The ASA recently completed a very successful Leisure Industry Week 2009 (LIW) with help from local school children.
The annual Leisure Industry Week is a major industry show, held at the NEC in Birmingham from 22nd-24th September. It attracted thousands of leisure professionals, as well as over 350 key industry suppliers.
The temporary pool at the venue generated a great deal of attention with demonstrations from children from the local St Nicholas C of E Primary School in Alcester. The pupils took part in games from the National Plan for Teaching Swimming, powered by British Gas, as well as having a go at synchronised swimming and Rookie Lifeguard, in association with the RLSS.
The pupils were present across all three days of the show, an experience which they all enjoyed.
Year 6 pupil Rowan Barber said: “I found it really good. My favourite bit was when we did the lifesaving. I liked it because we had to use floats to help rescue people and pull them in to the side.” Fellow Year 6 pupil Sasha Green added: “I liked the part where we did the synchronised swimming because to got to do roly polys.”
Chloe Gough also had fun: “I really enjoyed it; it’s the first time I’ve been here. My favourite bit was when we got to use the floats to do a tug-of-war. You had one person on one side and one on the other and you both had to pull until someone won” she said.
This is the third year that the school has been involved with the ASA’s Leisure Industry Week activities. The ASA’s Manager of Partnerships, Mandy Mason, said: “We love having the children of St Nicholas school to help us out at Leisure Industry Week. They are always very enthusiastic about their swimming and the school is very pro-active about getting them involved in aquatic activities. They have their own pool at the school which means that by the end of Key Stage 2, most children leave the school able to swim.”
As well as producing popular demonstrations, the ASA also launched poolside units to accompany the newly redesigned British Gas Swimfit website and the rebranded swim21 accreditation scheme at the show.
The new British Gas Swimfit poolside units are designed to complement the Swimfit website by housing session cards which will give users structure to their time in the pool. For further information on Swimfit please visit www.swimfit.com.
The ASA has expanded its swim21 accreditation programme to include learn-to-swim schemes and school swimming programmes as well as clubs. swim21 becomes the governing body’s blue print for good practice and an easy recognisable seal of quality for swimmers and their parents.
swim21 Learn to Swim and School Swimming Accreditation replaces the former Aquamark scheme by reducing the self assessment length and paperwork but improving the quality by aligning it to the National Plan for Teaching Swimming, Long Term Athlete Development and UKCC qualifications.
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For more information contact the ASA Marketing Officer Esther Hope on 01509 632247, 07917 876459 or email esther.hope@swimming.org.
The ASA is the English National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Open Water, and Synchronised Swimming. It organises competition throughout England, establishes the Laws of the Sport and operates comprehensive certification and education programmes for Teachers, Coaches and Officials as well as its renowned Learn To Swim Awards scheme. The ASA supports 1,220 affiliated swimming clubs through a National/Regional/County structure. The ASA aims to ensure everybody has an opportunity to learn to swim.
About British Gas
British Gas, the biggest energy supplier in the country, has the lowest carbon intensity of any of the major UK energy suppliers in terms of tonnes of CO2 emitted per megawatt hour of electricity supplied to customers. The company is one of the biggest investors in renewable power generation, principally offshore wind. Its recently completed Lynn and Inner Dowsing development, off the Lincolnshire coast, is the UK's largest offshore wind development. British Gas is committed to energy efficiency. Our Energy Savers Report provides free expert advice on how you can cut energy use in the home and, in turn, save money. So far, the report has shown over 2 million people how they could make an average saving of £175 a year. To complete a report go to www.britishgas.co.uk/energy-efficiency/energy-savers-report
About Kellogg’s
The Kellogg Company was founded in 1906 and today produces 40 different cereals including popular brands such as Special K, Cornflakes and Coco Pops, and 56 different snacks including brands such as Nutri-Grain and Special K snacks. Kellogg’s has been a partner of the ASA and British Swimming for 13 years, sponsoring the Kellogg’s ASA Awards and enabling over 50,000 people to take up swimming as part of an active lifestyle.
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