smile with their comments.\u00a0\u00a0And in that 30-minute class if I\u2019ve made mum \/ dad and baby as happy as they\u2019ve made me, I know I\u2019ve done a good job.\u00a0\u00a0I never come home thinking I\u2019ve had a bad day; teaching is the best part of my week.\u00a0\u00a0I wish I\u2019d done it sooner.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n We live on an island with lots of inland waterways too, so teaching water confidence and safety skills to a child from as young as age as possible is so important \u2013 I think they are the most important life skills you can teach because they could save their lives one day.\u00a0\u00a0In our Turtle Tots lessons, we have a strong focus on teaching lifesaving skills; \u201csafety\u201d is masked by fun, games and songs, but its at the core of everything we teach so that we can help babies learn the skills they need, to help keep them safe in and around water \u2013 it lays the foundation until they are able to swim independently.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n Teaching is so flexible – I teach two days a week, on a Tuesday and Sunday, which fits perfectly around my \u2018first\u2019 job working in a hospital pathology laboratory.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A typical Sunday will involve arriving at the pool at 8am, opening everything up, removing the pool cover, checking the pool chemicals and the cleanliness of the changing rooms. I then get all the pool kit together, toys, floats, noodles etc and lay them tidy on poolside.\u00a0\u00a0I then check the lesson plans and get the register out, ready to start welcoming the first class at 9am.\u00a0\u00a0I also make sure I have a drink on poolside, because with all the laughing and singing you need to be able to wet your whistle!!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ll then teach back-to-back lessons until noon \u2013 six super fun toddler classes.\u00a0\u00a0Then I\u2019ll have an hour\u2019s break, tidy everything and check the pool chemicals again ready for the afternoon session with the babies \u2013 four 30-minute classes, which are a lot calmer. I then finish at 3pm, do all the usual tidying, check nothing (or nobody) has been left behind in the changing rooms, put the kit away, test the pool water and put the cover back on.\u00a0\u00a0The final job is to lock up the pool building, and the school gate.\u00a0\u00a0I get home around 5pm (smiling all the way home), have a shower, something to eat (I\u2019m always hungry after a day in the pool) and relax.<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n Go for it, you have nothing to lose by enquiring \u2013 and you might always wonder if you don\u2019t.\u00a0\u00a0I have never looked back since my initial conversation with Fiona \u2013 it\u2019s one of the best, most rewarding things I\u2019ve ever done.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n Teaching pre-schoolers is also a very flexible job that offers sociable hours that can easily fit around your family, lifestyle or like in my case another job.\u00a0\u00a0Plus, there are always opportunities to progress \u2013 one day you could even own your own Turtle Tots franchise like Fiona who now successfully runs swimming lessons across Lancashire, South Lakes and Craven.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Feeling inspired by Becki\u2019s story – then please get in touch to start a conversation about joining our award-winning\u00a0Turtle Tots team<\/a>\u00a0or to become a\u00a0franchisee<\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here at Turtle Tots, we are really proud that our award-winning team of swimming teachers are not only trained to the highest standard and are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[89,195,1],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-1045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recruitment","category-teaching","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\r\n