Quack team

SportsNation spoke to STA President and Executive Director of Puddle Ducks, Ali Beckman, about the aquatics sector and the importance of play in teaching children how to swim

Ali Beckman’s passion for swimming is a result of being brought up in a swimming family. Her mum was a competitive swimmer who began teaching and coaching when an eight-year-old Beckman and her sisters first joined their local swimming club in Swinton, Manchester. To this day – 40 years later – her mum remains as Chief Coach at the club.

Beckman swam competitively until she was 15 years old and also volunteered as a teacher and coach as a teenager. She turned her passion into a full time job when she joined Puddle Ducks as the company’s first ever teacher in March 2005.

“I became a mum in 2004 and attended Puddle Ducks sessions with my baby son – and fell in love with the brand,” Beckman says. “Within six months of joining, I was appointed into the role of Technical Director and took on the responsibility of heading up the teaching and training side of the business.”

Today, Beckman is an Executive Director of Puddle Ducks Franchising Ltd, supporting CEO/ Managing Director, Jo Stone, on the management and strategic direction of the company. She is also Head of Aquatics, responsible for managing a 12-strong team which supports franchisees in the field by training, mentoring and assessing teachers. She is also president of the Swimming Teachers’ Association (STA), supporting Dave Candler in his CEO role. She also chairs the Safety Training

Awards, the awarding organisation for STA, which ensures compliance and governance set by the qualification regulators are being adhered to.

Beckman is a huge advocate of play, having recognised its importance in the success of Puddle Ducks. “Children learn through play, and play is proven to improve cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being,” she says. “There are still, however, many swim schools who haven’t adapted lessons to incorporate play.”

Through her passion for – and experience in – the aquatics industry, she is perfectly placed to offer insight into the sector’s future, its challenges and its opportunities. PlayNation sat down with Beckman to do just that.

What does the UK do well when it comes to teaching children swimming (when compared to other countries)?

Baby swimming in particular has evolved over the years and adult-led submersions, once the staple of baby and toddler lessons, are no longer considered best practice. Instead, the focus is now on child-led activities and games to encourage a baby/child to immerse themselves. The majority of the UK’s swim schools have moved to this style of teaching, but there’s still work to be done here and across the rest of the world. One of the great things about swimming in the UK is that the organisations that support the training of teachers, in particular the STA, believe in research-informed training. Best practice evolves and training courses always reflect this.

And where are the biggest needs for improvement?

There’s still more work to be done on educating teachers regarding child-led practices and to also encourage swimming teachers to keep upskilling, in particular on child development and psychology. It’s what makes a teacher that little bit extraordinary. We also need to stop pounding young children up and down the pool when they don’t have the foundations and correct skills – you just end up reinforcing an incorrect stroke.

Teachers often feel under pressure by parents to deliver a lesson that is jam-packed and when they see their child stood around doing ‘nothing’they often complain. What they don’t see is the play that leads to a defined skill or the science behind some of the activities which builds the foundations needed to swim longer distances.

We want every child to love swimming, respect the water and swim beautifully

If you could change one law or policy to help swimming/ aquatics, what would that be?

Remove VAT from swimming lessons. In 2022 the STA campaigned for the government to stamp out VAT from learn to swim lessons. It would help swim schools put on more lessons and ensure millions of people, mainly children of primary school age, had access to swimming lessons. An overwhelming 92% of the UK swim schools surveyed by STA in October 2022 agreed that if swimming lessons were zero-rated or exempt from VAT, more people would be able to afford / access swimming lessons. Of the swim schools surveyed that are purposely keeping under the VAT threshold, two-thirds said if swimming lessons were free from VAT, they could teach a lot more swimmers and reduce the heavy waiting lists.

What is Puddle Ducks and what does it do?

Founded in 2002 by Jo Stone and Tracy Townend, in Cheshire, it was born out of wanting to give babies and toddlers the best start when it comes to water confidence and learning the essential life skill that is swimming. We have a very clear mission, vision and set of values that are at the heart of everything we do.

Everyone who works with us (and for the Puddle Ducks brand) has a passion for swimming, an ambition for growth and a commitment to become experts in every aspect of their business. The original ethos has never been lost and is reflected in our mission statement, which is “we want every child to love swimming, respect the water and swim beautifully – that’s why our standards are the highest and our approach is unique”. We call it the Puddle Ducks Difference.

In 2005, the company was franchised; this seemed the most effective way to deliver the mission to children across the UK. From early beginnings, a team of three people and a pilot franchise in Chester, we now have 35 franchisees, operating from 53 territories across the UK, teaching 25,000 babies and children to swim every week from a combination of hired, managed and owned swimming pools.

In 2014, we launched our Swim Academy product for children aged 4-10, giving those children who hadn’t accessed baby or pre- school swimming, the chance to benefit from our expertise. This was relaunched with a stand-alone brand in 2017, which now accounts for 30% of our customer base and is growing. Having spent a total of 10 months out of the water during Covid-19 between March 2020 and September 2021, we came back with a bang – and the demand for lessons was higher than ever. However, the period also saw a backdrop of pool closures, rising energy costs and a cost-of-living crisis.

Today, Puddle Ducks is stronger than ever, with a 19-strong Head Office team supporting the franchise network to deliver brand excellence to our customers. We are very highly regarded in the franchise industry as multiple award winners and 12 consecutive years of 5* franchisee satisfaction.

What is the Puddle Ducks USP when it comes to teaching kids swim? What do you do differently?

We are regarded as the informed choice by our customers. As the first national swim school to develop our programme to be 100% child-led, we have led the way, educating the industry and the public in why child-led swimming is so important for the child’s long-term relationship with the water and beyond that, their confidence and relationship with healthy living and sports.

Our Baby & Pre-school programme has 6 levels and the same in our Swim Academy. The lesson plans are developed in such a way that every activity the children learn, from birth to the age of 10, can be adapted and broken down to ensure the child is moving at their own pace and only doing things, such as putting their face in the water, when they are ready. We deconstruct each stroke and build it back up, developing a beautiful, efficient stroke. Our teachers are trained to the highest standards, and are continually developing their qualifications to ensure they are at the cutting edge of both learning to swim and child development.

THE PUDDLE DUCKS RIPPLE EFFECT

SKILLS FOR LIFE

Making swimming independently and water safety as natural as breathing

HEALTHY LIFE

Making exercise fun and learning through active play

SOCIAL LIFE

Developing valuable social skills; children and parents making friends for life

FAMILY LIFE

Helping to create memories, from bath time to holidays and more

Could you explain the “Ripple Effect” to our readers?

The Ripple Effect is best explained in this infographic (see above). It demonstrates how learning to swim impacts every aspect of a child’s, and their family’s, lives. • Skills for Life – simply put, this is the essential life skill that is learning to swim • Healthy Life – by making exercise part of a child’s routine from the early years, good habits are formed plus, swimming itself is one of the best forms of exercise around • Social Life – many of our swimmers and their parents/carers make friends for life through their Puddle Ducks lessons • Family Life – making baby’s bath time more enjoyable, being able to turn to swimming as an activity to do on a day off, making family holidays more enjoyable, leading on to other activities such as open water swimming, kayaking, paddle boarding etc. Swimming opens many doors! Children learn through play, and play is proven to improve cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being. However, there are still many swim schools that haven’t adapted lessons to incorporate play. Play also motivates a child and that motivation is what helps a child learn new skills, especially in the water.

At Puddle Ducks we want children to love swimming, respect the water and swim beautifully. That’s not going to happen if we can’t engage with the child, so we educate our teachers to teach skills in a playful environment. We’re proud that children don’t feel under pressure in our lessons. They have fun, but they are constantly learning without realising and we have so many children swimming 5m-25m independently before even starting school. Compare that to the expectation, at the end of Key Stage 2, for children to have achieved 25m and you can see the excellent results we are achieving!

Ali Beckman’s SWOT analysis of aquatics l Strengths

Two national governing bodies, Swim England and Swimming Teachers Association recently entered into a strategic partnership for the first time in history – whilst the partnership is in its early stages, it gives the industry hope that there is a collective goal of the NGBs to promote the benefits of aquatic activity and to ensure everyone in England has the opportunity to swim, and to see every teacher vacancy filled.

l Weaknesses

Lack of swimming facilities – over 1,200 pools have shut down in the UK since 2009, a major chunk of these during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rate of new pools being built is nowhere near the numbers lost so we need help, from the Government, to save further pools closing.

l Opportunities

In May this year the Department of Education announced a new module on ‘personal safety’ in relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) lessons. It states that “pupils should know to recognise risk and keep safe around water, including the water safety code”. There’s still more campaigning to be done but hopefully the new Government will continue to support this and recognise the importance of learning to swim to reduce the risk of accidental drownings.

l Threats

Rising energy costs continue to affect leisure centres, in particular swimming pools. We can’t afford to lose any more and the Government needs to do more, not just to give people access to swimming lessons but for the important health benefits gained from aquatic exercise.