C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S ! ! !
London Swimming would like to congratulate the following clubs who were awarded swim21 accreditation at the following levels in May:
CROYDON AMPHIBIANS – Swimming: teaching, skill development and masters – Waterpolo: teaching and skill development
WANDSWORTH – Swimming: teaching and skill development
DAGENHAM – Swimming; teaching and masters
BETHNAL GREEN SHARKS – Swimming: teaching, skill development and masters
GREENWICH BOROUGH MARINERS – Swimming: teaching and skill development
SURVIVE AND SAVE – Swimming: teaching
Swim21 is a 'Quality mark' that recognises both nationally and regionally clubs that are committed to providing safe, effective and quality services for the benefit of their members. In London the process is completely different to the rest of the Country because although they follow the same criteria the assessment is carried out by a number of interviews instead of the club providing a portfolio full of evidence. This has not only increased the standard of clubs going through the process but also cut the amount of volunteer time required. As the swim21 co-ordinator Jemma Konuralp always says to clubs ‘the emphasis is no longer on you providing me with the information but it is on me obtaining it’.
All the clubs have demonstrated a commitment to development and ensuring that they provide an excellent service to their swimmers and community. This is in line both the ASA and Swim 21 ethos which is designed around long term athlete development and improving equity throughout the sport.
Swim 21 Accreditation is available to ASA clubs of all aquatic disciplines at one or more of the four levels of; teaching, skill development, competitive and performance except for masters clubs/sections which can only be accredited at foundation level. It is also available for all disciplines swimming, synchronised swimming, diving, waterpolo and masters swimming.
Croydon Amphibians conducted a phenomenal swim21 assessment. The ethos of swim21 was clearly adopted throughout the entire club from committee members to parents and swimmers. The amount of work which the club put into achieving swim21 was clearly obvious and instead of doing one discipline at a time they accredited for swimming, masters and waterpolo all at the same time. To add to their achievements, they are the first London waterpolo club to be accredited.
Karen Parker, the swim21 coordinator had this to say about swim21 "What appeared to be a daunting task was made so much easier with the support provided by London Swimming. The accreditation process has confirmed that the service we were already providing to swimmers was of a high quality and with a few adjustments to our administration procedures accreditation ensured that we were applying good practice in all disciplines’.
If you want to find out more about the club go to their website
www.croydonamphians.com which has evolved into a very useful tool throughout the process.
Wandsworth SC restructured themselves at the end of last year to focus on being primarily a competitive club resulting in six National qualifiers which is their highest ever! The head coach Marina Pollara is still new to the role however she has already been taken on several trips by British Swimming’s talent team and is therefore gaining valuable experience and knowledge. The club adopted swim21 in full and changed a lot of the processes for the better due to its requirements. For further information on the club please see their website at
www.wandsworthsc.com.
Dagenham SC started the swim21 under the old portfolio system however never finished. When the swim21 co-ordinator Colin Blades (who has worked tirelessly on the application for several years and turned up at the assessment with a suitcase of information), was informed of the new system he was ecstatic! The club decided to accredit their teaching section first as about 90% of the club are in the learn to swim section. However, when the head coach found out that his section could also be accredited he wanted in on the action and will therefore aim to accredit by the end of the year. Due to the motivation gained from the process the club has adopted a substantial and progressive action plan for the next twelve months.
A delighted Colin Blades had this to say about the benefits that swim21 provided to the club:
‘I have to say we’re delighted to achieve accreditation. We have been working hard over the last two years or so to review and improve many of our procedures. We have been very well guided by London Swimming throughout the long process and were very pleased that when it finally came to the day of the assessment we were able to satisfactorily demonstrate all the systems that we had in place and that the key personnel in the club knew what they were !
As the Swim 21 co-ordinator for our club I admit that there were times when it seemed like we would never get everything done in time, but in moving it all forward it showed the real benefit of having a website as it enabled us to communicate both our policies and other information to our members.
The process undoubtedly highlighted shortcomings in what we did before and I am sure we are now a much better and more structured club as a result’.
Bethnal Green Sharks sought advice from the London Swimming swim21 co-ordinator about their re-accreditation last year and have made several very important changes throughout the process. Amongst these was the fact that they moved their masters session times to an hour and a half later and tripled their participants within the first couple of weeks! They have also trained up two young teachers for the learn to swim section and invested in a fantastic new website! To see the new website and find out more about the club go to
www.bgssc.co.uk.
Greenwich Borough Mariners went into the re-accreditation process with one thing in mind, they were going to achieve skill development level which they did! The club who hired a new coach Gill Levy a year ago have this year got six National qualifiers which is by far the highest ever for the club! They also gave fabulous interviews where it was clear that achieving a higher level was a goal throughout the whole club.
The swim21 coordinator Norma Nyaulingo had this to say about the process "We knew as a committee that we (GBM) were a well run club but the Swim21 process has consolidated this for us. The process of becoming accredited is made easier by the fact that you are assigned a skilled representative from the ASA to help you progress through to the end. Now that we have been accredited for teaching and skill development we are eagerly looking forward to progressing to the next step."
For further information about the club go to their website www.gbmsc.com
Finally,
Survive and Save worked hard to re-accredit at the teaching level after holding swim21 accrditation for four years. For further information on the club visit
www.surviveandsave.org
London Swimming is very excited about the number of clubs who now want to become swim21 accredited, and looks forward to working with more clubs from across the capital in the future.
